Beyond the Ballot: Women’s Rights and Suffrage from 1866 to Today Course - Royal Holloway University of London

Explore the campaign for women’s right to vote and its impact on women’s rights and equality to the present day.

Explore the remarkable story of women’s rights and campaign for the vote

6th February 2018 marked the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, the piece of legislation which extended the vote to (some) women for the first time. 14th December 2018 marked the centenary of the first election in which women could then exercise their vote.

Discover how the vote was won, the nineteenth-century background to the campaign and what happened next with Dr Claire Kennan from Royal Holloway and experts from the UK Parliament, The National Archives and the Women’s Library at the LSE.

Syllabus

• Week 1: Women in the Nineteenth Century: Myth, Reality and Pioneers
• Week 2: The Women's Suffrage Campaign
• Week 3: Responses to the Women's Suffrage Campaign
• Week 4: Beyond the Ballot

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

• Available now

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:

• Assess and discuss the social, cultural and legal frameworks that curtailed women’s rights in the nineteenth century and how these were being challenged by a selection of pioneering women.
• Assess and discuss the origins of the women’s suffrage movement and why early attempts to extend the franchise failed.
• Evaluate and discuss why (some) women received the vote in 1918, comparing different arguments and assessing key documents.
• Assess the impact of the struggle for equality since the passage of the Representation of the People Act, comparing the responses of early women MPs and campaigners and wider movements.
• Reflect upon and discuss the role of protest in effecting political change and how Suffragette militancy and the government’s response at the beginning of the 20th century would be classified today.

Who is the course for?

This course is intended for anyone with an interest in nineteenth or twentieth-century history, the women’s suffrage campaign or the history of women’s rights. It does not require any reading before you start or previous experience of studying the subject.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

Royal Holloway, University of London

Queen Victoria presided over the grand opening of Royal Holloway in 1886. Since then the College has continued to grow in size and status to become one of the top research-led institutions in the UK.

UK Parliament

The UK Parliament represents the people of the United Kingdom and makes decisions that affect us all.

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