The Representation of the People Act of 1918 gave a limited cohort of women the right to vote in parliamentary elections for the first time. The first World War in many respects was the central context to the passing of the Act. There was concern within government circles in the final years of the war that without electoral reform, many soldiers and sailors would return to a country they had defended but in which they did not have a vote. The corollary of this thinking was that a bill to enfranchise all men on the basis of active service must also include women who had served their country during the war.
Universal male suffrage
The Act granted universal male suffrage over the age of 21, and enfranchised women over the age of 30, subject to a property qualification. Men who had seen active service could vote from the age of 19.
— How Irish women won the right to vote in 1918, The Irish Times
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A Timespace showing the evolution of women's right to vote around the world. Cover image by Giacomo Ferroni. Under construction!
