The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 was an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
. This act expanded on the
Representation of the People Act 1918
The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The Act extended the franchise in parliamentary elections, al ...
which had given some women the vote in Parliamentary elections for the first time after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. The 1928 Act widened suffrage by giving women electoral equality with men. It gave the vote to all women over 21 years old, regardless of property ownership. Prior to this act only women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications could vote.
Passing of the act
The act was passed by the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
without much opposition from other parties.
The bill became law on 2 July 1928, having been introduced in March. The leader of the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was ren ...
who had campaigned for the vote,
Millicent Fawcett, was still alive and attended the parliament session to see the vote take place. She wrote in her diary the same night "It is almost exactly 61 years ago since I heard
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
introduce his suffrage amendment to
the Reform Bill on 20 May 1867. So I have had extraordinary good luck in having seen the struggle from the beginning.”
On 5 August 1928,
Millicent Fawcett obtained a letter from the prime minister
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...
. He points out that even though there were obstacles in passing the bill, he always believed it would be ratified in "the simple and complete form it ultimately assumed".
[Baldwin, Stanley]
Letter to Fawcett, Millicent. 5 Aug. 1928. MS
/ref> He finishes the letter by expressing a hope that equal vote would be beneficial for the country and it would serve for the greater good in the United Kingdom.[
]
Results
The Act added five million more women to the electoral roll and had the effect of making women a majority, 52.7%, of the electorate in the 1929 general election, which was termed the "Flapper
Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...
Election".
See also
* Reform Act
In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...
* Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage – the right of women to vote – has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations, women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, so women and men from certain classes or races w ...
* Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
* Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Britai ...
* Suffragette bombing and arson campaign
Suffragettes in Great Britain and Ireland orchestrated a bombing and arson campaign between the years 1912 and 1914. The campaign was instigated by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and was a part of their wider campaign for women's ...
* Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to ...
References
Further reading
* Berthezène, Clarisse, and Julie Gottlieb, eds., ''Rethinking Right-Wing Women: Gender And The Conservative Party, 1880s To The Present'' (Manchester UP, 2018).
* Jarvis, David. "Mrs Maggs and Betty: The Conservative Appeal to Women Voters in the 1920s." ''Twentieth Century British History'' 5.2 (1994): 129–152.
* Thackeray, David. "Building a peaceable party: masculine identities in British Conservative politics, c. 1903–24." ''Historical Research'' 85.230 (2012): 651–673.
External links
Equal Franchise Act notes on Spartacus EducationParliament UK - Stanley Baldwin to Millicent Fawcett, 1928The text of the ActImage of The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928
{{DEFAULTSORT:Representation of the People Act 1928
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1928
Representation of the People Acts
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
Women's rights legislation
1928 in women's history
July 1928 events