Women's right to vote

On 10 October 1903, the Women's Social and Political Union - its members soon became known as the suffragettes declared that the situation with regards to women having no right to vote was so serious it would have to take action.

Women began chaining themselves to railings, and within five years the campaign had extended to smashing windows. In Parliament, pressure for change was led by some liberal MPs, who were the leading figures in a suffrage committee.

But away from the reasoned debate of Westminster, prisons filled with women prepared to go to jail for the right to vote. The civil disobedience continued behind bars, with many women force-fed to prevent them hunger striking.

While the authorities tried to present them as insane, their families campaigned for the inmates to be given political status, including the right to wear their own clothes, study and prepare their own food.

By 1918, no government could resist and the Representation of the Peoples Act allowed women over 30 the right to vote. It would take a further 10 years to abolish the age qualification and put men and women on an equal footing.