Reform Act 1928
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The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 ( 18 & 19 Geo. 5. c. 12) was an act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
. This act expanded on the
Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) 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 pa ...
( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) which had given some women the vote in Parliamentary elections for the first time after
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. It is sometimes referred to as the Fifth Reform Act. The 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 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 March 1919 it w ...
who had campaigned for the vote,
Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, women's suffrage by Law reform, legal change and in 1897–1919 led Brita ...
, 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, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...
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 Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, women's suffrage by Law reform, legal change and in 1897–1919 led Brita ...
obtained a letter from the prime minister
Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (3 August 186714 December 1947), was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was prominent in the political leadership of the United Kingdom between the world wars. He was prime ministe ...
. 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.


Provisions


Short title, commencement and extent

Section 8(1) of the act provided that the act may be cited as the "Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, 1928" and may be cited as a
Representation of the People Act Representation of the People Act is a stock short title used in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Mauritius, Pakistan, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, ...
. Section 8(4) of the act provided that the act would extend to
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
so far as it relates to matters with respect to which the Parliament of Northern Ireland have no power to make laws.


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 prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their ...
Election".


Legacy

The whole act was repealed by section 80 of, and the thirteenth schedule to, the
Representation of the People Act 1948 The Representation of the People Act 1948 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 65) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered the law relating to parliamentary and local elections. It is noteworthy for abolishing plural voting for parlia ...
( 11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 65).


See also

*
Reform Acts The Reform Acts (or Reform Bills, before they were passed) are legislation enacted in the United Kingdom in the 19th and 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the ...
*
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, in which cases women and men from certain Social ...
*
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and its U.S. state, states from denying the Suffrage, right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, in effect recogni ...
*
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 Brita ...
*
Representation of the People Act Representation of the People Act is a stock short title used in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Mauritius, Pakistan, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, ...
*
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, Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and was a part ...
*
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 vo ...


Notes


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 Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament Representation of the People Acts Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom Women's rights legislation 1928 in women's history July 1928 in the United Kingdom