Why Did It Take So Long For Women To Get The Vote In Britain?

On 7 June 1866, the philosopher and MP, John Stuart Mill presented the first mass women’s suffrage petition to the House of Commons. A year later, in May 1867, Mill put forward an amendment to the Second Reform Bill to replace the word ‘man’ with ‘person’ and thus extend the vote to women. The petition and amendment failed but did give rise to organised associations to campaign for women to get the vote. However, it took more than 50 years until the Representation of the People Act in 1918 gave the vote to women over the age of 30.

Why did it take so long? And who was to blame?

Sarah Richardson discusses some of these questions in this session on women’s suffrage.

Our events are designed so that a group of students can take part from a classroom or students and teachers can take part as individuals, either from school or from home.

Suitable for: Key Stage 5 students studying or with an interest in studying History, and related subjects.

Preparation/Pre-Reading: Students are asked to consider some of the key issues and any questions they might like to ask during the session.