Celebrating women's suffrage

15 Dec 2008 10:37 AM

The 90th anniversary of the election of the first woman to Parliament - Sinn Fein MP Constance Markievicz - and the first general election in which women could vote, is marked on 14 December 2008. After the remarkable and exhaustive action of the Suffragette movement, the Equal Franchise Act was passed ten years later giving all women the vote on the same terms as men.

Some examples of the many records relating to women's suffrage that can be found at The National Archives are referenced by catalogue number below:
CAB 41/32/62, CAB 41/34/8, CAB 41/34/16, MEPO 2/1410, HO 45/10645/209446, HO 45/10712/245464

Women's right to vote today was tirelessly fought for by such figures as Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Sylvia and Christabel, who set up the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester. With their motto: 'Deeds not words', many members of the WSPU were prepared to risk arrest, and even death, for their cause and that of subsequent generations.  The wave of virulent demonstrations, protests, window smashing, arson and hunger strikes astonished the government, many of whom - Prime Minister Asquith included - were deeply opposed to female suffrage.

The militancy of the Suffragette movement was suspended with the outbreak of the First World War as Pankhurst and many of her campaigners directed their energies into supporting the war effort. While thousands of men were enlisted to fight on land, air and sea, women proved themselves indispensable as they worked in the fields and the armaments factories back home.

The war proved to be a decisive turning point in the campaign. By 1918 the pressure for female suffrage was insurmountable and the Representation of the Peoples Act was passed, allowing women over the age of 30 the right to vote. A decade later, in 1928, the age was lowered to 21 and women were finally given the same rights as men.

 

The National Archives has a rich array of resources relating to the Suffragette movement:

· Your Archives - Records of interest listed by visitors to The National Archives

· DocumentsOnline - Home Office documents on Suffragette pickets at the House of Commons  - available to download

· Image library: Christabel Pankhurst (right) with Annie Kenny, 1906 - Catalogue reference: COPY 1/494

· The Learning Curve exhibition on women's suffrage - an excellent resource for information, images and original documents on the political journey of the Suffragettes.