The First World War and Votes for Women | Women's Suffrage | 3 Minute History

[Music] on the 6th of February 1918 the representation of the People Act to receive the Royal Assent and extended the votes to 8 million women over the age of 30 who also mapped a property qualification together with giving the votes from an additional 5 million man this almost tripled the electorate women now made up 43% of those eligible to vote as the Act was passed at the end of the first world war it is often assumed that women's contribution to the war effort was a deciding factor in Parliament's decision to grant women the vote the war had certainly helped transform attitudes about what women could do the number of women in paid employment had increased from 3.2 million to 4.8 million not only where more women entering the world of work but many were undertaking roles that had been traditionally filled by men as Prime Minister David Lloyd George remarked there is no doubt that the war has had an enormous effect on public opinion as far as this question is concerned however there are problems with this theory for a start the women who got the vote in 1918 weren't the factory workers tram drivers and nurses who contributed most directly to the war effort they were for the most part too young and often didn't meet the property qualification this theory also ever looks the importance of the campaign for women's suffrage both before and during the First World War when war was declared in August 1914 the women's social and political union led by Emmeline Pankhurst's suspended its militant campaign and supported the war effort in return the government released all suffragette prisoners mrs. Pankey argued that for women to achieve the vote they first needed a national victory what would be the good of a vote without a country to vote in however not all women's suffrage organizations ceased campaigning the National Union of women's suffrage societies the women's freedom League and the East London Federation of suffragettes all continued to apply pressure to the government they were joined in 1915 and 1916 by two groups that split off from the debris spm the suffragettes the duress view and the independent WSPU by the autumn of 1915 thoughts in parliament turned to the question of electoral reform it was unthinkable that men fighting overseas would not have the ability to vote when the war ended it was a recommendation of the speaker's Conference of 1916 and 1917 that the vote be extended to all men over the age of 21 or 19 if they had served in the war with the prospect of extending the vote to more men on the political agenda the campaign for votes for women intensified with petitions deputations and pickets outside Parliament in January 1917 the speaker's conference recommended that some measure of women's suffrage should be conferred and so the representation of the people bill included votes for some women while a compromise for women suffrage campaigners as Millicent Fawcett herself recognized we should greatly prefer an imperfect scheme that can pass to the most perfect scheme in the world that could not pass whether politicians have been convinced by campaigners were awarding women for their war work or more cynically attempted to offset the increased number of working class male voters the war certainly made a difference perhaps just not in the way we think [Music] [Music]