Suchergebnisse

AbstractFollowing the Speaker's conference on electoral reform of 1916–17, the Representation of the People Act 1918 gave women over the age of 30 years who met minimum property qualifications the parliamentary vote for the first time. After a decade of continued suffrage campaigning and pressure in parliament, the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gave women the vote on the same terms as men, at age 21 years, with no age or any other restrictions. Although important in itself, votes for women also carried along a wider agenda of legislation relating to gender equality and issues affecting women and children during the interwar period. This essay gives an overview of how the Speaker's conference and the 1918 act affected women, considers the immediately‐related legislation in 1918–19 which allowed women to become MPs and removed other sex disqualifications, and traces progress in parliament towards equal franchise over the next decade, including a pledge by Stanley Baldwin in 1924 and an undertaking by William Joynson‐Hicks in 1925. It explains the changes in personnel and attitudes over time which finally enabled a Conservative government to grant equal franchise in 1928.

The year 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Life Peerages Act 1958. The first life peer to obtain his letters patent was Lord Fraser of Lonsdale (Sir William Jocelyn Ian Fraser) on 1 August 1958. The first life peer to be introduced in the Lords was Lord Parker of Waddington (Sir Hubert Lister Parker) on 21 October 1958. The first woman peer to receive her letters patent dated 8 August 1958 was Baroness Wootton of Abinger (Barbara Frances Wootton), and the first woman peer to take her seat in the Lords was Baroness Swanborough (Dame Stella Isaacs, marchioness of Reading), ahead of Baroness Wootton on 21 October 1958. This article gives an overview of the background to life peerages and women peers before 1958, including the importance of two peerage cases, the Wensleydale case 1856 and the Rhondda case 1922. It does so with particular reference to women and the house of lords. It also considers the passage of the act itself; the initial life peers created in 1958; final equality between men and women peers achieved by the Peerage Act 1963; and the impact of life peers on the House since 1958.

Im Zeitraum 2017 bis 2021 wurde dem hundertjährigen Bestehen des Frauenwahlrechts in mehr oder weniger breit gefächerter Form gedacht. Die wechselvolle Geschichte dieses Erinnerns sowohl seitens Aktivist*innen der Frauenbewegungen und Historiker*innen als auch seitens staatlicher Institutionen oder politischer Parteien wird hier am Beispiel ausgewählter europäischer Länder veranschaulicht. Die Beiträge zeigen, wie sehr fehlende Quellen, aber auch Stereotypen und Vorurteile Herausforderungen für ebendieses Erinnern bedeuteten. Zudem reflektieren sie das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen den unterschiedlichen Interessen der am Gedenken Mitwirkenden. Das Jubiläum hat nicht nur den Grundstein für eine Integration der Einführung des Frauenwahlrechts in die nationale politische Geschichte gelegt, sondern auch dazu beigetragen, das gesamte Thema aus neuen Perspektiven zu betrachten. Aus dem Inhalt: Die Erinnerung an das Frauenwahlrecht in Großbritannien und Irland / 100 Jahre Frauenwahlrechtsjubiläum in Deutschland / An Inside Reflection on the Dutch Centenary of Universal (Women's) Suffrage / Memory Work, Memory Politics and the Centennial of Women's Suffrage in Sweden / Frauenwahlrechtsjubiläen in zwei Nachfolgestaaten der Habsburgermonarchie / Ellen Carol DuBois interviewed by Mineke Bosch – Woman Suffrage in Times of Distress / Leben im Versteck. Annäherung an die Geschichte von Kindern ausländischer Arbeiter*innen in der Schweiz der Hochkonjunktur / Die antifeministischen Geschlechterpolitiken der FPÖ Commemorations are currently remembering the centennial of women's suffrage in several European countries and the United States. While, on the surface, early historiography of the history of women's suffrage has opened the way for the discipline of women's and gender history since the 1970s, several concerns, such as the collection and preservation of suffrage heritage, stereotypes and prejudices, and political contextualization, have challenged ways and possibilities both to write this history and to remember women's equal inclusion in political participation. This issue seeks to explore the politics of suffrage memory, addressing both the historiography of women's suffrage and its impact on the commemoration of women's enfranchisement, especially also in relation to national celebrations of universal suffrage.