2003/03/27 by Patricia M. Thane, Patricia Thane · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Gender Politics and Representation #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · doi:10.1111/1468-2281.00175
openalex publication_date 2003/03/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract This article looks at what has and has not changed in women's lives since they gained the vote. Women are still more prone to poverty than men, especially single mothers and older women, a fact which would have disappointed the suffragists, many of whom saw elimination of poverty as a priority and played a major role in bringing the Welfare State into being. Suffragists did not expect gender equality to follow quickly after getting the vote. They expected – and got – a long, hard struggle. The women's movement was stronger in the nineteen-twenties and thirties than it had ever been and led to an impressive number of legislative changes. Women's activism was more muted after the Second World War, but revived in the nineteen-fifties even before the great wave of feminism after 1968. The spate of legislation which resulted was comparable with that of the nineteen-twenties. It is not enough to examine legislation. The greatest change in women's lives has been due to increased use of birth control from the late nineteenth century. From the nineteen-sixties the Pill has allowed women to delay starting families without sacrificing sexual relationships, and to establish themselves in a career. However, career opportunities for women remain limited, especially in the skilled trades, while divorce and the ‘long hours’ culture since the nineteen-eighties have made it more difficult for women to combine family and career. The historical record suggests that increased gender equality has been achieved only by campaigns, legislation and measures of positive discrimination, not by gradual persuasion.