100 years ago this year the first women in the UK achieved
the vote. The struggle for women’s suffrage was long and arduous, spanning
decades, and with its roots in the campaign to abolish slavery. The fact that only
rich white women over 30 were granted the vote in 1918 spoke less to any
entrenched bigotry in the movement, but far more to the patriarchal elitism
coupled with infantilisation of women of the government of the day. Indeed, so
glacial has the pace been on shifting perceptions of women in wider society, we
are still battling some of the same deeply, deeply erroneous and ingrained
misogynistic views today.
And so this is why, in spite of some murmurs of discomfort,
I believe that it is a wonderful thing to be celebrating such a watershed
moment in women’s history. And so wonderful to have been part of this truly
amazing event put on by Bristol Women’s Voice at City Hall on Saturday 3rd
March 2018, 100 years after women began their journey into public life beyond
the role of monarch, which only one woman at a time could occupy anyway. This
was the start of the recognition of women as human beings in their own right,
and paved the way for increasingly diverse women to enter spheres of power and
influence, assorted careers, and to gain access to a greater variety of life
choices. That there are still barriers, and that we have still not achieved
anything like equality is a given, but let’s not underestimate the huge leaps forward
that the feminist movement has achieved in the last century. And so, with a
gladness in my heart, and surrounded by fabulous people doing all manner of
wondrous things, I began my day of volunteering at the event.
Prior to my first shift on the front desk, I had a chance to
chat to a few stallholders, including some of the women representing the Feminist Archive, a group responsible for
collecting and archiving feminist memorabilia from the women’s movement from
1960 to 2000. We chatted about the work they do, the underground nature of
women’s work and activism, the paucity of women’s history represented in the
mainstream, and especially the history of ordinary women. With my background as
a student and teacher of history, it struck me that I had never reconciled the
two conflicting ideas in my head. I knew that there was little women’s history
available because of, you know, how sexist everyone was in the old days. But
what I was really unable to reconcile was the fact that in a time when all those
battles were fought and won, and when equality had supposedly been achieved,
there were still very few books or lessons on women’s history. It seems that
women’s history, like so much of women’s endeavours in general, are still
barely given a thought. This is one of the reasons why the work of the Feminist
Archive is so valuable. Little girls need to grow up in a world where women’s
achievements, both historically speaking and currently speaking, need to be
spoken of and celebrated.
Then, onto my first stint at the front desk, greeting
event-goers as they entered City Hall with a smile, a programme, and a Suffrage
purple wristband. It was a lot of fun ticking off names and signing people up
to Bristol Women’s Voice, and I was struck
by the diversity of people keen to attend in spite of the snow. Although the
majority of folk at the event were identifying as female, there were plenty of
men and boys too, representing Bristol’s ethnic diversity and age range, as
well as people with disabilities. I enjoyed a laugh and a joke with the event
attendees, and my fumbling attempts to get wristbands on without trapping arm
hairs certainly lent some unintentional comedy to proceedings. I also really
enjoyed chatting with my fellow front desk volunteers. Some were as young as
eleven or twelve, and doing an astonishingly assured job of it! And a kind
fellow volunteer who responded to my hunger pangs with a timely yoghurt covered
rice cake deserves a mention too!
So, a quick dash off for lunch and then back to the exciting
task of being a roving reporter for the day. Thus followed a hectic ten minutes
or so where I bumped into lots of familiar faces, and even had some time to
interview one or two, including Carly Lightbown, who organised the first
Bristol Women’s March in 2017, an event so big that it even got a mention in political scientist Cynthia Enloe’s The Big Push. She has
also coordinated the setting up of Bristol’s Female Empowerment Network or FEN, which is an online community of some 6-700
people who are interested in discussing issues that affect women and girls,
share stories of inspiration, opportunities for training and jobs, and attending
Bristol’s feminist events among a myriad of other things. She explained all the
various things she was hoping to do at the event, and said:
‘I love what Bristol Women’s Voice do. They do so much
around the city and we’re so lucky to have them.’
Bristol is also lucky to have inspirational women like
Carly, whose work within various communities was recognised later that day with
a Wonderful Woman award in a touching ceremony where each recipient was given a
posy of spring daffodils, in spite of the wintry weather outside, in front of
an appreciative audience of supporters.
Next, I took a look around various stalls, particularly
attracted to the brightly coloured posters and pins designed by graphic
designer Jess Augarde of Augarde Art. I’d
already purchased a ‘Well behaved women rarely make history’ postcard for my
mum for Christmas a few months before, so it was lovely to take a few moments
to chat to her and buy three badges with fun but pithy quotes on them – ‘Nasty Woman’
now takes pride of place on my lapel. Apparently the stall had attracted a lot
of interest, and the incidentally the ‘Well behaved women’ badge was sold out. Thanks
to Jess and the event, there are now plenty of young girls in particular
sporting similar badges around Bristol. I bought one for my niece with ‘Girl
Power’ on it. The Spice Girls might have made the quote famous but it still
bears repeating in a world where girls’ power is rarely acknowledged and seen
as aberrant, and where running or throwing ‘like a girl’ is still an insult.
The range and breadth of workshops and talks on that day was
truly breath taking, and it was very hard to decide which ones to go to. In
fact, some were so popular, you couldn’t even get in the door – the Women in
Media panel discussion was a non-starter for me as I got there way too late and
there wasn’t even standing room.
One area of particular interest to me is the way in which
education either reinforces or challenges existing stereotypes. As a teacher
and as a tutor, I have been on my own voyage of discovery when it comes to how
we deal with different genders in the classroom, and how our educational
approaches and expected outcomes are influenced by unconscious bias and
pre-conceived ideas about how girls and boys learn and behave. I was luckily
able to attend the first half of the TIGER
(Teaching Individuals Gender Equality and Respect) workshop and watch them
introduce the topic and begin a series of activities inviting participants to
consider their own experiences in education or as parents.
TIGER are a group working places of education, including
schools and universities, who work with educators and students in order to
facilitate often difficult conversations around the topic, and to raise
awareness of how unconscious bias adversely affects girls in particular. One
particularly striking example they gave was that in a blind maths exam, where
the teachers had to mark anonymous papers, the girls were marked higher than
boys overall, but when the same papers were given with names to teachers who knew
the students, the boys were marked up and the girls marked down. Apparently, 71%
of 11-21 year old girls have reported gender stereotypes used by teachers, and
with this example in mind, it shows just how important it is to have gender
stereotyping and sexism being countered in the same way that racist bullying or
homophobia has in recent years.
Natalie Bennett who works with TIGER explained how the
workshops give young people the opportunity to think critically about their own
identity, and the identity of their peers, and how sometimes although it might
appear that no difference has been made, the workshops often start the process
of awareness in students:
‘We’ve had some students where you feel like you’re not
making a difference or that you haven’t done anything. But then they’ve gone
away and I’ve found out that a couple of months later they’ve started a
feminist society. So even the people you’re not sure you’ve changed…you’re
still planting the seeds you’ve had these conversations which is really, really
powerful, and they’re going to see stuff around them, about gender and how
identities are being represented, and start critically thinking about that
because of the conversations that we’ve had.’
Ours was a really insightful conversation as well, and
certainly chimed with my own experiences in schools and working with students
as a tutor. Institutional sexism and gender stereotyping is rife in education,
as in all areas of our lives, because of the pervasive culture that teaches
that boys and girls are fundamentally different in ways that create an
artificial hierarchy which places boys and men above girls and women. She
mentioned the particular challenges the group has faced when offering these
workshops, and the resistance and defensiveness, often coming from male members
of staff, who feel threatened by the messages they are trying to convey. It is
unsurprising, given how much of this culture goes unnoticed by all of us, but
just underlined for me how essential this work is and that we need to challenge
gender stereotypes from a very young age.
This is an issue very
close to my heart as an educator, and I will be exploring this issue in more
depth with more details of my conversation with Natalie in a separate article
in the near future, so look out for that on my blog!
 |
Determined to pack as much into my day as possible, I
decided to attend one of the panel discussions held in the Lord Mayor’s
Reception, on Women in Public Life. Chaired by Bristol Women’s Voice, Penny
Gane, the panel was made up of women who had achieved a public role and the
powers and responsibilities that come with it, including Cleo Lake (Green
Cllr), Marg Hickman (Labour Cllr), Eve Szczelkun (Youth Mayor) and Sumita Hutchinson
(Race Commission). They were discussing why it is important to have women in
public life, and what can be done to encourage more women into roles like
these.
I have considered representing my ward as a Councillor myself,
so it was very interesting to hear what these inspiring and hardworking Bristolian
women had to say. They were clear about the particular challenges women face
when trying to push themselves forward (‘cut-throat’ was mentioned along with
entrenched resistance to change, particularly from the right of the political
spectrum) but equally open about the opportunities to shape change and
direction that would otherwise have been closed, such as positions on boards
etc. This is why it is so important that we have diversity that reflects the
true make-up of our societies, or the decisions made by one type of person only
reflect the needs of that particular group. We all know only too well what it
feels like to live in a world where only one type of voice is dominant.
One particular message that struck a chord with me came from
Marg Hickman, who emphasised a need for a different type of politics – a ‘heart-based
approach’ which more room for the feminine, as we currently only value
masculine-coded survivalist qualities. In a world dominated by voices of fear
and hatred and ruthless competition, we have never needed a different approach, a feminine led approach,
more than we do right now.
One more talk. This time a more academic one, given by Silu
Pascoe, on intersectional barriers to suffrage. Although I couldn’t stay for
the whole thing, I found her account of the lesser-known individuals who fought
for the vote, such as women of colour and men of colour who supported the
movement fascinating. It certainly filled in one or two blanks in my knowledge
of the struggle and reinforced my passion for different stories and for a fully
rounded history to be taught as standard, instead of the dusty trawl through
the successes of rich white men and military leaders that it is today.
After all the listening and recording and furious scribbling
of notes, I decided to spend the last hour of the event browsing stalls and
seeing who I might bump into. The No More Taboo stall
selling reusable sanitary products and supporting women in period poverty drew
my attention, not least because of my own desire to stop using disposable
products that harm the environment and my back pocket every month. I didn’t
even realise until recently that period poverty was even a thing in this UK,
but as 1 in 10 girls aged 14-21 in this country (this country!) haven’t been able to afford sanitary protection, it
seems that unless we get this on the table and start talking about it, many
more girls will miss out on education because of an unavoidable part of being a
woman.
I’d been able to talk to Jenna from No More Taboo earlier
that day, and she had been effusive about the success of the event:
‘It’s been a really nice day. We’ve had lots of interest at
the stall and made some sales and really raised awareness…lots of people asking
lots of questions so it’s been really positive in that respect. We have had a lot of people who are menstrual cup curious who
come over and ask us, how does it work, is it comfortable? And lots of people
asking about the pads because that for a lot of people is something totally
new.’
Indeed, it was new for me, so I purchased a pad, got some
advice about how to insert the menstrual cup I’d purchased five years ago and
totally failed to use due to, I assumed, my unique anatomy. I also felt
genuinely excited about having my next period – a phenomenon I hadn’t
experienced since I was thirteen and still hadn’t had one yet!
What then followed was a flurry of chats and interviews with
all sorts of folk, including the wonderful women from the Somali Kitchen who were at the event showcasing
Somali food and spices. They do essential work in their communities, raising
awareness of how proper home cooked food is so much better than the cheap
takeaways that proliferate in the parts of Bristol where they live, and to encourage
pride in their cultural identity through the medium of food. ‘Food brings
people together’, Sahra told me, and I couldn’t agree more.
I chatted to 69 year old Linda who had attended for the day,
who proclaimed the event ‘amazing’ and saw ’so many parallels’ with the women’s
movement in the 70s, which she had been actively involved in. I had a chinwag
with Gus, 35, who was there to support his mum who was received a Wonderful
Woman award for her work bringing the diffuse community of Jacob’s Wells
together. I also managed to exchange a brief word with another recipient of an
award, Hannah Hier, who at 15 is the newly elected Youth Mayor, and had managed
to fit in a Charleston or two (jealous). And finally, Rhea Warner, 18, who I’d
marched and hollered with on the recent Times Up Women’s March in January, who
remarked on the great diversity and the atmosphere of the event:
‘It’s been great..I haven’t been in Bristol for a long time…and
it’s so nice to be in this environment. Bristolians are hungry to create change
and create spaces like this and when they are created you can tell that
everyone who comes into them are so eager to be there, so ready to be in that
space and to be creative with whatever that space is going to build.’
Yes. This is the point of events like these. You come away
brimming with ideas, enthusiasm and potent energy, ready to take on whatever
challenges come your way. You feel empowered in the truest sense of the word.
And proud – extremely proud – to have been part of something so much bigger
than yourself. As Cleo Lake said earlier in the day, we need new stories. I
wonder how many new st
As I stepped out into the rapidly thawing streets of
Bristol, I could not help but feel humbled by the incredible things I saw and
heard, and heartened by the very many friendships and connections I had
reinforced or created in one day. I was a little sad that I didn’t get a chance
to make a cyanotype photograph, practise the Charleston or get up and improvise
some spoken word poetry, but you can’t have everything. Maybe next time. After
all, the centenary for women’s suffrage comes once in a lifetime, but the
International Women’s Day even is held every year, and I will most definitely
be there. 