What Difference did the War Make? World War One and Votes for Women

In February 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave the parliamentary vote to (some) British women for the first time. A further change in the law ensured that as well as voting, women were able to stand as candidates at the next general election in December 1918. As we move towards the centenary of these two events, public interest in their origins is growing. Our project will capitalise on this interest through disseminating those findings from two previous AHRB projects (Angela Smith's 'Suffrage Discourse during World War One' 2003) and (Cowman's 'Paid Organisers in the Women's Social and Political Union', 2004) that relate to the work of suffrage organisations during the First World War leading up to the Representation of the People Act 1918 and the first election involving women candidates. Working in partnership with VOTE100, the official parliamentary project to mark these anniversaries, we will organise a series of carefully planned events. Through three workshops/panel discussions with invited speakers and public audiences we will consider the impact of the war on suffrage campaigns, the historical and contemporary gendering of politics and the broader social implications of this. A significant display at Westminster marking the centenaries followed by a contribution towards a major exhibition will enhance the impact and reach of our previous research. The outcomes of the project will be further disseminated through joint pamphlet and booklet publications authored by the project team and stakeholders.

The upcoming centenaries of women's partial enfranchisement (February 2018) and the first election involving women candidates (December 2018) offer an excellent opportunity to enhance the impact and reach of two earlier research projects. We will do this in partnership with VOTE100, based in Parliament and comprising a four-year programme of activities starting in 2015 and culminating with a major public exhibition in 2018 in Westminster Hall. Our project, 'What Difference did the War Make', links directly to the activities of VOTE100 thus ensuring that our research into the connections between suffrage campaigns, the First World War and the Representation of the People Act and women's entry into Parliament has the widest possible reach and impact across the centenary events.

Previous impact activities by both PI and CI have convinced us of a wider appetite among stakeholders for historical contextualisation of contemporary political concerns connected to what many still see as a 'women's vote.' (Examples include the PI's invitation to discuss historical perspectives on women's participation in general elections on BBC R3's Nightwaves after the 2015 election). Our three events are aimed directly at meeting this appetite through inviting members of contemporary groups concerned with broadening women's engagement in politics as well as stakeholders from media and education whose primary interest will be in the historical findings.

By the end of 2018 our collaboration will have informed and underpinned the commemorative activities of VOTE100 thus shaping public understanding of the connections between wartime suffrage campaigns and women's votes in the light of our earlier research, and linking our research council projects to high profile public commemorations.