Comparison of the lives of European women before and after the First World WarThe First World War was a turning point in world history. Considered the Great War, World War I ultimately changed the socio-political course for most people, and especially the lives of European women. In her speech delivered in London in 1908 and aptly titled “The Importance of the Vote,” Emmeline Pankhurst paints a picture of the pre-war era, when women did not have the right to suffrage in Britain. This compassionate speech describes how women's rights were considered second to men's. Pankhurst's advocacy for women's suffrage rights demonstrated a greater concern for human rights as she believed that women voters would be able to help solve social injustices such as poverty. In The Autobiography of a Sexually Empowered Communist Woman, Alexandra Kollontai explores the post-World War I gains through which women exercised more power in the socio-political scene. Pankhurst and Kollontai's accounts highlight the differences between pre-war and post-war times. In his speech, Pankhurst notes that “In this country they tell us we have representative government. As for women…you have a despotic government for women (p. 34).” Comparing so-called representative government to a tyrannical one, Pankhurst painted a picture of a government that did not care about the interests of women, but whose primary concern was promoting issues that affected them. For women's issues to be represented effectively, women needed the right to suffrage. They needed to hold political offices to influence the legislative process. Women could no longer be fooled by the empty talk of the reformists. A change was inevitable. It was time for men and women to be treated on equal terms. Life before the First World War presented great challenges for European women. In