Women’s vote pioneer at home in city school
SUFFRAGETTE STATUETTE IS PROUDLY ON DISPLAY AT
A CITY school is the proud new home of a sculpture of pioneering city suffragette Alice Hawkins.
New College Leicester was presented with the bust by city MP Liz Kendall and Peter Barratt, the greatgrandson of Alice Hawkins
The school earned the honour after Year 10 student Gracie Miller won an essay competition run by Leicester City Council.
The event, on Friday, also marked the end of New College’s Parliament Week.
This included a presentation to the student parliament from Ms Kendall, the MP for Leicester West, in which she spoke about her role and the importance of democracy and the work of Parliament.
Mr Barratt provided an overview of his great-grandmother’s role in the suffragette movement, her contribution to equality and her involvement with Parliament.
Alice (1863 – 1946), pictured, was a prominent suffragette who fought for Votes For Women - the right to vote in public elections, known as women’s suffrage.
A statue of her stands in Green Dragon Square in Leicester.
Leicester City Council’s Poetry competition sought to find a deserving school to become custodians of a unique piece of artwork produced by Liverpool sculptor Philip Garrett, which was donated to the Alice Hawkins Legacy Group.
The brief was to write a short essay about how the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) relate to the achievements and goals of Alice Hawkins.
Each essay began with: “Thinking about Alice’s life and the Sustainable Development Goals, I think our school should have the bust of Alice because...”.
Sera Shortland, head of citizenship at the college, said: “It was fantastic to welcome Liz Kendall and an actual relative of Alice Hawkins to our school to celebrate Gracie’s achievement.
“It was great for our student parliament to be able to meet a real MP who was able to explain more about the valuable work they do for our community.
“It is an honour for our school to become custodians of this sculpture, which honours Alice’s legacy for activism towards equality. Winning the essay competition has inspired us to design a corridor of outstanding women leaders for change.
“Alice Hawkins takes centre stage but also a Year 10 student has created artwork of Baroness Doreen Lawrence, mother of the late Stephen Lawrence, and British activist Amika George to sit alongside Alice as more recent great British women.
“The artist will also receive a certificate of appreciation for her hard work and fantastic artwork.”