[2][3] At the same time, it extended the local government franchise to include women aged over 30 on the same terms as men.

Thus millions of soldiers returning from World War I would still not have been entitled to vote in the long overdue general election.

Following a discussion on suffrage, a small informal committee was formed to draft a petition and gather signatures, led by women including Barbara Bodichon, Emily Davies, and Elizabeth Garrett.

He argued that the oppression of women was one of the few remaining relics from ancient times, a set of prejudices that severely impeded the progress of humanity.

[10][12] He agreed to present a petition to Parliament, provided it had at least 100 signatures, and the first version was drafted by his step-daughter, Helen Taylor.

[13] The Suffragettes and Suffragists had pushed for their right to be represented prior to the war, but felt too little had changed, despite violent agitation by the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst and the Women's Social and Political Union.

[14] She was frustrated by the resultant age limit, though recognising that there were one and a half million more women than men in the country at the time (due to the loss of life in the First World War), accepted that this would not have wide, cross-party support; many of those in favour of suffrage at the Speaker's Conference still wanted to maintain a male majority.

The Home Secretary, George Cave (Con) within the governing coalition introduced the Act: War by all classes of our countrymen has brought us nearer together, has opened men’s eyes, and removed misunderstandings on all sides.

[21] as Lord Robert Cecil explained shortly after the Act was passed: That is the reason why the age limit of thirty was introduced, in order to avoid extending the franchise to a very large number of women, for fear they might be in a majority in the electorate of this country.

[22]In addition to the suffrage changes, the Act also instituted the present system of holding all voting in a general election on one day, as opposed to being staggered over a period of weeks (although the polling itself would only take place on a single day in each constituency),[19] and brought in the annual electoral register.

[citation needed] The bill for the Representation of the People Act was passed by a majority of 385 to 55 in the House of Commons on 19 June 1917.

[15]: 170  Several women stood for election to the House of Commons in 1918, but only one, the Sinn Féin candidate for Dublin St. Patrick's, Constance Markievicz, was elected; however she followed her party's abstentionist policy and did not take her seat at Westminster and instead sat in the Dáil Éireann (the First Dáil) in Dublin.

[27] The first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons was Nancy Astor on 1 December 1919, who was elected as a Coalition Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton on 28 November 1919.

[8] Although the Representation of the People Act extended the franchise significantly, it did not create a complete system of one person, one vote.