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UK Suffrage Timeline Worksheet

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UK Suffrage Timeline Worksheet

Use the timeline and source cards to investigate how voting rights in the UK changed. Answer each question using evidence where you can.

A changing electorate

Suffrage means the right to vote. For a long time, only some men could vote, usually because of property rules. Women campaigned for change too. The dates below show important steps, but each law had conditions about who could vote.

1832 — First Reform Act: extended the vote to some middle-class men, but excluded women and most working-class men.

1867 — Second Reform Act: gave the vote to many more men in towns, including some working-class men.

1884 — Third Reform Act: extended voting rights to more men in counties. Many men still did not have the vote.

1903 — Emmeline Pankhurst helped found the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), whose members became known as suffragettes.

1918 — The Representation of the People Act gave the vote to women aged 30 and over who met a property qualification, and to nearly all men aged 21 and over.

1928 — The Equal Franchise Act gave women the vote on the same terms as men: from age 21.

1.In your own words, what does suffrage mean?

2.Which act first extended the vote to some middle-class men?

The First Reform Act of 1832
The Second Reform Act of 1867
The Equal Franchise Act of 1928

3.True or false: The 1884 Reform Act gave every adult man the vote.

TrueFalse

4.Complete the sentence: In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst helped found the , an organisation campaigning for women’s votes.

5.What voting restriction applied to women who gained the vote in 1918?

6.Put these events in chronological order by writing 1, 2, 3 and 4 beside them: women aged 30 and over gain the vote; some middle-class men gain the vote; women gain the vote on the same terms as men; more working-class men in towns gain the vote.

7.Which came first: women’s limited voting rights in 1918 or equal voting terms in 1928? How many years apart were the two changes?

8.Explain one important difference between the voting rights women received in 1918 and those they received in 1928.

9.Evidence challenge: A friend says, “Women got the vote in 1918, so they immediately had equal voting rights.” Use a date and detail from the timeline to correct this claim.

10.Why is it useful to include the conditions attached to a law, rather than only recording its date? Give one example from the timeline.