2 minute read
EARLY VOICES
Who could vote?
• Early 1800s: the right to vote in parliamentary elections limited mainly to wealthy landowning men: less than 3% of the population. • 1832 First Reform Act: men who own or lease land or property gain the vote. • 1867 Second Reform Act: doubles the number of men who can vote and extends the vote to wealthier working class men. • 1884 Third Reform Act: agricultural workers gain the vote but not women. By 1900 about 58% of the adult male population had the vote, including some working-class men. Women were denied the vote even though some paid rates and taxes, just like men. Originally women demanded the vote for single or widowed women who paid rates. As time went on, they also demanded that married women have the too.
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EARLY VOICES
Women in Britain began demanding the right to vote some 200 years ago. In 1818 a female suffrage (right to vote) society was formed in Lancashire. During the 1830s and 1840s women were active in the Chartist movement, demanding votes and the reform of parliament. In 1856 campaigning women, some of whom were fighting to open up higher education for women, came together and founded the Kensington Society. Soon members began to focus on gaining votes for women and the women’s suffrage campaign began to appear. One of the key figures in this move was Hastings resident, Barbara Bodichon.
Harriet Taylor, 1851
LOCAL FOCUS: Barbara Bodichon
Barbara Bodichon (1827–91) was born Barbara Leigh Smith near Battle but grew up in Pelham Crescent, Hastings. A pioneering campaigner, she fought tirelessly for women’s rights and helped to kick start the women’s suffrage movement. In the 1850s she highlighted English laws that discriminated against women and helped married women to gain property rights. She campaigned for greater working opportunities for women and in 1866 she and her friends drew up a petition for women’s suffrage, which gained more than 1500 signatures in just two weeks. In 1867 Liberal MP John Stuart Mill used Barbara’s petition to call for votes for women. He did not succeed but it was the first time women’s demand for the vote was heard in Parliament.
