to the parliamentary vote if they were householders (and thus on the local
government register), the wives of householders, occupiers of property of yearly
value of not less than £5, or university graduates. Such restrictions meant that
not all women aged thirty and over were included in the Act; about 22 per cent
- likely to be working-class or unmarried employed women – were excluded.
The eight million enfranchised women were disproportionately middle-class
housewives.^40 Since men who had seen active service could vote at nineteen
and all other men at the age of twenty-one, women were not granted the fran-
chise on equal terms, the issue on which Emmeline had fought so consistently
and so bravely for eleven long years. While the principle of sex discrimination
in parliamentary voting had been broken, there were limitations to what had
been achieved. Although at long last a government measure for women’s
enfranchisement had become law, an issue on which the WSPU had
campaigned so vigorously, it was a restricted measure. Men had finally allowed
women access to the parliamentary vote, but it was on their own terms. And it
was painfully obvious that Britain was lagging behind societies such as New
Zealand, Australia, Finland, Denmark and Norway where women already had
the vote. In 1917, women had been enfranchised too in Canada, apart from
Quebec, and in four North American states. While the debate in the Lords was
taking place, a woman suffrage amendment was passed by a two-thirds majority
in both Houses of Congress in Washington, an amendment that had to be rati-
fied by three-fourths of the states and would not become law for two years.^41
When Emmeline appeared at the great meeting at the Albert Hall on 16
March to celebrate the suffrage victory, her response was, understandably, some-
what muted. She gave herself no credit for the success but humbly said:
For those who took part in it, it is a difficult thing to speak of the
struggle that is over. I know you will feel with me that we cannot
rejoice without thinking of those who are not here to rejoice with us,
those pioneers who in the dark and early days undertook the work for
the vote without any hope of seeking victory themselves.Perhaps, as she said these words, Emmeline was thinking of her husband and
also the aged Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, who had died just four days before.
The emotional reflection over, Emmeline soon got into her stride as she urged
the newly enfranchised women not to join the existing political parties but the
women of the Women’s Party because ‘we, from first to last, have been faithful
and loyal to women, have worked for them and suffered for them’. Emphasising
that women collectively were ‘a mighty force’, she underlined that in order to
serve the nation, women ‘must combine and unite’, putting aside all class
feeling.^42 The meeting, which had begun with the singing of the hymn ‘Oh
God our help in ages past’, ended with a rendering of the national anthem.
To what extent Emmeline’s leadership of the WSPU had won the parliamen-
tary vote for women is a matter of debate amongst historians, with a number of
LEADER OF THE WOMEN’S PARTY