To Procession women

are working together, they have a sense of community and learning the history of what has gone before you, what has changed but what needs to change in future.

“It’s been 100 years and while things have improved there are still things that we need to look at in terms of inequality and things that need to be raised and addressed. I see [tomorrow] as a marker and a chance to reflect on what has happened and what needs to happen next.

“There is going to be a great sense of people coming together.

“It’s always great to have this kind of event for people to see. This is a national event and it will be really exciting to see people all together. It will be really powerful.”

Sarah Cole is the producer of Processions.

She says the point of this weekend’s event is to bring women together.

“Equality and sisterhood is at the heart of Processions and I look forward to seeing the procession form of strangers coming together in support of progress, strength and cultural representation among women.

“The historical significance of Processions is incredible and something that I hope will draw generations, groups of friends and family together. As a woman in the modern world, we stand on the shoulders of those women who created this liberation for us.

“It’s difficult to believe that just one hundred years ago real women died to give us the democratic rights that we have today and we mustn’t let them be forgotten.”

It’s easy to forget the sacrifices the women made a hundred years ago.

Listening to interviews with women who took part in 1908, they report being heckled and abused. The press was also not sympathetic to their cause.

But the suffragettes were savvy to get their message out. They were renowned for publicity stunts. Many of their arson attacks were not to injure but to get headlines.

They made postcards out of images of them chained to prison gates. They knew how to sabotage their prison mugshots so the authorities couldn’t use them as propaganda. Their banners got them attention.

Cardiff is one of four cities taking part tomorrow. The city has its own proud links with suffrage.

Formed in June 1908, one of the first marches they took part in was the 1908 march in London.

One of the banners carried was by the newly-formed Cardiff and District Women’s Suffrage Society.

As they returned home that day, police stopped their coach.

They took all “propaganda” and burnt it in a field. Only one item escaped, the banner which featured the red dragon.

Irene Protheroe had hidden the banner in her clothes and brought it back with her.

It is now proudly held by National Museum Wales.

When they started, the Cardiff group had a membership of 70. It became the largest branch outside London in 1912-13.

Its membership peaked at 1,200 when World War One broke out.

The branch’s co-founder was Millicent Mackenzie who became the first female professor in Wales.

During their workshops, the history of the women who fought in Wales has been discussed and passed on.

Tash Middleton, who runs Sew Swansea and will walk with the banner her group has made, explains: “Most of the women hadn’t heard of Greenham Common and then they found out that Welsh women were behind it.

“It was nice learning that link and sharing a bit of our history.” The same is true for Sahar. “We are celebrating the achievements of women who fought for our rights to vote in Britain in a very historic achievement.

“They sacrificed their families, children and relationships,” she said.

But there is another reason her group wants to be part of Processions. Even now, in 2018, there are still countries around the world where women don’t have the vote.

“Muslim majority countries like Saudi Arabia, women don’t have the right to vote. It’s mainly for political, not religious, reasons, but it’s a movement we need to be part of.

“This is a global movement we’re part of.

“It is 100 years since the first women got the vote, but there’s still a lot of inequality faced by women.

“For me, Processions is an opportunity to celebrate that achievement, but also to tell the world that we live in times of inequality.

“There is the gender gap, having diversity in the workplace still needs to be tackled.”

There is an image from a different march in 1911 of Indian women, some in saris taking part in a suffrage march. But Sumita Mukherjee, a historian of the British Empire, has said there were few women of colour.

“There were very few women of colour who were involved with the movement and that is primarily because British suffrage campaigners did not think about including women of colour into conversations and debates around citizenship and the right to participate in the democratic structures of the nation.”

That is still something of concern to women from ethnic minorities today.

“We really can’t have white women speaking on behalf of all women. It’s important to mainstream women of colour and to appreciate that we’re part of this global movement and also important for me because we have many personal stories of people who have fears and hopes and concerns which we can actually discuss and explain.

“I am looking at Processions as a way to tell other women my story and understanding their stories too,” said Sahar.

These groups of 21st-century Welsh women are carrying on what the women who walked before us did – a legacy of unity and learning.