Timeline of Events – UK Women's Suffrage
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Timeline of events relevant to Women’s Suffrage in the UK 1867 John Stuart Mill proposes an amendment that would give women votes on the same terms as men but it is rejected by 194 votes to 73. 1869 Lady Constance Lytton is born (12 February). 1869 Municipal Franchise Act gives single women the right to vote in local elections. 1881 The Isle of Man gives women who own property the right to vote. 1893 New Zealand grants all British subjects aged 21 and over the right to vote (19 September). 1897 Millicent Fawcett founds National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). 1901 Queen Victoria dies and is succeeded by King Edward VII (22 January). 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founds the Women’s Social and Political Union (10 October). 1907 ‘Mud March’ led by the NUWSS. More than 3000 women walk from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall on the Strand to protest for suffrage (9 February). 1907 WSPU splits and the Women’s Freedom League is formed. The WSPU is still led by the Pankhursts and their supporters. 1907 The WSPU newspaper Votes for Women is founded by Emmeline and Frederick Pethick Lawrence. 1907 The Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage is founded. Some MPs become members and Victor, 2nd Earl of Lytton (Lady Constance Lytton’s brother) becomes its president. 1907 The law changes to enable women to become full members of local councils. 1908 Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested twice for protesting outside Parliament. 1908 The suffragettes “rush” Parliament after a bill to give women the vote is defeated (13 October). 1909 Constance Lytton becomes a member of the WSPU. She is imprisoned for the first time in February 1909. 1909 Marion Wallace Dunlop is the first suffragette to go on hunger strike. She is released after 91 hours of fasting (July). 1909 Force feeding is introduced in prisons by the government (September). 1909 Constance Lytton is arrested in Newcastle for throwing a stone at a car in which Lloyd George was travelling. She is sentenced to one month but released early due to her weak heart (October). 1910 Constance Lytton is imprisoned in Walton Gaol in Liverpool whilst disguised as Jane Warton and is force fed several times (January). 1910 King Edward VII dies and is succeeded by King George V (6 May). 1910 A cross-party committee to discuss female suffrage is formed by a group of sympathetic male MPs and chaired by Victor, 2nd Earl of Lytton. 1911 Suffragettes boycott the national census (April). 1911 Constance Lytton arrested and imprisoned for the fourth and final time after smashing the windows of a Post Office in Westminster (November). 1913 Prisoners Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act (nicknamed the Cat and Mouse Act) – hunger strikers are released in order to recover and then re-arrested to finish their sentences in order that they do not die in custody (April). 1913 Emily Wilding-Davison throws herself under the King’s horse during the Derby on 4 June and dies four days later. 1914 Beginning of the First World War – many women enter the workforce during the war. The suffragettes scale down and suspend many of their activities. Suffrage prisoners are released. 1914 Constance Lytton’s book Prisons and Prisoners is published, recounting her experiences of prison and force feeding. 1917 WSPU dissolved. Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst found the Women’s Party. 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 grants suffrage to women over the age of 30 under certain conditions and all men over the age of 21. Women are also allowed to stand for election as an MP (6 February). 1918 Countess Constance Markievicz (Sinn Fein) becomes the first woman elected as a Member of Parliament (for Dublin South), but she does not take up her seat as she supports Sinn Fein’s boycott of Westminster until Home Rule for Ireland is granted (28 December). 1919 Lady Nancy Astor (Conservative) becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take up her seat (1 December). She remains MP for Plymouth Sutton until 1945. 1919 NUWSS renames itself National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship. 1923 Constance Lytton dies aged 54 (2 May). 1928 Emmeline Pankhurst dies (14 June). 1928 Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gives the vote to women on the same grounds as men. Women over the age of 21 get the vote (2 July). 1929 Margaret Bondfield (Labour) becomes the first female minister. She is Minister for Labour in the government of Ramsey MacDonald (8 June). 1969 The voting age is lowered to 18, with effect from 1970. 1979 Margaret Thatcher (Conservative) becomes the first female Prime Minister (4 May). She remains as Prime Minister until 1990. .