Women in Parliament
August 2018
In July I went to 2 Suffragette events. The first was called Voice and Vote – Women’s Place in Parliament. This is a free exhibition in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament.
It told the story of how the Suffragist and Suffragette movement started. There were lots of rare and previously unseen historic objects, pictures and archives from the Parliamentary collections and elsewhere on show. Some of the original items include the Proclamation for Votes for Women, medals awarded to Suffragette hunger strikers and copies of several Acts including the 1918 Act and the lesser known 1928 Act which finally brought suffrage to all adult women and men.
I was in there for nearly 2 hours. It was well worth a trip. It makes you think about our “democracy” which is trumpeted around the world. It is all so recent, yet you would think Britain had been a democracy for centuries listening to the TV. You would also think that democracy and voting was given to the people in a decent, paternal and civilised manner by the powers that be.
My mum was born in 1928 which is the year all “ordinary people” got the vote so it doesn't seem that long ago to me. Go back just 101 years and not one woman had a vote and not that many men either! Furthermore, women had to fight tooth and nail for their rights and were blocked by the established authorities each and every step of the way. Even 90 years after the 1928 Act women have not achieved parity with men. Men are paid more for doing the same jobs, men can climb higher up the jobs ladder and the poorest paid workers with the worst conditions are usually women. The recent BBC “revelation” that male presenters are paid more than women was reported almost in an incredulous “How could this still be happening in the 21st century?” style as though the unequal treatment of women was something that had been dealt with and was all done and dusted some years back. There is still a long way to go.
You might like to visit statue erected to honour Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square and/or the Pankhurst’s statue in Victoria Tower Gardens.
The second event was a walk given by Rachel Kolsky. The walk was called Women of Westminster and was a 90 minute tour talking about Suffragettes and other famous women connected with Westminster. It is well worth going on this. There is no talk advertised at the moment but I daresay Rachel will do others at some time. See here for more details, more walks and costs.
I should add 2 things 1) I don’t know Rachel and receive nothing for advertising this and 2) the tour I went on is a bit women-orientated. I was the token man amongst a dozen women. When I arrived at the meeting point, one woman said in a good-humoured, mock surprised manner “But you are a man!”. I nodded. I think it was my beard that gave it away…