A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War by Patricia Fara review – trailblazing feminists

From scientists to weapons testers to doctors - bringing to life the formidable female pioneers who helped win the war and the vote

One hundred years ago next month, on 6 February 1918, women working in hospitals, laboratories and universities throughout Britain raised toasts and burst into triumphal song as they celebrated being given the vote.

Before the first world war, many of these doctors, scientists and academics had been impassioned suffragists and even militant suffragettes who marched on parliament and smashed windows in support of votes for women. On the outbreak of war they had immediately hung up their banners and laid down their missiles to devote their expertise to fighting the common enemy. The government's decision to award the vote to women over 30 - the rest would have to wait another 10 years - was widely regarded as a reward for women's war work.