Women Suffrage in Great Britain

Nowadays, voting has become of the utmost importance in basically all the countries in the world. However, we, women, had been left aside for far too long when it was time to choose the representatives of our people. It is amazing to think that Great Britain had two extremely relevant Queens, Elizabeth and Victoria because they never extended the suffrage to women.
Although women were not allowed to vote at a national scale in Britain, they were allowed to participate in local politics. It was not until John Stuart Mill, who publicly supported women’s suffrage, was elected as Member of Parliament that some changes were made at a national scale. The creation of the National Society for Women’s suffrage became the first step of discussion about this issue.

There were admirable women such as Millicent Fawcett, Emmeline Pankhurst, Elizabeth Anderson and many more that became activists in the topic. Because of their leadership as well as their demonstrations and fasting the movement grew. What is relevant to consider is that they took part in this process and, probably, without them the extension of Women’s suffrage would have been delayed in time.

There was also the First World War which made many women become workers; therefore, they started to believe they had the right to vote. As their husbands were soldiers and many times killed in battle, they felt unprotected along with their families. Expressing and voting was a need for them in order to have Members of Parliament that could protect them as well as represent them.

In 1918, the suffrage was extended to over 30 years old single women. Anyhow, this was still something very discriminating because married women could not vote. In their representation they had their husbands. Leone Levi clearly exemplifies this when she states that “by marriage, the personal identity of the woman is lost. Her person is completely sunk in that of her husband, and he acquires an absolute mastery over her person and effects” (quoted in Wikipedia). It was not until 1928 that women’s suffrage was equal to men’s suffrage which consisted of voting at the age of 21 whatever their marital status was in Britain.

Voting is extremely significant because it is an opportunity to raise our voices and express our opinions. Every citizen in the world must have the right to vote as they are being part of a society. However, there are still countries in which this is not true at least not for women. Due to these strong and determined women, we can have a place in society. Their example gives us the strength to always speak our minds and fight for what we think is right and for our beliefs. It is extremely important that we take advantage of our power to vote in the memory of all those people, not only women; that were not allowed to vote.