How long do you think women have had the right to vote? In most European countries, it's actually less than 100 years.
While men had won the right to vote through the Reform Act of 1867, an amendment extending that right to all women was unanimously voted down by the entirely male Parliament. Women were still barred from the political process. In fact, the earlier Reform Act of 1832 had included language that specifically prohibited women from voting. It was an unpopular issue. The leaders of Chartism had considered adding women's suffrage--another word for the right to vote--to their charter, but no one thought the idea had a serious chance at success.
However, the Industrial Revolution had set society on a course for dramatic cultural and political change that most people couldn't even see yet. Women played a large part in Britain's industrialization, and the extension of voting rights to all men inspired women to take up the same cause for themselves. The desire to become part of the political process turned into a national movement in Britain as more and more women began demanding the right to vote.
Despite many small gains and dramatic protests throughout the final decades of the 19th century, the right to vote would not be granted to all British women, regardless of how much property they owned, until 1928. It was one of the final victories in a long process of political change that began during the Industrial Revolution.
The following is an image from World War I. What was the political status of women during that war? Click on the image to check your response.
Question
Why was women's suffrage more likely to be successful after the Industrial Revolution?
