{{Short description|Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom reforming the electoral system}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title = Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928{{efn|Section 8.}}
| type = Act
| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title = An Act to assimilate the franchises for men and women in respect of parliamentary and local government elections; and for purposes consequential thereon.
| year = 1928
| citation = [[18 & 19 Geo. 5]]. c. 12
| territorial_extent = [[United Kingdom]]
| royal_assent = 2 July 1928
| commencement = 2 July 1928{{efn|The [[Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793]].}}
| repeal_date = 1 October 1948
| amends = [[Representation of the People Act 1918]]
| amendments = {{ubli|[[Representation of the People Act 1945]]}}
| related_legislation = 
| repealing_legislation = [[Representation of the People Act 1948]]
| status = Repealed
| original_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/18-19/12/contents/enacted
| use_new_UK-LEG = no
}}

The '''Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928'''<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1928/jul/02/royal-assent#S5CV0219P0_19280702_HOC_422 Hansard, House of Commons, fifth edition, vol 219, col 1035]</ref> ([[18 & 19 Geo. 5]]. c. 12) was an [[Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)|act]] of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]. This act expanded on the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]] ([[7 & 8 Geo. 5]]. c. 64) which had given some women the vote in Parliamentary elections for the first time after [[World War I]]. It is sometimes referred to as the '''Fifth Reform Act'''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Albjerg |first1=Victor Lincoln |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rwEgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22fifth+reform+act%22 |title=Europe from 1914 to the Present |last2=Albjerg |first2=Esther Marguerite Hall |last3=Albjerg |first3=Marguerite Hall |date=1951 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |pages=257 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cole |first=G. D. H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uqp-DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22fifth+reform+act%22&pg=PT12 |title=British Working Class Politics, 1832-1914 |date=2018-12-07 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-82018-2 |language=en}}</ref>

The act widened suffrage by giving women electoral equality with men. It gave the vote to all women over 21 years old, regardless of property ownership. Prior to this act only women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications could vote.

==Passing of the act==
The act was passed by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] without much opposition from other parties.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

The bill became law on 2 July 1928, having been introduced in March. The leader of the [[National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies]] who had campaigned for the vote, [[Millicent Fawcett]], was still alive and attended the parliament session to see the vote take place. She wrote in her diary the same night "It is almost exactly 61 years ago since I heard [[John Stuart Mill]] introduce his suffrage amendment to [[Reform Act 1867|the Reform Bill]] on 20 May 1867. So I have had extraordinary good luck in having seen the struggle from the beginning.”<ref>Millicent Fawcett at the Royal Albert Hall. (2017, 26 juni). The Fawcett Society. https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/blog/millicent-fawcett-royal-albert-hall</ref>

On 5 August 1928, [[Millicent Fawcett]] obtained a letter from the prime minister [[Stanley Baldwin]]. He points out that even though there were obstacles in passing the bill, he always believed it would be ratified in "the simple and complete form it ultimately assumed".<ref name = BaldwinLetter>Baldwin, Stanley. [http://twl-calm.library.lse.ac.uk/CalmView/GetImage.ashx?db=Catalog&type=default&fname=9-01-1194b.jpg Letter to Fawcett, Millicent. 5 Aug. 1928. MS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628052655/https://twl-calm.library.lse.ac.uk/CalmView/GetImage.ashx?db=Catalog&type=default&fname=9-01-1194b.jpg |date=28 June 2022 }}</ref> He finishes the letter by expressing a hope that equal vote would be beneficial for the country and it would serve for the greater good in the United Kingdom.<ref name = BaldwinLetter/>

== Provisions ==

=== Short title, commencement and extent ===
Section 8(1) of the act provided that the act may be cited as the "Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act, 1928" and may be cited as a [[Representation of the People Act]].

Section 8(4) of the act provided that the act would extend to [[Northern Ireland]] so far as it relates to matters with respect to which the Parliament of Northern Ireland have no power to make laws.

==Results==
The act added five million more women to the electoral roll and made women a majority, 52.7%, of the electorate in the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929 general election]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Heater|first1=Derek|title=Citizenship in Britain: A History|date=2006|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |isbn=9780748626724|page=145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=js-qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA145}}</ref> which was termed the "[[Flapper]] Election".<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre1929050600|title=The British General Election of 1929|website=CQ Researcher by CQ Press|date=1929 |doi=10.4135/cqresrre1929050600 |language=en|access-date=2019-01-15}}</ref>

== Subsequent developments ==
The whole act was repealed by section 80(7) of, and the thirteenth schedule to, the [[Representation of the People Act 1948]] ([[11 & 12 Geo. 6]]. c. 65), which came into force on 30 July 1948.<ref>{{Cite legislation UK|act=Representation of the People Act 1948|type=act|year=Geo6/11-12|chapter=65}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Reform Acts]]
* [[Timeline of women's suffrage]]
* [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]]
* [[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Representation of the People Act]]
* [[Suffragette bombing and arson campaign]]
* [[Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Berthezène,  Clarisse, and Julie Gottlieb, eds., ''Rethinking Right-Wing Women: Gender And The Conservative Party, 1880s To The Present'' (Manchester UP, 2018).
* Jarvis, David. "Mrs Maggs and Betty: The Conservative Appeal to Women Voters in the 1920s." ''Twentieth Century British History'' 5.2 (1994): 129–152.
* Thackeray, David. "Building a peaceable party: masculine identities in British Conservative politics, c. 1903–24." ''Historical Research'' 85.230 (2012): 651–673.

== External links ==
* {{UK-LEG|asmade=yes}}
* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/W1928.htm Equal Franchise Act notes on Spartacus Education]
* [http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/unesco/stanley-baldwin-letter/ Parliament UK - Stanley Baldwin to Millicent Fawcett, 1928]
* [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collections/collections-the-vote-and-after/equal-franchise-act-1928/ Image of The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928]

{{UK electoral reform|state=expanded}}
{{Suffrage}}
{{UK legislation}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Representation of the People Act 1928}}
[[Category:United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1928]]
[[Category:Repealed acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Representation of the People Acts]]
[[Category:Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Women's rights legislation]]
[[Category:1928 in women's history]]
[[Category:July 1928 in the United Kingdom]]