The Fight Goes On

With International Women’s Day this month, Helen Pankhurst considers the progress made in the fight for equality in the century since women were granted the vote. 

- Paul Mackenzie

THE centenary of the Bill granting some women in Britain the right to vote should be a reminder of how far there is still is to go on the road to equality, says Emmeline Pankhurst’s great-granddaughter.

Helen Pankhurst – whose campaigning career embodies the spirit of her ancestors – told Cheshire Life the revelations about sexist behaviour in Hollywood, the Presidents Club scandal and the online popularity of the #metoo and #timesup hashtags all prove the fight is not over.

‘The recent past has demonstrated that the time is now to look back and see how difficult and long the journey was for the suffragettes to get the vote,’ she said. ‘Things that have happened are being exposed and that exposure is what’s new and by shedding light on these things we can bring about change. It feels like a watershed moment, 1918 was so significant in the fight for women to have the right to vote and 2018 feels like a significant moment in the move towards equality.

‘I am optimistic but in the same way that from the bill in 1918, women had to wait another 20 years before the right to vote was extended, we are not going to solve all the inequalities now.’

The bill that was passed in 1918 extended the right to vote to almost all men and to women over the age of 30 who met certain property qualifications. It took a futher ten years for women to be granted equal voting rights.