Women's Suffrage movement

The women's suffrage movement in the United Kingdom was a pivotal chapter in the fight for gender equality, beginning earnestly in the mid-19th century with the formation of organizations like the National Society for Women's Suffrage in 1869. The movement gained prominence through the relentless efforts of suffragists and the more militant suffragettes, led by groups like the Women's Social and Political Union, founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst. Their methods ranged from peaceful protests and petitions to civil disobedience, enduring arrests, hunger strikes, and force-feeding. The culmination of their struggles was the Representation of the People Act 1918, granting limited suffrage to women over 30 with certain property qualifications, followed by the Equal Franchise Act of 1928, which extended equal voting rights to all women and men aged 21 and over, marking a monumental achievement in the fight for women’s rights.