Women's Suffrage and rights in the constitutions of the world​

UNITED KINGDOM 1928
Right to vote and to stand for election: July 2, 1928
First woman in parliament: 1918
Population: 68,459,462
Parliament name: UK Parliament
Chamber name: House of Commons
Structure & Status of parliament: Lower Chamber
Statutory number of members: 650
Directly elected
Electoral quota for women: Yes. Voluntary political party
quotas.
Legal source: Cf. The Sex Discrimination (Election
Candidates) Act 2002 which allows political parties to select
candidates from all-women shortlists. Cf. also individual
party statutes.
Chamber name: House of Lords
Structure & Status of parliament: Upper Chamber
Statutory number of members: 791
Appointed members (676): 676 life peers appointed by the
Crown on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Other (115): 90 hereditary Peers and 25 archbishops and
bishops.
Electoral quota for women: No.
DATE WOMEN %
2019-12
2017-06
2015-05
2010-05
2010-01
2005-05
2001-06
1997-04
1997-01
1992-04
1987-06
1983-06
1979-05
1974-02
1966-03
1964-10
1959-10
1955-05
1951-10
1950-02
1945-07
220
208
191
143
126
128
118
120
62
60
41
23
19
27
26
29
25
24
17
21
24
33.85%
32%
29.38%
22%
19.5%
19.81%
17.91%
18.21%
9.52%
9.22%
6.31%
3.54%
2.99%
4.25%
4.13%
4.6%
3.97%
3.81%
2.72%
3.36%
3.75%
DATE WOMEN %
2019-12
2018-09
2016-06
2015-07
2014-12
2014-01
2010
2008
2007
2006
2004-11
2003
2002
2001
2000-03
2000
1999
1998
1997
1997-04
1995
216
208
205
192
191
182
172
147
148
142
126
113
104
117
104
105
103
104
81
104
82
27.17%
26.3%
25.63%
24.55%
24.15%
23.36%
22.63%
19.71%
19.73%
18.91%
17.82%
16.69%
14.59%
16.41%
15.62%
15.77%
8.84%
14.59%
7.52%
14.59%
6.83%
TIMELINE 1918: Representation of the People Act 1918: women over 30 only (voting age for men 21). 1928: Full voting equality
with men. Age restriction lowered to 21 and now 18. On 28 December 1918, Constance Georgine Markievicz, known as
Countess Markievicz (1868-1927), was the first woman elected to the UK House of Commons, though she did not take her seat.
The first woman elected to the Commons, Countess Markievicz, was elected in 1918 for the St Patrick’s division of Dublin as a
Sinn Féin member but, in protest against British policy in Ireland, never took her seat. It was ironic that the first woman to do
so, Viscountess Nancy Witcher Astor (1879-1964), who was elected at a by-election on 15 November 1919, had never
campaigned for women’s rights (Robert Rogers, Rhodri Walters, “How Parliament Works”).
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