Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?

The fact that 8.5 million British women obtained the right to vote at the end of the First World War has often been attributed to women’s war work and presented as a kind of reward for services rendered to the nation. Such an opinion, however, is difficult to maintain. While some people may have cha...

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Main Author: Véronique Molinari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses universitaires de Rennes 2008-09-01
Series:Revue LISA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/1070
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author Véronique Molinari
author_facet Véronique Molinari
author_sort Véronique Molinari
collection DOAJ
description The fact that 8.5 million British women obtained the right to vote at the end of the First World War has often been attributed to women’s war work and presented as a kind of reward for services rendered to the nation. Such an opinion, however, is difficult to maintain. While some people may have changed their view of the value of women when confronted with their participation in the war effort, prejudice certainly did not disappear as quickly as both the press and politicians would have liked people to believe – mainly for propaganda purposes. Besides, many elements contradict the idea of the vote as a reward: the mass dismissal of women workers at the end of the war and the volte-face of the press in the following years, the age restriction imposed by the Representation of the People Act that left most women war-workers out of the electorate because they were under 30, or again the reluctance of the government to include women in an electoral reform made necessary to allow soldiers to vote. For one should not forget that the electoral reform of 1918 was never meant for women and that women’s suffrage was, in fact, the only measure in the whole bill not to be approved unanimously.
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spelling doaj-art-6cd976ac139a4ac0bb5e8b9da3255fd42025-01-06T09:02:32ZengPresses universitaires de RennesRevue LISA1762-61532008-09-016718710.4000/lisa.1070Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?Véronique MolinariThe fact that 8.5 million British women obtained the right to vote at the end of the First World War has often been attributed to women’s war work and presented as a kind of reward for services rendered to the nation. Such an opinion, however, is difficult to maintain. While some people may have changed their view of the value of women when confronted with their participation in the war effort, prejudice certainly did not disappear as quickly as both the press and politicians would have liked people to believe – mainly for propaganda purposes. Besides, many elements contradict the idea of the vote as a reward: the mass dismissal of women workers at the end of the war and the volte-face of the press in the following years, the age restriction imposed by the Representation of the People Act that left most women war-workers out of the electorate because they were under 30, or again the reluctance of the government to include women in an electoral reform made necessary to allow soldiers to vote. For one should not forget that the electoral reform of 1918 was never meant for women and that women’s suffrage was, in fact, the only measure in the whole bill not to be approved unanimously.https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/1070First World Warvoting rightsemancipationwoman
spellingShingle Véronique Molinari
Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?
Revue LISA
First World War
voting rights
emancipation
woman
title Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?
title_full Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?
title_fullStr Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?
title_full_unstemmed Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?
title_short Le droit de vote accordé aux femmes britanniques à l’issue de la Première Guerre mondiale : une récompense pour les services rendus ?
title_sort le droit de vote accorde aux femmes britanniques a l issue de la premiere guerre mondiale une recompense pour les services rendus
topic First World War
voting rights
emancipation
woman
url https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/1070
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