100 years of women’s suffrage: how the struggle changed history
LONDON: British women won the right to vote 100 years ago after an intense struggle marked by a violent fringe campaign that shocked the country but helped to change the world.
On February 6, 1918, the Representation of the People Bill became law and added to the voting roll around eight million women who were aged over 30 and met other conditions.
It was not until 1928 that British women won the same voting rights as men but it was a major step that put the country ahead of some contemporaries such as France.
Among those involved in the decades-long British campaign, the Suffragettes stand out for militant acts that were unprecedented in their day, although their influence is still debated.
Bombs, a martyr
Suffragettes chained themselves to railings, broke shop windows and blew up post boxes as part of their fight. They cut electricity lines, disrupted meetings and even bombed the house of a government minister.
It was a deliberate move into militancy preached by the group’s founder, Emmeline Pankhurst.
In the most shocking act, Suffragette Emily Davison became a martyr to the cause when she was killed throwing herself under the king’s horse at the 1913 Derby.
She was convinced “one great tragedy ... would put an end to the intolerable torture of women,” Pankhurst wrote in her 1914 autobiography “My Own Story”.
Hunger strikes
Hundreds of Suffragettes were jailed but they continued their protest in prison by refusing to eat.
Many were force fed, a harsh practice that ended in 1913 with legislation that allowed authorities to release hunger-striking women prisoners when they became too weak and re-arrest them when they had recovered. Pankhurst was jailed and released 11 times.
Detractors said the actions of the Suffragettes showed that women were emotional and irresponsible and therefore not fit to vote.
Some historians credit the role of women in World War I as more important in securing voting rights than militant activism.
But in 1999 Time magazine named Pankhurst as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.