At the conclusion of the War, the Suffragette movement finally received the recognition it had been campaigning for for over a decade. Female Suffrage was about women getting the right to vote in Parliamentary elections, which at times required violence. Yet, when World War One was declared the main suffrage movements suspended their campaigns for the vote and invested themselves into the War effort.
Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel Pankhurst established the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903, making Britain the home to the most active feminist movement in Western Europe. The Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, and many politicians remained reluctant to support women's suffrage, using the WSPU's violent methods to justify their position.
The Act of Parliament granting women the right to vote, the Representation of the People Act 1918, was an imperfect victory as only women over the age of 30 who were householders or the wives of householders were allowed to vote. This consequently granted all men over 21 to cast their ballot and outnumber women in an electoral system. Just one woman was elected to Parliament in the General Election of December 1918.
Despite the prodigious contribution women made to the success of World War I, they were expected to return to business as usual once they'd returned home.
'Beauty has claims for which she fights At ease with winning arms The women who want women's rights Want mostly, women's charms'. Punch, 1870