In the House of Commons in June 1917, the women's suffrage bill was debated. The idea that women were inferior to men was squashed and women really were equal in the social, intellectual and economic fields. Finally, in January 1918, for the first time women were given the right to vote. It had taken them nearly forty years. They were given the right to vote after more than one thousand Suffragettes had been jailed in pursuit of their just cause. They had suffered hard labour and the humiliation of force-feeding in dirty prisons. They had suffered broken bodies but not broken spirits. Some had paid the ultimate price for the right in life to be free, and to be treated as equals.
Several days after the start of the First World War, all the Suffragettes who were prisoners, were unconditionally released. Emmiline Pankhurst suspended all militancy and called on her followers to help defend the country. Before, long women were streaming into the factories to make arms and munitions. There were no important moves by parliament in the next few years. Nevertheless, the ever-increasing number of women working in the factories began to tell on the political front. By acknowledging the vigorous sacrifices of these women, for parliament it was the beginning of the end of no votes for women. Parliament was about to shoot itself in the foot. In 1916, the war committee demanded a vote for every soldier. To be eligible to vote the existing laws required men to be qualified as householders, and to have occupied their house for at least a year before an election. A bit difficult if you have been sent to the front and have been there over a year already. The result to many men who were soldiers was, they lost the right to vote! This act certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons for millions of men at war.
The suffragettes pledged their support to the Government and the War effort. This stopped the violent riots and much of their previous opposition took them more seriously because of their new attitudes towards their claim for equality.
