Marchers celebrate 100 years of women’s vote

Thousands of women have turned British cities into rivers of green, white and violet to mark 100 years since the first women won the right to vote in the UK.

Part artwork, part parade, ‘‘Processions’’ saw women march through London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast yesterday 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.

The 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 the vote for women.

The London march featured banners from Brownie packs and arts groups, an organisation 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. 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. We’ve come a long way, and we have a long way still to go.’’

The mood was celebratory, but Artichoke director Helen Marriage said the event aimed to draw attention to what remains to be done to achieve equality, from closing the gender pay gap to ending workplace sexual harassment.

It also hoped to erase any notion of the suffragettes as prim campaigners from a more polite age. They defied the law, went on hunger strike, broke windows and even set off bombs in pursuit of their goal. ‘‘They were really extraordinary people,’’ Marriage said. ‘‘A thousand of them went to prison. They were force-fed in prison. In today’s terms they would be described as terrorists.’’

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. – AP

AP Women from Wokingham, join thousands of people marching through the streets to celebrate 100 years since women were granted the vote, in London.