Remembering the Beginning of the Emancipation and Empowerment of Women The battle for the rights of modern women is thought to have first began in the UK in 1897, when a woman called Millicent Fawcett founded “The National Union of Women’s Suffrage” (“Suffrage” meaning the right to vote). At first this was a peaceful movement, relying on non‐violent protest and awareness campaigns, but progress was slow. In 1903 a new movement was formed by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst called the “Suffragettes”, which used more confrontational methods of protest, unfortunately descending into outright violence and vandalism. By 1914, the cause of women was being greatly eroded by the battle between the Suffragettes and the authorities. However, with the outbreak of war, hostilities were suspended for the sake of patriotism, and events during the war greatly altered how women were viewed by society. In 1915 the British military effort faced a number of crises. The first was the need to increase the size of their army, as the old British regular army consisted of only about 8 divisions, and had in any case been virtually wiped out in the battles for the Marne. Lord Kitchener had undertaken to open the army up to accept volunteer recruits on 7th August 1914. From that date until December 1915, some 2,466,719 men joined the British army. Whilst this solved the army’s manpower problem, it created another. One of the problems brought to light in the fighting of 1914 was the deficiency of heavy guns and munitions of all types available to the British as opposed to the German army, and the poor quality of the munitions that they did have. To this end the Ministry of Munitions was created in May, 1915, and Lloyd George was appointed as Minister of Munitions on 25th May. His task was to create a modern munitions industry capable of answering German industry on the battlefield. However, when he began the task he found, (as a result of the huge numbers of men that had joined the army), that there was an inadequate workforce. So he turned to women, who had to that moment held a very limited place in society confined to a few predetermined roles. Amidst strong opposition from male dominated trades and unions, from that moment women began to take on many more roles in society, basically shouldering the war effort at home, whether they be working in munitions factories, making planes or ships, driving buses etc. (Nearly all belligerents in the conflict had taken this step by the end of the war.) In 1918, 21 years after Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s suffrage, British parliament passed the Representation of the People act, allowing women of property over the age of 30 the right to vote. (Not all women, but the first step towards the day when all women could vote.) Looking at the steps of the historical progression leading to women’s right to vote, whilst they all have equal importance, the one step that made the biggest difference was when Lloyd George discovered he didn’t have enough men to run the home front industry during WW1. From that point on, the empowerment of the modern woman began.