HOME | DD

Description
100 years ago - on 6 February 1918 - an important law was passed which changed the UK forever.

It was called the Representation of People Act 1918.

Now, girls, I want you to think about your school, college, university, work. I want you to think about your moms, sisters, aunts maybe even daughters and the way they live and now imagine that 100 years ago you and your female relatives wouldn't own the handbag you take every day out with you-it would belong to your husband, father or brother. Imagine a world where you don't have an equal chance to educate with your brother, world where you earn 1/3 of what men earn, even though you work as hard as them, sometimes, even harder. Think of a world where after getting married all your money belongs to your husband, where you have no rights to your own child. A world where you can be kicked out of the home you inherited from your parents by your husband. The world where your voice doesn't matter.

Now, imagine that there's another way of living this life, that you might have a right to speak up for yourself and this voice was the Fourth Reform Act aka the Representation of People Act 1918.

The Representation of People Act 1918 was an important law because it allowed women to vote for the very first time. It also allowed all men over the age of 21 to vote too.

Before this law, women weren't allowed to vote in general elections at all. Some men could vote, but not all of them, only 60% of male householders over the age of 21 had the vote. Following the horrors of the First World War, millions of returning soldiers would still not have been entitled to vote in the long overdue general election because of the rule that only men paying an annual rental of £10 and all those holding land valued at £10 had the vote. The Fourth Reform Act changed that rule, now every man over 21 was allowed to vote as well as every woman over 30 years if she was either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register, a property owner, or a graduate voting in a University constituency. Not full equality but a mile step to that, women in Brittain had to wait 10 more years for the full equality.

Why was this act so important?

Because it made women electors so politicians started to care about them, their laws and their rights. Women finally had the power to influence the government by being the members of the society whom the politicians should serve and care. Women finally had rights to their children, their belongings, they were finally humans.

This drawing is also my very own way of honouring all suffragettes who suffered in prisons during the hunger strikes and later the force-feeding, those who were beaten up by the police during manifestations and died because of wounds. Women who blow up the mailboxes threw stones at the shop windows or who were cutting of telegraph wires and women who blew up an empty Parliamentary residence to get world's attention. To Emily Davison who tried to attach the suffragette cloth to the king's horse so it would be visible in the photo.

All I want to say to those brave women is Thank you. You changed the world more than you thought you would and I'm forever gracefull to you that I was born in the world where I can learn, get the university title, vote and be an active member of the society regardless of my sex.

Remember "Never underestimate the power we women have to define our own destiny".

Description
100 years ago - on 6 February 1918 - an important law was passed which changed the UK forever.

It was called the Representation of People Act 1918.

Now, girls, I want you to think about your school, college, university, work. I want you to think about your moms, sisters, aunts maybe even daughters and the way they live and now imagine that 100 years ago you and your female relatives wouldn't own the handbag you take every day out with you-it would belong to your husband, father or brother. Imagine a world where you don't have an equal chance to educate with your brother, world where you earn 1/3 of what men earn, even though you work as hard as them, sometimes, even harder. Think of a world where after getting married all your money belongs to your husband, where you have no rights to your own child. A world where you can be kicked out of the home you inherited from your parents by your husband. The world where your voice doesn't matter.

Now, imagine that there's another way of living this life, that you might have a right to speak up for yourself and this voice was the Fourth Reform Act aka the Representation of People Act 1918.

The Representation of People Act 1918 was an important law because it allowed women to vote for the very first time. It also allowed all men over the age of 21 to vote too.

Before this law, women weren't allowed to vote in general elections at all. Some men could vote, but not all of them, only 60% of male householders over the age of 21 had the vote. Following the horrors of the First World War, millions of returning soldiers would still not have been entitled to vote in the long overdue general election because of the rule that only men paying an annual rental of £10 and all those holding land valued at £10 had the vote. The Fourth Reform Act changed that rule, now every man over 21 was allowed to vote as well as every woman over 30 years if she was either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register, a property owner, or a graduate voting in a University constituency. Not full equality but a mile step to that, women in Brittain had to wait 10 more years for the full equality.

Why was this act so important?

Because it made women electors so politicians started to care about them, their laws and their rights. Women finally had the power to influence the government by being the members of the society whom the politicians should serve and care. Women finally had rights to their children, their belongings, they were finally humans.

This drawing is also my very own way of honouring all suffragettes who suffered in prisons during the hunger strikes and later the force-feeding, those who were beaten up by the police during manifestations and died because of wounds. Women who blow up the mailboxes threw stones at the shop windows or who were cutting of telegraph wires and women who blew up an empty Parliamentary residence to get world's attention. To Emily Davison who tried to attach the suffragette cloth to the king's horse so it would be visible in the photo.

All I want to say to those brave women is Thank you. You changed the world more than you thought you would and I'm forever gracefull to you that I was born in the world where I can learn, get the university title, vote and be an active member of the society regardless of my sex.

Remember "Never underestimate the power we women have to define our own destiny".