Sex and the Suffragette

This year marks a hundred years since the first steps were taken towards women’s access to democracy. In 1918, after more than twenty years of organised action, women over the age of thirty who owned property, female graduates voting in their university constituency, and female members of government, were trusted with the vote. It took a further ten years of continued organised pressure before all women were considered capable of engaging in the democratic process. Many different tactics were used to win the vote including: protest marches, hunger strikes, and the damage of property. Lesser known, however, is the suffragette’s engagement with the science of sexology.

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