100 years of voting: Britain celebrates suffragettes
LONDON: Thousands of women turned British cities into rivers of green, white and violet on Sunday to mark 100 years since the first women won the right to vote in the UK
Part artwork, part parade, the celebrations, dubbed Processions, saw women march through London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast wearing scarves in the colours of the suffragette movement that fought for the female franchise.
The London march flowed in bands of colour through the heart of the city, along Piccadilly and around Trafalgar Square before heading to Parliament, the seat of British political power.
In 1918, Parliament enacted the Representation of the People Act, which granted propertyowning British women over 30 the right to vote. It would be another decade before women won the same voting rights as men.
Sunday’s celebration was organised by arts group Artichoke, which specialises in large-scale, participatory events. It asked 100 artists to work with women’s groups around the country on banners inspired by the bold designs of the suffragettes, who led a decades-long campaign of protest and civil disobedience to get votes for women.
The London march featured banners from Brownie packs and arts groups, an organization for female ex-prisoners and the Worshipful Company of Upholders, an upholsterers’ guild. Some participants dressed as Edwardian suffragettes or wore sashes in green, white or violet.
One woman had knitted a pendant with the suffragette slogan “Deeds not words.” Another came with a banner evoking the modern-day women’s movement: “Nevertheless she persisted”.
Women came from across England and even further afield to take part.
Asma Shami from Lahore, Pakistan, said she rearranged her visit to Britain so she could attend the march and celebrate women’s progress.
“It’s so energising,” she said. “We’ve come a long way, and we have a long way still to go.”
Votes for British women were won through a combination of the militant suffragettes and their more law-abiding sisters, the suffragists. A statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett was recently erected in Parliament Square, the first on the site to commemorate a woman.