A Trailer for `Fight the good fight’ in BRITAIN

 

Remarkable British women

It’s 100 years since a suffragette threw herself in front of the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby – read our 6 facts about the woman who changed British history. Emily Davison was one of many remarkable characters involved in the fight for the vote – just who were these women who dedicated their lives to the noble yet dangerous cause. Read on to discover more.

Did you know?

• Writer Mary Wollstonecraft has been called The Mother of Feminism. She was also the mother of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

• The first woman to vote in a parliamentary election in Britain was the Manchester shopkeeper Lily Maxwell in 1867. Her name was on the voters’ register as a ratepayer and she was cheered at the polling station. This loophole was quickly closed.

• Not all women supported the vote.The ‘Anti- Suffrage League’ said: “We believe in the division of functions as the keystone of civilisation”.

• Women also wanted freedom from their corsets and advocated bloomers and unlaced underwear. Many suffragettes were keen cyclists, believing it was “a woman’s right to dress for an activity”.

• Millicent Fawcett’s National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies is now The Fawcett Society, which continues to campaign for women.