Speaker(s): Rachel Holmes | On the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, Rachel Holmes remembers and reflects on the roles of revolutionary thinking and militancy in winning votes for women. The complacency of hindsight leads many in modern Britain to believe universal suffrage and votes for women to have been obvious and inevitable. The length and difficulty of the struggle and the vital roles of revolutionary thinking and militancy is almost airbrushed from our history. Rachel Holmes is Sylvia Pankhurst’s most recent biographer. Anne Phillips is the Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government The Ralph Miliband Programme (@RMilibandLSE) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry.