WINNING THE VOTE

“And now a still wider field is open to the women of the nation. They are at last citizens in the fullest sense of the word.”

Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 9 February 1918

By 1914 many of the leading WSPU members were in prison and the organisation had been virtually driven underground. Christabel Pankhurst, for instance, had fled to Paris.

Campaigning continued but other events soon took over. In August 1914 Britain and Germany went to war. The war, which became known as the First World War because so many countries were involved, changed everything. Across the country most suffrage organisations stopped campaigning and turned their energies into helping the war effort.

Reflecting what was happening elsewhere, the local NUWSS suspended political work and members offered their help. With Jane Strickland’s help, the local Suffrage Club became an ‘aid bureau’ to help refugees and others suffering from war.

Although women had still not gained the vote, many demanded their right to work. During the war women worked as drivers, factory workers, policewomen, nurses and doctors, replacing the men sent off to the front, and many doing work that had previously only been done my men. Some women joined the newly formed women’s branches of the armed

forces, unthinkable before the demands of war. However, not all women supported the war. Quite a number, including Muriel Matters were anti-war and campaigned for peace.

Fighting ended in 1918 and the world had changed. Women had played a major role and the Government could no longer deny them the vote. On 6 February 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed. After so many years of campaigning, property owning women over 30 finally won the vote. It was a great victory. Women all over the country celebrated and there were joyous scenes in the House of Commons when Millicent Fawcett appeared. For Hastings activist Isabella Harrison it was “the greatest reform bill ever passed in any country.”

The victory though was only partial. Some 8.5 million women now had the vote but this only amounted to 40% of women. Women without property, particularly working-class women, were excluded. Ten years later however, in 1928 total victory was achieved when women finally gained the vote equally with men.

First-time voters

Women voted for the first time in the general election of December 1918. In Hastings the weather was dreadful but local women turned out in great numbers to cast their vote. According to the Hastings Observer, the oldest woman voter was 92 and in some wards more women voted than men.