Image: Parliamentary Archives, HL/PO/PU/1/1918/7&8G5c64
The 1918 Representation of the People Act granted the vote to women over the age of 30 who met property requirements. It was only a partial franchise, with the full women’s franchise on equal terms to men still a decade away. Some 8.5 million or 40% of adult women were enfranchised. Considerable work remained to achieve the full female franchise, but it was a step in the right direction.
To celebrate the centennial of this important milestone in British democracy, Cycling to Suffrage will publish 18 profiles of pioneering cyclists on the Wheelwomen page.
Alice Hawkins is the most recent addition. Read the story of Leicester’s working class suffragette to find out more about the women who fought for the vote, but remained excluded by the 1918 franchise.
