The Vote at Last

Abstract

The Speaker’s Conference, after some delay, began its meetings on 12 October 1916, and continued twice-weekly sittings throughout the autumn and winter. Its mandate was wide: to bring forward recommendations on everything relating to parliamentary elections and to the local government franchise. The need to prevent one or other interest group of political significance from refusing cooperation ensured that all would have some representation at the conference and all would have to be prepared for some measure of compromise; even so, the makeup of the conference was jealously watched by all factions. No one was chosen for a single reason; starting with a conventional formula based on party affiliation roughly in proportion to representation in Parliament, names were juggled to balance views on other concerns — the soldiers’ vote, proportional representation, and women’s enfranchisement among them. So the women’s vote was only one among a number of possibly contentious issues, but it was given substantial consideration when appointees were selected. Specifically, Sir John Simon and W.H. Dickinson were known Liberal suffragists. The three Labour members were adultists, in accord with the approved policy of their party. Others, particularly among the Unionists, were committed anti-suffragists.