Survey – ‘Women and the Vote’

I conducted an online survey on surveymonkey.com from 15th-17th May 2013, which I publicised via social networking, namely Twitter and Facebook. Although it was open to any British woman under the age of 30, it is likely to have a biased demographic based on my own social networking ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ – mostly university educated women between the ages of 19 and 22. Although I made conscious efforts to expand the demographic to both college-aged students, women in their late twenties, and non-university educated girls, it may be noted the demographic is biased, although it sheds some interesting light on the attitudes of young women today towards voting.

Of a total 100 respondents, the results were as follows

1. How old are you?

Under 12 – 1%

12-15 – 0%

16-18 – 18%

19-22 – 76%

22-25 – 4%

25-30 – 2%

2. Do you vote?

I always vote – 27%

I try to vote regularly – 36%

I rarely vote – 8%

I have never voted – 32%

I’d prefer not to say – 0%

3. I take my right to vote for granted

Strongly Agree – 13%

Agree – 35%

Neutral – 17%

Disagree – 27%

Strongly Disagree – 10%

4. I consider my right to vote, as a woman, to be...

[You may select more than one of the following options]

Permanent – 79%

Temporary – 0%

Recent – 30%

Ancient (we have had it for a long time) – 3%

I don’t really think about my right to vote – 11%

5. As a woman, I don’t really think about my “right” to vote

Strongly Agree – 14%

Agree – 34%

Neutral – 13%

Disagree – 32%

Strongly Disagree – 7%

6. How recently have women obtained the vote? Within the last...

50 years – 26%

100 years – 74%

150 years – 2%

200 years – 0%

250 years – 0%

Longer than 250 years ago – 0%

I don’t know – 0%

7. I value my right to vote

Strongly Agree – 61%

Agree – 32%

Neutral – 4%

Disagree – 2%

Strongly Disagree – 2%

8. Name two suffragettes

Unfortunately the data from this question has been hard to gather, although only 81% chose to answer this question, with 19 people skipping it. Of those who answered, some put ‘don’t know’ or ‘??’ etc., including “not really sure what a suffragette is... Sorry”. The most commonly noted name is Emmeline Pankhurst (just as commonly referred to as Emily Pankhurst as Emmeline, and occasionally as Emiline or Emille Pankhurst). ‘Emily Wilding Davison’, ‘Emily Davison’, or ‘Davison’, made up 42 of the votes, while she also got two mentions as variations of ‘the woman who jumped under the horse’.

Christabel Pankhurst and Sylvia Pankhurst had 12 and 11 mentions respectively, while Millicent Fawcett had 8. Just ‘Pankhurst’ was mentioned 8 times.

Other names that were mentioned were:

Cecilia Pankhurst

Parker

Margaret Bondfield

Dora Thewlis

Susan B Anthony

Emily Dickenson

Frances Parker

Annie Kennedt

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Richardson

Rosa Mary Billinghurst

Annie Kenney

Emily Bronte

Joan Beauchamp

Katharine Russell

Rosa Parks

Emily Parkinson

Florence Nightingale

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Atoine Condonet

Vera Brittain

Lucy Davies

John Stuart Mill

Margaret Thatcher

The mother from Mary Poppins

9. True or false: women died for the right to vote?

Strongly Agree – 55%

Agree – 39%

I don’t know – 8%

Disagree – 0%

Strongly Disagree – 0%

10. Have you heard of Emily Wilding Davison?

Yes, I know who she is – 46%

Yes, her name rings a bell – 21%

I’m not sure – 4%

No, I don’t recognise the name – 16%

No, I’ve never heard of her – 15%