ABSTRACT
Emmeline Pankhurst's death in 1928 occurred just as the British electoral system reached full democracy. In April of that year the government had lowered the voting age for women from 30 to 21 and placed them on the same straightforward residence qualification as men. The House of Lords had approved the Equal Franchise Bill as she lay dying; royal assent to the Bill was given on the day of her funeral. ‘One adult, one vote’ had more or less been attained, except for the half a million people who had a second vote through a business and university franchise. Another 5 million women were added to the electoral register. In a letter to Nancy Astor, Eleanor Rathbone felt ‘a little sad at the coincidence between Mrs Pankhurst's death and the final stages of the Franchise Bill’. 1
