Author: ukvote100

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Ancient Suffragettes?

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Guest post by Professor Barbara Goff What can students of ancient Greece and Rome do to mark the centenary of some British women obtaining the vote?  Surely ancient history had nothing to do with the struggles for suffrage?  In fact, as an exhibition in the Classics Department of the University of Reading currently shows, the movement for women’s suffrage looked to ancient history for examples, inspiration, and even humour.  The suffrage magazines Votes for Women and Common Cause regularly featured articles, creative writing, and cartoons that drew on the literature and history of ancient Greece and Rome.  Suffrage agitators included … Continue reading Ancient Suffragettes?

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The Irish Votes for Women Movement and the tricky relationship with British Suffragists

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Today a picture of the first woman elected to the House of Commons, Constance Markievicz, was gifted to the UK Parliament by the Irish Parliament (Houses of the Oireachtas). To mark this occasion we are delighted to publish this guest post by Professor Louise Ryan. While there was much that united Irish and British suffragists, not least their shared campaign for the vote from the Westminster parliament, it would be wrong to underestimate the important differences between these two movements. British women were fighting for enfranchisement from their own parliament, even though the government did not represent the voices of … Continue reading The Irish Votes for Women Movement and the tricky relationship with British Suffragists

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Women Petitioners and The Parlament of Women — The History of Parliament

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As part of our Women and Parliament blog series to mark the centenary of the first women gaining the vote in 1918, this week we hear from Assistant Editor of the Commons 1640-1660 project, Dr Vivienne Larminie. She describes a seventeenth century satirical pamphlet about a fictitious women’s parliamentary meeting and explains how women interacted […] via Women Petitioners and The Parlament of Women — The History of Parliament Continue reading Women Petitioners and The Parlament of Women — The History of Parliament

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Voice and Vote: Celebrating 100 Years of Votes for Women – a guidebook — The History of Parliament

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Dr Paul Seaward is one of the editors of the “Voice & Vote guidebook” to accompany the UK Parliament Vote 100 project‘s landmark exhibition in Westminster Hall. In today’s blog he explains the contents of the book, who contributed to it and where you can get one… Last week we were delighted to celebrate with the […] via Voice and Vote: Celebrating 100 Years of Votes for Women – a guidebook — The History of Parliament Continue reading Voice and Vote: Celebrating 100 Years of Votes for Women – a guidebook — The History of Parliament

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A Peep Into the Future: Imagining the suffrage victory in 1910

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Back in 1910, a woman imagined what winning the vote might look like. We’re very pleased to publish this guest post by Krista Cowman discussing ‘A Peep into the Future’, 108 years after its publication on 25 March 1910. Guest post by Professor Krista Cowman February 6 2018 marked a hundred years since the Representation of the People Act first gave some British women a parliamentary vote.  Discussions about how best to mark this centenary are currently hard to avoid in modern media but are not solely the preoccupation of the millennials who are now looking back.  Barely a century … Continue reading A Peep Into the Future: Imagining the suffrage victory in 1910