Thursday, February 07, 2008

90 years of women's suffrage

Never mind that we were 25 years behind New Zealand, and that the franchise was limited to those women over 30 with a certain standing in the community, we - under Liberal PM, David Lloyd George - gave the vote to women the vote in 1918.

The trouble now is over equal representation. The Liberal Democrats in Wales can take satisfaction from the 50/50 split, right from the start, in the Welsh Assembly. But more needs to be done in Westminster and in local councils. The message needs to go out that this party has always insisted on equal treatment of the sexes in its selection processes, right up to the final short-list.

Women who subscribe to our principles, and want to make a difference to their communities by standing for council (in May this year) or for the UK parliament (whenever Gordon Brown dares to call a general election), will find that they are pushing at an open door with the Liberal Democrats.

2 comments:

Harry Barnes said...

As you mention women on Local Councils the following might be of interest - as on certain local matters some women had the vote as early as 1870 and even before.
http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.com/2007/02/votes-for-women-1918-1870-or-earlier.html

Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats said...

Even earlier, the Isle of Man gave all women the vote. You would have thought that the UK parliament would have taken the hint in the 1880s.