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• At the start of 1914, there were two groups of women campaigning for the right to vote: the suffragists and the suffragettes.
• At the outbreak of World War One, the two groups agreed to suspend their campaigns and support the war effort.
• Women joined the war effort through the Women’s Land Army, Munitionettes, Voluntary Aid Detachment and the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps.
• In 1918, just before World War One ended, the government finally passed a law giving some women the right to vote for the first time.

In August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany, starting World War One. Both the suffragists and suffragettes agreed that they would pause their campaign for the right to vote and turn their attention towards the war effort.

Emmeline Pankhurst encouraged WSPU members to put their demonstrations on hold, in order to focus on the war effort. She asked women to take up roles in factories in support of the men fighting. In response, the government released all WSPU prisoners who had been arrested for protesting.

Women were used heavily in war recruitment campaigns to try and influence men. They featured on posters with slogans such as ‘Women of Britain say go’ to encourage men who were worried about leaving their families to join up to fight. Women were also encouraged to give white feathers to men who hadn’t joined up, to imply they were cowards.

During World War One, women stepped into a range of roles. Men had signed up in huge numbers to go and fight on the front line, leaving jobs behind that needed to be filled. Stepping in and doing this work helped to change the perception as to what women were capable of and proved they were capable of carrying out many of the same jobs as men. Many working class women took up jobs in factories, working as munitionettes producing weapons. Middle class women were more likely to take up administrative roles with the providing support to the armed forces, such as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. These were some of the key groups women worked in:

Before World War One, men could only vote if they were over 30, owned property, and had lived in the UK for 12 months before an election. This meant that many of the British men who had fought for their country during World War One didn’t have a say in the election of their government.

Also, by the end of World War One women had proven that they were capable of fulfilling roles that were traditionally undertaken by men, which chanllenged society’s views on gender roles.

In 1918, the government introduced a law called the Representation of the People Act. All men over the age of 21 and all women over 30 who owned a home, or were married to a homeowner, were allowed to vote in elections. For the first time, some women had the right to vote in British elections.

But this was only a minority of women and many continued to fight for equality. In 1918, women were allowed to stand as MPs for the first time, and Constance Markievicz became the first woman elected to Parliament. The suffragettes believed that female representatives in Parliament would help in the fight for equality.

In 1928, all women over the age of 21, regardless of whether or not they owned a home, were given the right to vote on the same terms as men. The Representation of the People Act 1969 lowered the voting age for both men and women to 18 years old.

Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett are famous for being leaders of the WSPU and NUWSS, but many other women fought for the right to vote. Look at the slideshow below to read some other women’s stories.