Occupation and civilians

Women's suffrage

The right of women to vote and stand for election. Suffragists had fought for it since the 19th century, and in 1917–1918, helped by women's war work, they won it in Russia, Britain, Germany and Poland, among others.

Before the war women voted in national elections in only a handful of countries; Denmark joined them in 1915. During the war women replaced men in factories, transport, offices and hospitals, and most suffrage movements backed the war effort, which weakened their opponents' arguments. In 1917 revolutionary Russia gave women the vote, and Canada gave it first to soldiers' relatives and to women in the forces. On 6 February 1918 the British Representation of the People Act gave the vote to women over 30 who met property conditions, about 8.4 million.

The fall of the monarchies brought women the vote in Germany, where it was announced on 12 November 1918, and in Austria. In Poland Józef Piłsudski's decree of 28 November 1918 on elections to the Legislative Sejm gave the vote to "every citizen of the State regardless of sex" aged 21 or over; Polish activists had demanded it since the turn of the century. Eight women sat in the Legislative Sejm. The United States gave women the vote in 1920, and France only in 1944.

Sources

In the chronicle

(16)

16 articles use this term.

1915

17 JulyWomen march for the "right to serve"

1917

1918