If not upwards then onwards

Posters from the UK general election held on 30 May 1929. Known as the ‘Flapper Election’, it was the first to allow universal suffrage for all adults (aged over 21) due to the Equal Franchise Act (1928). Some women over 30 had gained the vote after the Representation of the People Act (1918), but this still left around a third of Britain’s women disenfranchised.

MPs believed that as women made up a majority of the electorate in the 1929 election, they would decide which party would govern, as reflected by the campaign posters. As it turned out, the election produced a hung parliament, with the Conservatives winning the most votes, Labour winning the most seats in the House of Commons, and the Liberals coming third but holding the balance of power.

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