Lots of men in the UK couldn’t vote before World War One, either (Picture: Getty)
On July 4, both men and women will be going to the polls for a General Election.
The Suffragettes’ campaign for women to get the right to vote in the UK is world famous, but did you know that many men were restricted from voting even as late as 1918?
Before the Representation of the People Act passed that year as World War One concluded, only 58% of the adult male population was eligible to vote.
This low percentage was due to the fact that only men who were over 30, owned property, and had been resident in the country for 12 months prior to a General Election were entitled to vote.
This deprived a large number of troops, who had been serving overseas in the war, the right to vote at the time.
Men and women over 18 now have the right to vote, with certain exemptions (Picture: Getty)
However, with a general election looming, this was all changed as the 1918 Representation of the People Act persuaded politicians to extend the vote to all men and some women.
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The act exponentially increased the voting numbers as it abolished the property restrictions for men. Crucially, the act extended the vote to all men over the age of 21 and furthermore, men in the armed forces could vote from the age of 19.
The act allowed some women over the age of 30 to vote if they owned a home or were married to someone who did, with the exact wording that being that they ‘occupied premises of a yearly value of not less than £5’. This change was made thanks to the suffrage movement and the great work women carried out during the First World War.
As a result, the voting numbers increased from eight million to 21 million.
But it was not until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 that women over 21 were able to vote.
When did the voting age change to 18?
In 1969, the voting system was changed to enable people to vote over the age of 18.
The Representation of the People Act 1969 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, with effect from 1970.
This remained in force until the Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013, which allowed 16-year-olds to vote for the first time, but only in Scotland.
In Wales, registered 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds can vote politicians to the Senedd and in local elections.
To vote for the UK parliament, people must be either a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland.
Prisoners serving a sentence for a conviction cannot vote, and neither can peers in the House of Lords.
MORE : When did women get the vote and when did the voting age lower from 30?
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