How the Vote Was Won

How the Vote Was Won

“How the Vote Was Won” A play, co-written by Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) and Christopher St. John (1871-1960), and performed for the first time at the Royalty Theatre, London, in April of 1909. Hamilton was a British author and playwright whose works advocated women’s rights. St. John, formerly Christabel Marshall, was an author, also involved in the suffrage movement. The play is a one-act comedy written in support of women’s suffrage in Britain. The play opens in the living room of Horace and Ethel Cole of Brixton, London, on the day of a general women’s strike organized by Suffragettes. The strike is in response to the Government’s stance that women do not need to vote because the men in their family already take care of them. This prompts women who have previously been supporting themselves, independent of men, to agree to leave their jobs and homes and seek out the support of their nearest male relative. As Horace’s female relatives begin arriving at his home, one after the other, he comes to realize that something must be done, and he rushes to Parliament, along with all the other men in London, to demand “Votes for Women” as soon as possible.