Thanks to Disney and their production of Mary Poppins, I believe many of us grew up knowing more about the Suffragette movement from Mrs. Banks than from our history teachers. After all, "we're clearly soldiers in petticoats". Well done Sister Suffragettes, from women living many years after we have been granted the vote.
In America, 1848 was a big year for women's suffrage. Women didn't get the vote that year, but they held a convention, the Seneca Falls Convention in New York. There was a large push from the East Coast to help women in Utah gain equality under the opinion that once women were equal to men, they would then go on to abolish polygamy. In the 1900s, the classic Women's Votes signs and picketing became employed. Presidents ignored the women outside the White House for years until they happened to picket on a day that the Russian Diplomats arrived. Women held up signs that read America is not a democracy and Kaiser Wilson (referring to the president of the time). Many women that day ended up in jail. Two years later, on June 4, 1919, the Senate passed a vote that would lead to the 19th Amendment.
In England, 1865 was the year a gentleman was elected to Parliament who was open about his beliefs in women's rights. Many years were spent trying to lobby members of Parliament after that. In 1907, about fifty years later, 3,000 women gathered in the streets of London to march from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall in support of women's rights. Nothing changed though, so many turned to violence. The House of Commons was stormed and several politicians houses were fire-bombed. In 1909, a lady with a title was thrown in jail for protesting, but when her identity was discovered, they released her immediately. So she erased her past, came back to the protests as a working-class seamstress, and was once again imprisoned. She was one of the many who endured much in prison, including being force-fed semolina. The next few years were turbulent and fast going. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed, allowing women over 30 to vote. The Eligibility of Women act was also passed that year, allowing women to be elected into Parliament. In 1928, the voting age was lowered to 21, giving votes to all women the same as men.
