Nineteenth-century reform of the Manx electoral franchise which admitted women to voting in elections for the House of Keys.

The first elected House of Keys was created in 1866, but the franchise remained restricted. Further reform followed through the House of Keys Election Act 1881.

A contemporary constitutional note records that the 1881 Act based the franchise on ownership or tenancy of real estate of at least £4 annual rateable value, together with certain lodger qualifications. Under the ownership qualification, unmarried women were admitted as voters.

The Keys had proposed that the tenancy qualification should also extend to women, but the Legislative Council did not accept that part of the measure. Women’s enfranchisement was therefore real but limited by both marital status and the property basis of the franchise.

The reform was closely associated with Richard Sherwood, member of the Keys for Glenfaba from 1869. A later Manx biographical account describes him as the introducer of female suffrage and also credits him with the Ballot Act and other electoral reforms.

The 1881 settlement did not produce universal adult suffrage. It extended the vote to a defined class of women within an electoral system still based heavily on property qualifications.