Feminist media scholars have been analyzing the depiction of women politicians in political news for several decades, but for some reason the portrayal of female citizens has elicited considerably less attention, which this chapter will go some way towards correcting. This lack of research is troubling because normative theories about the role of media in democratic societies hold that journalists have a responsibility to inform citizens about electoral politics, so it is crucial to analyze how news media position and describe women voters and their political priorities. The UK press started off on mixed footing in this regard, as the newspapers at the beginning of the twentieth century were much divided over the issue of women's suffrage. Newspapers such as the Daily Herald were mostly supportive of the aims of the suffrage campaigners. Other papers like the Daily News, however, disapproved of the tactics adopted by the Women's Social and Political Union in particular, but were sympathetic to the principle of voting rights for women (Bingham, 2004). The Daily Mail famously labelled the more militant members of the movement ‘the suffragettes’, a pejorative term which they adopted in defiance (Bingham, 2004). Eventually, though, women's enormous contribution to the war effort was thought to have persuaded even the sceptical newspapers to support the call for their enfranchisement in 1918 (Melman, 1988; Bingham, 2004).

When only married women or women who owned property were granted the right to vote in Westminster elections in 1918, the campaign to equalize the franchise was less well received by some newspapers. Individual sections of the press, particularly those owned by Lord Rothermere, were particularly hostile towards the campaign (Bingham, 2002). Despite this opposition, women gained full voting equality in 1928 (Cowman, 2010). This was something of a watershed moment in political campaigning in the UK. Even though women had been actively involved in political parties for many years, the enfranchisement of women meant that political parties had to appeal directly to women voters for the first time (Jarvis, 1994; Beers, 2010). As a result, the press also needed to reflect the needs of women in their political coverage. The importance of this task remains undiminished one hundred years on.