How did women get the right to vote?
Originally, there was no law that said women could not vote – if you were rich enough to meet the property qualifications, you could vote. Not many women did, but technically they could. It was not until the 1832 Reform Act, which specifically stated that only men could vote. The women’s suffrage movement didn’t really take off until the end of the 19th century, and many of the early movements were very peaceful. Then of course you get the Pankhursts, and their movement was nothing like peaceful – putting bombs in pillar boxes, and through the front doors of politicians, that sort of thing. The Liberal government of the early 1900s did consider extending the vote to some women, but it can be argued that the actions of the more violent suffragettes only strengthened the arguments of those who said women could not be trusted with the vote because they were not capable of rational thought/actions. It was WW1 that really won women the vote, proving that women could play a vital part in soc