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Women's Suffrage - The First World War - March 1918

The role of women had been transformed by the First World War. For many years there had been organised pressure groups - the Suffragettes - aiming to earn the right to vote for women, with little success. The vital work completed by women during the war led to more politicians becoming sympathetic to their cause. Had it not been for women, there would have been no workers in the munitions factories, the wounded would have gone uncared for and the day to day running of the nation would have ground to a halt.

The right to vote, suffrage, was extended to education, landowning women aged 30 or over by Act of Parliament in March 1918, The Qualification of Women Act. It marked the beginning of a move towards equal rights that women, and many sympathetic men, had fought for throughout the Nineteenth century. The changing attitude al reflects the realisation that women's roles had changed permanently, the end of the war would not see the end of women in the workplace, nor would it diminish their importance to the country.

Find out about other issues and events that affected the Home Front.