👨 Men
All men aged 21 and over could now vote. The property rules were mostly swept away. This mattered because many soldiers had lost their votes when they left home to fight.
The Fight for Recognition, 1914-1928 » Votes for Women and the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B8, Key topic 1
- Who could vote in 1914 and how the Representation of the People Act 1918 changed this
- What the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 opened up for women
- How the Equal Franchise Act 1928 finished the job, and why these changes were significant
- How to write a strong answer to an "Explain two causes" question
In 1914 no woman in Britain could vote in a general election, and many jobs were closed to women by custom or by law. Within fourteen years that had changed. This lesson looks at three laws, asks why they were passed, and asks how much they really changed. Remember that before 1914 peaceful suffragists and the more militant suffragettes had both campaigned for the vote, and the war then gave women new roles (see the lesson on The First World War: Women and the Working Classes).
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Unlock This CourseThe vote in 1914 and the Act of 1918
Before 1918 only about six in every ten adult men could vote, because voters had to own or rent property of a certain value. No women could vote in general elections at all.
Key terms:
- Franchise: the right to vote.
- Electorate: all the people who are allowed to vote.
- Householder: the person who owns or rents a home.
- Jury: a group of ordinary citizens who decide whether a person on trial is guilty.
- Profession: a skilled job that needs training, such as law or medicine.
The Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed in February 1918, before the war ended. It did two big things:
👩 Women
Women aged 30 and over could vote if they were householders, the wives of householders, occupied property worth at least £5 a year in rent, or were university graduates.
About 8 million women gained the vote. The electorate grew from about 8 million to about 21 million. A separate law in 1918 also allowed women to stand as MPs. In the December 1918 general election Constance Markievicz won a seat, but as an Irish nationalist (Sinn Féin) she refused to take it. Nancy Astor became the first woman to sit in the House of Commons in 1919.
The Act was a big step, but it was not equality. Women had to be 30 while men needed to be only 21, and many working-class women under 30 were left out. MPs feared that women would outnumber men as voters because so many men had died in the war, so they kept the age higher.
The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919
Having the vote did not open the doors to work. In December 1919 Parliament passed the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act. It said that a person could not be kept out of a public job, a civil or legal office, or a profession because of their sex or because they were married.
⚖️ Law
Women could now train for the legal professions. The first women qualified as barristers and solicitors in 1922.
👥 Juries
Women could now serve on juries. Before this, juries were all men.
🏛️ Public office
Women could become magistrates, who judge less serious crimes. The first women magistrates were appointed in 1919.
The Act had limits. It did not make employers pay women equally. Many employers, including the civil service and schools, kept a marriage bar, which made women leave their jobs when they married. So the law removed legal barriers, but attitudes changed more slowly. Few women entered the top professions at first.
The Equal Franchise Act 1928
The Act of 1918 left the vote unequal, and campaigners kept pressing for more. In 1928 the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin passed the Equal Franchise Act. All women aged 21 and over could now vote on the same terms as men. About five million more women gained the vote. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the suffragettes, died in June 1928, just a few weeks before it became law.
After 1928 women were a majority of the electorate. This made all parties pay more attention to issues that mattered to women.
Why were these laws significant?
Political rights: by 1928 men and women had the same voting rights. Opportunities: the 1919 Act opened the professions and public life. Limits: the 1919 Act did not give equal pay, the marriage bar stayed, and the number of women MPs stayed small. Change was real, but slow and partial.
Common mistakes
- Saying that all women won the vote in 1918. Only women over 30 who met the property or degree rules did. Equal voting rights came in 1928.
- Mixing up the laws. The 1918 Act was about voting, the 1919 Act was about jobs, juries and professions, and the 1928 Act was about equal voting.
- Saying that the 1919 Act gave women equal pay or ended the marriage bar. It did neither.
Exam-style question
This is a Paper 2 Section B (b) question. You must give TWO causes and explain how each led to the outcome. One cause on its own can score no more than half marks (4 out of 8).
Explain two causes of women over 30 gaining the vote in 1918. [8 marks]
Model answer
One cause was women's work during the First World War. Women took over jobs in munitions factories, on the land and on transport while men were away fighting, and the Ministry of Munitions relied on them to produce shells. This weakened the old argument that women could not play a full part in national life. Herbert Asquith, who had opposed votes for women before the war, changed his mind and backed votes for some women in 1917, so it became hard to refuse them.
A second cause was the need to reform the voting system. Many soldiers had lost their votes because they had left their homes to fight, and the Speaker's Conference of 1916-17, a cross-party committee set up to reform voting, recommended a new Act. Once Parliament had to change the franchise for men, it was easier to include some women as well. They were limited to women over 30 so that MPs could be sure men would still be the majority of voters. This is why the Representation of the People Act of 1918 gave the vote to women over 30.
What lifts it to the top level: each cause is backed by precise facts and a clear explanation of how it led to the vote, not just a statement that it did.
Exam tip
For "Explain two causes", write two separate paragraphs. In each, name the cause, give a specific fact, then use the word "because" or "so" to show how it led to the outcome.