‘Altering opinions harder than getting vote’
A CENTURY ago, they secured votes for women with eloquent campaigning and shock tactics such as hunger strikes and, in the case of Emily Davison, dying for their cause.
Now the legacy of the suffragettes is to be honoured by Vogue magazine as it names its own “Suffragettes for the 21st century”.
Seven campaigners, bloggers, artists and politicians have been selected in recognition of the “fight to empower women in the battle for equality that rages on”. And one has gone so far as to declare the struggle to change “people’s inner stereotypes of women” even harder than fighting for the vote.
Vogue yesterday released a striking image of the women under the headline: “Meet the New Suffragettes”, with a double-page article in the February magazine dedicated to their causes. The suffragettes include politicians Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, and Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party.
They are joined by Gillian Wearing, the artist, who designed a statue of Millicent Fawcett for Parliament Square; Liv Little, founder of online magazine gal-dem “by women of colour for everyone”; and Paris Lees, a transgender awareness campaigner. The lineup is completed by Dina Torkia, a fashion blogger, and Reni Eddo-lodge, author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race.
In a series of interviews about equality, each was asked to discuss “the changes that would improve the lives of women and what the next hundred years will hold”.
The article is published in the third issue of Vogue under its new editor Edward Enninful, who has pledged to reflect the full diversity of Britain in his pages.
Wearing, whose work will become the first female statue to stand on a pedestal in Parliament Square made by the first woman to create one, told the magazine: “Fawcett was all about dialogue. And it worked – she spent six decades getting women the vote. But it took a lot of work!
“The Guerrilla Girls [anonymous artists fighting sexism in the art world] campaigned, and people kept counting, compiling statistics over 10 years.
“Now Maria Balshaw is running the Tate, things should change further.
“The hard thing today is overcoming the psychology – this prejudice goes deep. We need to change people’s inner stereotypes of women. And, that’s harder than fighting for the vote.”
Creasy used her platform to discuss women in politics, and the sexual harassment scandal of recent months.
“Women should be believed, because coming forward about harassment is hard,” she said.
“I see the pressure to close down the debates, to say systems are in place, but if so, they’re not working.”
Referring to the American technology executive who argues women must break down barriers by “leaning in” to leadership positions, Creasy added: “I’m the anti-sheryl Sandberg. For me it’s not about leaning in. It’s about building an army.
“Progress can happen. My mistake was thinking that it would be easy… Women are set up to fail.
“We can never be thin, curvy, clever, kind enough. But I’m impatient to change the world.”
The full interview is published in the February issue of Vogue, out today.