Could women be considered citizens in 1918?

Britain – Women in Politics, 1918-29

In this course, Dr Jacqui Turner (University of Reading) explores women in politics after the First World War. In the first lecture, we think about whether women could be considered to have citizenship in 1918. In the second lecture, we think about the impact of the First World War on women’s citizenship. In the third lecture, we think about the political landscape for women after 1918. Next, we think about the establishment of new feminism. In the fifth lecture, we think about some key feminist figures in the interwar people. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about the societal impact of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of 1928.

Could women be considered citizens in 1918?

In this lecture, we think about whether women could be considered citizens in Britain in 1918, focusing in particular on: (i) the significance of 1918 as a year in British history; (ii) the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which abolished almost all property qualifications for men and enfranchised some women; (iii) understanding citizenship to mean the full recognition of a person by a state, with the rights, responsibilities and legal protections which come with that; (iv) the fact that, even when some women were given the vote in 1918, that citizenship was not fully offered to those enfranchised women; (v) the fact that, during times of varying hardship, the balance between the rights and the responsibilities/duties of a citizen may vary; (vi) the fact that all citizens over the age of 18 have the right to vote today and have a right to free education until age 18; (vii) the debate around our right to free speech and the balance with the need to supress hate speech; (viii) women’s lack of access to polity during the First World War, understood as being the state as a political entity.