A Pankhurst tells girl power story
The name Pankhurst only means one thing to almost everyone... girl power.
For Helen Pankhurst, greatgranddaughter of Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, her surname was a prompt to find out more about her family and their commitment to women’s rights. When she did, there was no going back.
Pankhurst, who is a women’s rights activist and a senior advisor with the charity CARE International, is the author of Deeds Not Words: The Story of Women’s Rights, Then and Now.
A guest at Boswell Book Festival on May 6, she will talk about the century which has passed since the first women were given the right the vote.
“In the book, I look at key battles around politics, money, identity, violence and culture, and each area is scored,” she says. “At the end of the day, my findings are that gender inequality remains pervasive in all areas of women’s lives.
“I think if Emmeline were alive today she’d be thrilled by some of the changes: girls treated equally with their brothers in many homes, households where parents share responsibilities, women excelling in education, having many more opportunities at work and gaining financial autonomy.
“However, she would also be quick to notice and be appalled by how ingrained attitudes and systems of male privilege remain. She would be horrified to see the abuse that women still experience. The # MeToo hashtag is a reminder of how much has stayed the same.”
But # MeToo and # TimesUp are positive signs, too, she says. “The voices of protest are testament to something in the air that is currently demanding change more loudly than before. ”
Pankhurst is only one of a number of courageous women appearing at the festival.
Jayne- Anne Ghadia, CEO of Virgin Money, has reached the top of the tree in the predominantly male world of banking, a story she tells in her memoir The Virgin Banker. Speaking personally as well as professionally, she will talk about the challenges she has faced both inside and outside the boardroom.
Judy Murray is best known as the mother of two international tennis champions, Jamie and Andy.
But her own story is also one of courage: of winning 64 titles for Scotland in her own tennis career, before becoming a coach to hundreds of children and young people ( including her sons); of daring to be ambitious in a country that “doesn’t do tennis”, and of gradually stepping into the limelight herself to tell her story in her own words.
Jackie Kay’s ready smile captivates her audiences, but she knows plenty about courage too. Her poems in her new collection, ‘ Bantam’, draw on her experience of being mixedrace and adopted, a lesbian and a mother.
As Scotland’s Poet Laureate, or Makar, she calls for a Scotland which is inclusive and supportive, regardless of race, language or gender. Emmeline Pankhurst would raise a glass to them all.
Helen Pankhurst: Sun 6 May / noon; Jayne- Anne Gadhia: Sat 5 May / 1.30pm; Judy Murray: Sat 5 May / 8pm; Jackie Kay: Sat 5 May / 3.30pm.
To booking visit www. boswellbookfestival. co. uk box office on 01573 554 900.