Fawcett celebrates the 90th anniversary of women winning the vote (1/2/08)

To mark the 90th anniversary of women winning the vote (1), the Fawcett Society is this week challenging all the political parties to redouble their efforts to achieve the full realisation of women’s rights.

90 years ago on Wednesday (6 February 2008), women were granted the right to vote for the first time. In this bumper year we will also celebrate the 80th anniversary of women achieving full voting rights and 50 years since legislation allowed for women to become members of the House of Lords (2).

Yet, 90 years after gaining the vote, true equality for women remains a long way off. Marking this anniversary with pride, the Fawcett Society is therefore renewing its calls for:

• Women’s right to fair pay and fair treatment in the workplace;
• Women’s right to a powerful voice in decision making;
• Women and men’s rights to be free from stereotypes about their roles and abilities;
• Women’s right to freedom from violence, harassment and objectification.

Commenting on the anniversary, Dr Katherine Rake, Director of the Fawcett Society, said:

“Ninety years ago on Wednesday (6 February 2008) one of the most important steps to women’s enfranchisement was secured with the legal right to vote (3). Yet nine decades later we find that women’s full enfranchisement has not been achieved.

“It is fitting that on this anniversary we remember the brave women and men who fought so tirelessly for women’s votes – many sacrificed their freedom and some their lives to the campaign. In this time of celebration, we also remember the work of our founder Millicent Fawcett who led the peaceful movement for the vote and dedicated her life’s work to women’s right to vote (4).

“As the UK’s leading women’s rights campaign group, we recognise that women’s hard-fought right to vote is only part of the solution. The full realisation of women’s rights must include an end to discrimination and prejudice so that all of society can reap the benefits.

“We ask politicians from all the political parties to redouble their efforts in achieving women’s rights over the next 10 years so that the centenary in 2018 can be a time for true celebration. We must not delay any longer in taking the radical steps that are needed to achieve a just society for all.”

Notes to editors

1. The Fawcett Society will mark the anniversary with a high profile reception at Lancaster House on Wednesday 6th February 2008. The Fawcett Society will be joined by government ministers, parliamentarians and peers; and leaders from the business, public and voluntary sector in setting a vision for the future of gender equality.
2. On 6th February 1918, the Representation of the People Act gained royal assent, granting women over 30 and married women the right to vote. This was followed 10 years later by the Equal Franchise Act (2nd July 1928) which extended the franchise to all women over 21. On April 30th 1958 the Life Peerages Act allowed for women to take up Life Peerages. The first women arrived in the House of Lords that September.
3. Milestones in achieving the vote for women:
   1897: Millicent Fawcett became President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
   1907: NUWSS organised its first national demonstration known as the Mud March because of the terrible weather.
   1907: Qualification of Women Act introduced allowing women to be elected onto borough and county councils.
   1913: The suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison, threw herself under the king’s horse and was killed.
   1913: 50,000 women arrived in Hyde Park, having taken part in a pilgrimage organised by the NUWSS.
   1918: Representation of the People Act passed by Parliament, giving women in United Kingdom over 30 and all married women the right to vote.
   1918: Parliamentary Qualification of Women Act passed, which allowed women in the UK to be elected as MPs.
   1928: Equal Franchise Act passed giving all women in the UK over 21 the right to vote.
4. Millicent Garrett Fawcett was born in Suffolk in 1847. As a young woman she heard a speech on women’s rights by the MP, John Stuart Mill. The speech made a deep impression on her and she became a loyal supporter. He introduced her to Henry Fawcett, another radical MP, who she married in 1867. In the 1880s Millicent emerged as a leader of the movement for women’s rights. Millicent was a "suffragist" believing passionately that the vote could be won best by constitutional means. In 1897, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was founded, and Millicent soon became their leader. Witness to the 1918 and 1928 Representation of the People Acts that won women the vote, Millicent Garrett Fawcett died in 1929. The Fawcett Society traces a direct lineage to the NUWSS, and is named after Millicent.