by Colin Morley

Created on: May 30, 2011   Last Updated: June 01, 2011

The Representation of the People Act of 1918 gave certain women in Britain the right to vote for the first time.  It further extended the rights of more men to vote, by abolishing much of the land owning qualification which had existed prior to its passing.  The purpose of the Act, published on the 6th February 1918, as stated in its opening paragraph was to:

“Amend the Law with respect to Parliamentary and Local Government Franchises, and the Registration of Parliamentary and Local Government Electors, and the conduct of elections, and to provide for the Redistribution of Seats at Parliamentary Elections, and for other purposes connected therewith.”

Prior restrictions on voting rights in the United Kingdom had meant that no woman had the right to vote and that in order for a man to vote he had to own property.  In those days, that effectively excluded the working classes from having any say in who governed them.  The 1918 Act gave the right to vote to men who were heads of household but not necessarily owners of property, but with a minimum annual rateable value.  The right to vote was extended to women who fulfilled the same criteria and were aged over 30 or who were the wives of men so entitled. Although at first glance this may seem to have been a liberal and liberating shift toward universal suffrage, the facts do not paint such a happy picture. 

The Act increased the number of people eligible to vote to around 21 million out of a population of roughly 44 million (census figures for 1911 = 42,138,000; 1921 = 44,072,000). Clearly there was far more representation for men than for women and a large swathe of the working classes continued to be excluded.  Conversely, the extension of University seats and the extension of the franchise to any graduates of those universities meant that many educated men (and very few educated women over 30) would be entitled to two votes.  Property qualifications also meant that men owning residential property in one constituency and business property in another could also have two votes. If those men were also university graduates, three votes. The passing of the Act was nonetheless seen as a victory by the Suffragette movement, who had campaigned so strongly and publicly in the years leading up to this change.  Universal suffrage for women was not to happen for a further ten years.

 The Act was passed by what was considered by many to be a surprisingly large majority

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