First female would-be MPs ‘used her gender as campaigning tool’
BRITAIN’S FIRST female parliamentary candidates utilised their gender as a campaigning tool to win votes and championed new policies such as equal citizenship, new analysis shows.
On November 21, 1918, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act was passed which enabled women over the age of 21 to become MPs.
As the General Election was set for December 14, this gave women very little time to organise themselves.
The pioneering women who stood in the 1918 election emphasised to the electorate they had the unique skills and experiences which would benefit Parliament during Britain’s reconstruction after the First World War.
Historian Lisa Berry-Waite, from the University of Exeter, has uncovered the election literature for all 17 women who stood for Parliament, in which females
over the age of 30 who met the property qualifications could vote for the first time.
The election addresses have not been examined in great detail before and many of the first women candidates have been forgotten in history.
Women aimed to capture the votes of newly enfranchised females, campaigning on issues such as equal voting rights and better housing.
However, they were cautious not to alienate male voters, and praised the bravery of those who fought in the war.
Miss Berry-Waite, a second year PhD student, said: “In the celebration of partial female suffrage this year, it is sometimes forgotten women still had to argue for their place in Parliament.”
The 1918 addresses were discovered in numerous archives around the country, from the University of Bristol’s Special Collections, to the Imperial War Museum.
Of the 17 candidates, most had been involved in the suffrage movement previously, and none were chosen to stand in safe seats. The first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons was Nancy Astor, who won in a Plymouth by-election in 1919.