Next year’s celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Britain have been allocated millions of pounds in government funding, in a move that has been both praised and critiqued by women’s rights groups.

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the £5m fund as part of the Spring Budget, BBC News reports. The money will go towards projects and events marking the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave some women - although not all - the vote.

After the passage of the 1918 Act, women could only go to the polls if they were over the age of 30 and met certain property requirements. This meant that more than half of British women did not have a say in who got elected to government.

However, while the legislation was flawed, it was vital in laying the groundwork for the introduction of universal suffrage in 1928, which saw women gain the same voting rights as men.

The 1918 Act, said Hammond, “was the decisive step in the political emancipation of women in this country and this money will go to projects to mark its significance and remind us all just how important it was.”

Votes for women centenary celebrations to receive millions in government funding