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Timeline

[edit]
A suffragette arrested in the street by two police officers in London in 1914
  • 1818: Jeremy Bentham advocates female suffrage in his book A Plan for Parliamentary Reform. The Vestries Act 1818 allowed some single women to vote in parish vestry elections.[1]
  • 1832: Great Reform Act – confirmed the exclusion of women from the electorate.
  • 1851: The Sheffield Female Political Association is founded and submits a petition calling for women's suffrage to the House of Lords.
  • 1864: The first Contagious Disease Act is passed in England, which is intended to control venereal disease by having prostitutes and women believed to be prostitutes locked away in hospitals for examination and treatment. When information broke to the general public about the shocking stories of brutality and vice in these hospitals, Josephine Butler launched a campaign to get it repealed. Many have since argued that Butler's campaign destroyed the conspiracy of silence around sexuality and forced women to act in protection of others of their sex. In doing so, clear linkages emerge between the suffrage movement and Butler's campaign.[2]
  • 1865: John Stuart Mill elected as an MP showing direct support for women's suffrage.
  • 1867: Second Reform Act – Male franchise extended to 2.5 million.
  • 1869: Municipal Franchise Act gives single women ratepayers the right to vote in local elections.[3][4][5]
  • 1883: Conservative Primrose League formed.
  • 1884: Third Reform Act – Male electorate doubled to 5 million.
  • 1889: Women's Franchise League established.
  • 1894: Local Government Act (women could vote in local elections, become District Councillors [though not their Chairmen], Poor Law Guardians, act on School Boards) confirms single women's right to vote in local elections and extends this franchise to some married women.
  • 1894: The publication of C.C. Stopes's British Freewomen, staple reading for the suffrage movement for decades.[6]
  • 1897: National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies NUWSS formed (led by Millicent Fawcett).
  • 1900: Over one million women are now registered for local government elections in England.
  • 1903: Women's Social and Political Union WSPU is formed (led by Emmeline Pankhurst)
  • 1904: Militancy begins. Emmeline Pankhurst interrupts a Liberal Party meeting.[7]
  • February 1907: NUWSS "Mud March" – largest open air demonstration ever held (at that point) – over 3000 women took part. In this year, women were admitted to the register to vote in and stand for election to principal local authorities.
  • 1907: The Artists' Suffrage League founded
  • 1907: The Women's Freedom League founded
  • 1908: Actresses Franchise League founded
  • 1908: Women Writers' Suffrage League founded
  • 1908: in November of this year, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, a member of the small municipal borough of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, was selected as mayor of that town, the first woman to so serve.
  • 1907, 1912, 1914: major splits in the WSPU
  • 1905, 1908, 1913: Three phases of WSPU militancy (Civil Disobedience; Destruction of Public Property; Arson/Bombings)
  • 5 July 1909: Marion Wallace Dunlop went on the first hunger strike – was released after 91 hours of fasting
  • 1909 The Women's Tax Resistance League founded
  • September 1909: Force feeding introduced to hunger strikers in English prisons
  • 1910: Lady Constance Lytton disguised herself as a working-class seamstress, Jane Wharton, and was arrested and endured force feeding that cut down her life span considerably[8]
  • February 1910: Cross-Party Conciliation Committee (54 MPs). Conciliation Bill (that would enfranchise women) passed its 2nd reading by a majority of 109 but H. H. Asquith refused to give it more parliamentary time
  • November 1910: Asquith changed the Bill to enfranchise more men instead of women
  • 18 November 1910: Black Friday[9]
  • October 1912: George Lansbury, Labour MP, resigned his seat in support of women's suffrage
  • February 1913: David Lloyd George's house blown up by WSPU[10] despite his support for women's suffrage.
  • April 1913: Cat and Mouse Act passed, allowing hunger-striking prisoners to be released when their health was threatened and then re-arrested when they had recovered. The first suffragist to be released under this act was Hugh Franklin and the second was his soon-to-be wife Elsie Duval
  • 4 June 1913: Emily Davison walked in front of, and was subsequently trampled and killed by, the King’s Horse at The Derby.
  • 13 March 1914: Mary Richardson slashed the Rokeby Venus painted by Diego Velázquez in the National Gallery with an axe, protesting that she was maiming a beautiful woman just as the government was maiming Emmeline Pankhurst with force feeding
  • 4 August 1914: World War declared in Britain. WSPU activity immediately ceased. NUWSS activity continued peacefully – the Birmingham branch of the organisation continued to lobby Parliament and write letters to MPs.
  • 1915–16: Border polls under Welsh Church Act 1914 held under universal adult suffrage.
  • 6 February 1918: The Representation of the People Act of 1918 enfranchised women over the age of 30 who were either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register (compared to 21 for men and 19 for those who had fought in World War One). About 8.4 million women gained the vote.[11][12]
  • 21 November 1918: the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 was passed, allowing women to be elected to Parliament.[11]
  • 1928: Women in England, Wales and Scotland received the vote on the same terms as men (over the age of 21, without property requirements) as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1928.[13]
  • 1968–1969: The Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) and the Representation of the People Act 1969 reduced the voting age to 18 for men and women alike
  • 1973: The fully enfranchised Northern Irish local elections of May 1973 saw the first time all government elected officials across the UK were elected under universal suffrage.

Category:Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom Category:Feminism in the United Kingdom Category:British history timelines Category:Timelines of women

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference HoCL2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Kent 2014, p. 7.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heater2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Women's rights was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Synonym was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Mayall 2000, p. 350.
  7. ^ "Timeline", Britain 1906 – 1918.
  8. ^ Purvis 1995, p. 120.
  9. ^ BBC Radio 4 – Woman's Hour – Women's History Timeline: 1910 – 1919
  10. ^ Peter Rowland (1978). David Lloyd George: a biography. Macmillan. p. 228. ISBN 9780026055901.
  11. ^ a b Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. The Women's Victory – and After, Cambridge University Press, p. 170.
  12. ^ Butler, The Electoral System in Britain 1918–1951 (1954), pp. 7–12.
  13. ^ Butler, The Electoral System in Britain 1918–1951 (1954), pp. 15–38.
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