By Angellica Bell
One hundred years ago today, British women were given a voice.
For the first time, many mothers, daughters and sisters could have a say in how their country was run.
Back then, suffragettes up and down the country would stop at almost nothing to get their voices heard in parliament.
The struggle to win the vote was long and arduous, but in 1918 these brave women won.
Since then, women around the world have channelled the suffragette spirit to campaign for progress.
They have stood up to racism, sexism, homophobia, corruption and much more.
Last century’s suffragettes are today’s women human rights defenders. Every day they harness their passionate voices to empower communities and create a fairer world. Amnesty International campaigns to help protect women human rights defenders around the world.
These brave campaigners often face surveillance, intimidation, threats, imprisonment and some even risk their lives.
But you don’t need to travel thousands of miles to meet women fighting for justice and equality. In fact, there’s probably a woman human rights defender living at your doorstep.
This is why Amnesty and newspaper wants readers to nominate the incredible women who are making a real difference in their local area.
Ordinary women from all walks of life – from students to shopkeepers, office workers to OAPs – are doing extraordinary things.
They might have stood up to bullies, helped the homeless, aided refugees, worked to protect the environment or campaigned for better access to healthcare. The list goes on.
Every time these women have spoken up, they’ve helped make life better for others - to ensure that you and I, as well future generations, enjoy a fairer, more equal world. The amazing achievements of these often-unsung heroes deserve to be celebrated, and Amnesty wants to put them on its Suffragette Spirit Map of Britain.
The interactive map, which will launch on International Women’s day, will be a symbol of the suffragette legacy – proudly displaying how far we have come over the past century, but highlighting how much life-changing work is still being carried out today.
So, over to you: Which 21st century suffragette deserves to be put firmly on the map?
HOW TO NOMINATE
To nominate an amazing woman your local area, please visit www.amnesty.org.uk/suffragettespirit . All women must have carried out work to help others their local area within the last 10 years. All successful nominees will be contacted to give consent prior to being placed on the Suffragette Spirit Map of Britain. This campaign has been funded by People’s Postcode Lottery.
What was a suffragette?
Before 1918 women had almost no role in British politics – they didn’t even have the right to vote.
A woman’s role was domestic, encompassing little outside having children and takingcare of the home.
The suffragettes changed this. The 19th century was an era of massive change.
The Industrial Revolution and numerous reforms, including the abolition of slavery in 1833, saw society changed forever.
Women did see some progress – in 1859 the first female doctor was registered, in 1878 women could graduate from university, and in 1882 women were allowed to keep inherited property and wages. But they still couldn’t vote. Campaigns for women’s rights, including the right to vote, started around the mid-19thcentury, after Mary Smith delivered the first women’s suffrage petition to parliament in 1832. But it wasn’t really until 1897, when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, that the campaign for women’s suffrage really gained momentum.
These campaigners were known as suffragists and they believed debate, petitions and peaceful protest were the keys to success.
But the suffragists failed to get results, and many campaigners decided a more militant approach was required.
In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst, and her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia, set up the Women’s Political and Social Union in Manchester with its slogan ‘deeds not words’.
These women became known as suffragettes and soon made headlines up and down the country.
Suffragettes were a shock to Edwardian society.
They interrupted political meetings, chained themselves to railings, yelled while waving banners emblazoned with ‘VOTES FOR WOMEN’, were regularly arrested, went on hunger strike, cut phone lines and one, Emily Davidson, even threw herself under a horse to get the suffragette message heard.
But the suffragettes’ fight paid off. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed, giving women over the age of 30, and who owned a certain amount of property, the right to vote.
It would be a further 10 years until the vote was extended to all women, when the Equal Franchise Act was passed, but it was a major step in the right direction.Angellica Bell
