As the “home of ideas worth fighting for”, the People’s History Museum in Manchester celebrates the extraordinary achievements of ordinary people. One of the ideas that people have fought for is suffrage for women.
The legacy of the suffragettes is very obvious in our exhibitions; we tell the story of their campaign, the methods they used, the banners, sashes and other items they created to spread the word and to raise money for their campaign. And as we acknowledge their achievements and the change they affected.
But the suffragette legacy is also very apparent in the world around us – and also, at times, a reminder that there is still much work to be done.
2013 has represented a milestone in our commemoration of the suffragette legacy and our exploration of feminism today. In Manchester we have launched Wonder Women, a commemoration of the suffragette movement born in our city and a rallying cry for national and international feminist debate.
It is a city-wide, collaborative project with events, debate, music and art that asks how far we’ve come in 100 years – and how far we have yet to go.
Wonder Women is a five-year initiative taking us to 2018, when it will be 100 years since women won the partial right to vote. We are using it as an umbrella for a lot of activity already happening in our museums and as an opportunity to curate and commission new content and develop new events.
Wonder Women in 2013 provided a banner for many different museums, galleries and other cultural organisations to get involved in telling the story of women from the past who achieved so much, while celebrating the lives of women today and raising awareness of contemporary issues in the UK and around the world.
In its first season, 17 organisations and 42,000 people took part in a month-long programme of events.
Events included walking tours, Women in Science events at Manchester Museum and a programme of Spanish feminist films at the Cornerhouse. Manchester Art Gallery also marked 100 years since a suffragette protest smashed the glass on paintings.
We found a strong public appetite for events such as these, which is reflected in national movements such as No More Pg3, Women on banknotes, the everyday sexism project and features such as a recent piece on the suffragette legacy on BBC Radio 4's Woman’s Hour.
In 2014 we will continue to explore these themes with a conference in Manchester as part of International Women’s Day that brings together academics, artists, politicians and activists to present and speak about how their work today is affected by the suffragette legacy of feminism.
The conference will encourage people to think about what the suffragettes did for them and what this means for them in the context of the world today – how they can play their part in keeping the momentum alive and not waste the sacrifices people made in the past.
Submissions are invited in a wide number of formats – academic papers, feminist theory, dance, music, performance, poetry etc. Papers can be submitted until 15 October and you can find out more by emailing suffragetteevent@gmail.com.
Katy Archer is the director of the People’s History Museum in Manchester. More information can events can be found on the Wonder Women blog and on Creative Tourist.
The legacy of the suffragettes is very obvious in our exhibitions; we tell the story of their campaign, the methods they used, the banners, sashes and other items they created to spread the word and to raise money for their campaign. And as we acknowledge their achievements and the change they affected.
But the suffragette legacy is also very apparent in the world around us – and also, at times, a reminder that there is still much work to be done.
2013 has represented a milestone in our commemoration of the suffragette legacy and our exploration of feminism today. In Manchester we have launched Wonder Women, a commemoration of the suffragette movement born in our city and a rallying cry for national and international feminist debate.
It is a city-wide, collaborative project with events, debate, music and art that asks how far we’ve come in 100 years – and how far we have yet to go.
Wonder Women is a five-year initiative taking us to 2018, when it will be 100 years since women won the partial right to vote. We are using it as an umbrella for a lot of activity already happening in our museums and as an opportunity to curate and commission new content and develop new events.
Wonder Women in 2013 provided a banner for many different museums, galleries and other cultural organisations to get involved in telling the story of women from the past who achieved so much, while celebrating the lives of women today and raising awareness of contemporary issues in the UK and around the world.
In its first season, 17 organisations and 42,000 people took part in a month-long programme of events.
Events included walking tours, Women in Science events at Manchester Museum and a programme of Spanish feminist films at the Cornerhouse. Manchester Art Gallery also marked 100 years since a suffragette protest smashed the glass on paintings.
We found a strong public appetite for events such as these, which is reflected in national movements such as No More Pg3, Women on banknotes, the everyday sexism project and features such as a recent piece on the suffragette legacy on BBC Radio 4's Woman’s Hour.
In 2014 we will continue to explore these themes with a conference in Manchester as part of International Women’s Day that brings together academics, artists, politicians and activists to present and speak about how their work today is affected by the suffragette legacy of feminism.
The conference will encourage people to think about what the suffragettes did for them and what this means for them in the context of the world today – how they can play their part in keeping the momentum alive and not waste the sacrifices people made in the past.
Submissions are invited in a wide number of formats – academic papers, feminist theory, dance, music, performance, poetry etc. Papers can be submitted until 15 October and you can find out more by emailing suffragetteevent@gmail.com.
Katy Archer is the director of the People’s History Museum in Manchester. More information can events can be found on the Wonder Women blog and on Creative Tourist.
