TFL apologises after sexist suffragette joke
TRANSPORT for London has apologised after a sign joking that suffragette Emily Davison’s husband “didn’t get his tea” was put up at one of its stations.
Evelyn Clegg, 30, tweeted a photo of a sign she saw at Colliers Wood Station on Wednesday morning, just a day after the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, calling on TFL to remove it.
The sign read: “100 years ago, suffragette Emily Davison died after throwing herself in front of the King’s horse. History remembers her as being influential in giving women the right to vote. What history doesn’t remember is her husband, who didn’t get his tea that night!”
Ms Clegg said she was “furious” when she saw the sign. “Like a lot of people, yesterday I was celebrating 100 years of the first women getting the vote, and in fact spent yesterday evening at an event celebrating the suffragettes and modern feminists,” she said. “After such a positive and inspiring day, to see that sign this morning was an unpleasant shock and reminded me how far we have to go until women are taken as seriously as men.”
TFL responded to Evelyn’s tweet swiftly, saying it would speak to the station and have the sign removed.
She said: “I’m pleased with TFL’S response, which was quick and correct.
“Yesterday was a day for celebration of these brave women, and this sign is so disappointing in its recycling of lazy sexist jokes.”
A TFL spokesperson said: “This message was wrong and inappropriate in multiple ways … An investigation is under way in to who thought this was a good idea, and the appropriate action will be taken.”