Colourful march as UK celebrates suffragettes
LONDON: Thousands of women gathered yesterday to turn British cities into rivers of green, white and violet to mark 100 years since women won the right to vote.
Part artwork, part parade, “Processions” saw women march through London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast clad in the colours of the suffragette movement that fought for women’s right to vote.
The London march went through the heart of the city, turning Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square into rivers of colour before ending at Parliament.
In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted property-owning British women over 30 the right to vote. It would be another decade before other British women won the same voting rights as men.
The event was organised by the 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 protests and civil disobedience to get the vote for women.
Some marchers dressed as Edwardian suffragettes, or wore sashes in green, white or violet. Artichoke director Helen Marriage said enthusiasm for the project was infectious. “A craft shop in London told us they’d run out of purple and green tassels, and they didn’t know why,” she said.
The mood was celebratory but 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.
Suffragettes defied the law, went on a hunger strike, broke windows and even set off bombs in pursuit of their goal.
“They were really extraordinary people,” Marriage said. “Many went to 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.
The suffragettes and their legacy remain more controversial.
“They were quite anarchic,” said artist Quill Constance. “They had to really fight. I think they’re here today in spirit, and we’re giving them high fives,” she said.