Suffragettes, Significant Women and Manchester
Johnny James, Managing Editor
On 13 October 1905, the Suffragettes raised their first ‘Votes for Women’ banner at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. They demanded to know whether any of the speakers – one of them a young politician named Winston Churchill – would grant women the vote. This epic moment in the fight for equal rights is one of many heroic events marked on this guided tour around buildings and landmarks where women fought for representation.
The Pankhurst family, Lydia Becker, Annie Kenney and many, many more heroines of the female suffrage movement in Manchester are commemorated on this Jonathan Schofield walking tour, from Ann Lee ‘the bride of Christ’, through Ann Band, Elizabeth Raffald, Mary Fildes, Elizabeth Gaskell and Shena Simon.
Naturally, Emmeline Pankhurst is a central figure. The unconventional Emmeline inherited her parents’ radicalism and, after a failed love affair in Paris, married the much older Manchester lawyer, Richard Pankhurst, a committed socialist. While Richard died suddenly in 1898, Emmeline, a member of the Independent Labour Party, and now a single parent, never relented.
In 1903, frustrated by the lack of constitutional progress made by the existing female suffrage movement – which had been led by another remarkable Mancunian, Lydia Becker – Emmeline set up the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in her home on Nelson Street.
After the ‘Votes for Women’ banner was raised in the Free Trade Hall, two members of the Union – Annie Kenney and Emmeline’s daughter, Christabel – were arrested. But their actions marked a turning point in the Suffragette movement, which led to women over 30 getting the vote in 1918. Women over 21 gained the right in 1928 – finally giving them voting equality with men.
It’s only fitting that in 2018, Emmeline Pankhurst was honoured with a statue in Manchester, depicting her leading the charge for women’s rights, standing on a chair as her rostrum. This statue will be just one of many stop on this walking tour, during which your knowledgeable and experienced guide will bring to vivid life the actions of exceptional women in the Manchester Suffragette story.
