FABIANA The magazine of the Fabian Women’s Network

WOmeN SHAPING OUR WORLD CONTENTS 2018 Fabiana 15. Women Shaping Our World

Editorial 2 Jos Bell

East End Suffragettes 3 Rushanara Ali MP and Sarah Jackson

Oldham Honours Annie Kenney 5 Debbie Abrahams MP

Behind the Lines – Noor Inayat Khan 6 Deeba Syed

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2017-2018 Ada Lovelace – Algorithm Pioneer 7 President – Seema Malhotra Dr Aysha Raza Chair – Ivana Bartoletti Vice Chair – Sara Hyde 360 Degree Suffragettes 8 Sarah Gavron Interview Secretary – Jos Bell Treasurer – Paulina Jakubec Sisters and Brothers 10 Emma Whysall Committee Members Amna Abdullatif NHS Windrush 11 Seyi Akiwowo Janet Daby MP Sanchia Alasia Shaista Aziz Women on the Brexit Brink 12 Johanna Baxter Mary Honeyball MEP Sheila Chapman Megan Corton Scott Is the U.S. Future Really Female? 13 Jennifer Hall Lee Christine Megson Reema Patel Political Code in Fashion 14 Tamara Cincik Editor – Jos Bell Designer – Zoran Jevtic Patrician Press Ups 16 Membership – Shehana Udat Patricia Borlenghi

Fabian Women’s Network C/O The Fabian Society, 61 Petty France, London SW1H 9EU Email: [email protected] Twitter: @thefabians, @FabianWomen

FABIANA is the magazine of the Fabian Women’s Network. The articles represent the views of the writers only and not the collective view of FWN or Fabian Society.

Photo - Jos Bell EDITORIAL Jos Bell HETTY BOWER 108 Ros Wynne-Jones

Battle of Cable Street

2018 has been both a year of commemoration and a year of political turmoil. This edition is the second in this centenary year, commemorating not just the anniversary of women voting in a General Election on December 14th 1918, but World War One memorials to women are few. We “Ban the bomb” were almost the last words of the extraordinary Hetty Bower. also the first when women could stand, as well as think immediately of Edith Cavell. Last month, the of course the Armistice Centenary. WW Centenary Arts Commission project, Pages It was one of the protest songs she sang with “Why wouldn’t I march?” she asked. “I’ve got of the Sea, produced beautiful transient sand Commemoration is the human way to keep in touch sculptures of less well known but no less worthy her daughter in her final hours. Born in the good legs.” Her hip had been replaced by the with history, and a society which ignores the lessons women who gave their lives in war: Elsie Maud Edwardian era, at 108, Hetty was still a passionate surgeons inside the building. But she complained of history is surely a society overrun by ignorance. Inglis recalled in Fife, Dorothy Mary Watson in campaigner for peace, workers’ rights and the other marchers went too slowly. By asking our mothers, grandmothers and great- Swansea and Rachel Ferguson in Londonderry. The NHS until her dying breath. grandmothers what their mothers did we can record sand sculptures have become preserved images Hetty had taken part in the general strike of 1926 their stories and ensure that their contributions and on the 14-18 NOW website, which would never I first came across her when campaigners told and was a founding member of CND. She was their history live on. Film offers a tangible way to have been possible without the algorithmic genius me about this astonishing woman over 100 years also veteran of the 1936 Battle of Cable Street, recreate history and our guest interview with Sarah of Ada Lovelace, remembered here by fellow UCL old, who had been out marching to save London’s although she told me not to write that she was on Gavron, Director of Suffrage and Brick Lane explores neuroscientist Dr Aysha Raza. Whittington Hospital in the wind and rain ina the frontline. “I was in the second line,” she said, how the cause of suffrage cut across the classes, yellow waterproof cape. a woman never above five feet tall, facing down bringing past women’s lives to life. The First World War proved to be a social Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts. denouement. For most women, life would never Hetty Bower is the closest I’ve ever been to the be the same again. Whilst too many women were Born in Hackney, East London, the seventh of ten suffragettes – her long life covered probably the left bereaved , many gained their first semblance children, Hetty spent her working life in schools, most transformative era in history. Ros Wynne- of equality, with life experiences they could never fashion, cinema and business, and helped found Jones, who knew her well, writes of her humour have imagined in 1914. These radical changes were the first ever union for women, the Association and her determination. We’re also delighted that reflected in women’s clothing. Out with corsets and of Women Clerks and Secretaries. She joined the Rushanara Ali MP and Sarah Jackson of the newly cumbersome skirts and in with enfranchisement Labour Party in 1923 – where she met her beloved opened East End Women’s Museum join us to and trousers. Tamara Cincik reminds us that as husband Reg – and went on to campaign to get the recall the community enterprise of the East End women became more engaged in politics, fashion very first Labour MPs into parliament. During WW2 Suffragettes. has adapted into a new political code, while she ran a Czech Refugee Hostel in North London. Fulbright award winner Jennifer Hall Lee puts the In April this year, Gillian Wearing’s stunning bronze slogan tee shirt at the heart of US political feminism. Hetty had been inspired to get involved in Courage Calls sculpture of Millicent Fawcett was campaigning as a child, by her sister, Cissie, who unveiled in Westminster Square, celebrating So we hope you enjoy our look at Women Shaping was a suffragette. Hetty used to secretly go to not just the legacy of the suffragists, but also of our World – from the days when women had to meetings, and seeing the suffragettes win women suffragettes whose images are included on the peer through chinks in the ceiling above the House the vote showed her campaigning could literally plinth. Among them, Henrietta Franklin, a social of Commons to catch snippets of all-male debate, change the world. reformer who served as president of the National onto the brilliance of STEM pioneers, through the Union of Women Suffrage Societies from 1916-17. battling suffrage years and World War heroines “We may not win by protesting,” Hetty always Emma Whysall tells us of the remarkable legacy of onto NHS Windrush facing the current hostile said. “But if we don’t protest we will lose. If we her extended family. environment, with Mary Honeyball taking us up stand up to them there’s always a chance that to the present day brink of truly alarming Brexit we will win.” Debbie Abrahams MP describes the energy which realities for women. Oldham has put into achieving a statue to Annie Ros Wynne-Jones is an award-winning journalist Kenney and Deeba Syed of the Young Fabians This is all echoed in narrative from the Patrician and author who writes about global and UK recalls the words of Vera Brittain as she reminds us Press, which has contributions from Baroness poverty and has reported from conflict zones of the bravery of WW2 heroine Noor Inayat Khan – Helena Kennedy and our chair Ivana Bartoletti, across the world. She writes a weekly column who has an elegant statue in Bloomsbury. showing the breadth of feminist concern. Real Britain in the Daily Mirror.

2 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 3 Sarah Jackson “As we mark the 100 years since the Representation of the People Act, I am delighted that Fabiana is recognising the According to Sylvia, she added that ‘a working Each year they held concerts, festivals and East London suffragette movement. Bethnal women’s movement was of no value: working parties, including a public Christmas party with Green and Bow has a proud history of women women were the weakest portion of the sex… games, entertainment and even a ‘Santa’ who being pioneers and fighting for women’s Their lives were too hard, their education too gave out small presents for children. Like the meagre to equip them for the contest.’ radical suffragists providing tea and cake at rights and workers’ rights, going back to the their meetings, the ELFS tried to find ways to matchwomen’s strike of 1888 and to the After everything that working-class women had address the material needs of their supporters establishment of the East London Federation done to advance the suffrage cause, both in the as they built their movement. They grounded of the Suffragettes. To those women, who WSPU and before it, it seems hard to believe that their campaign in the everyday reality of working risked imprisonment, violence, and even Christabel could think their contribution had no women’s lives. value. But class prejudice was widespread at the death, we owe so much. I hope you will find time, and she was certainly not alone in her views. This approach was put to the test when the First their story as inspiring as I do.” World War broke out in August 1914. Factories Yet the new, independent East London Federation across East London closed and food prices of the Suffragettes (ELFS) flourished. While a spiralled, pushing many poor families to the brink few upper- and middle-class women occupied of starvation. The ELFS organised ‘milk depots’ leadership positions, local working-class where families with very young children could get activists like Julia Scurr, Melvina Walker, Minnie free milk and a series of volunteer-run canteens Lansbury, Daisy Parsons, Jessie Payne and Nellie serving nutritious food at ‘cost price’, twice a Cressall took up key roles and shaped the new day. They also opened their own cooperative toy Rushanara Ali organisation, free from the WSPU’s rules. factory, which paid a living wage to its women MP, Bethnal Green and Bow workers and included a crèche, which became Changing strategies, the ELFS moved away from so popular that the following year they opened a violent acts, imprisonment and hunger strikes, nursery in a former pub over the road. adopting new tactics which offered greater safety and strength in numbers for their members as Sylvia and the rest of the Federation were always Sylvia Pankhurst at HQ Bow Rd well as opportunities to involve and support the clear that their work in the East End was not wider community. They marched through East about charity – it was about building a strong, London, published their own weekly newspaper, mass movement of working women who could The Woman’s Dreadnought, took delegations and would demand their rights. As well as East END Suffragettes of working women to Westminster to lobby lobbying politicians for food price controls and politicians, held huge public meetings and equal pay during the War, the ELFS continued In 1912 Sylvia Pankhurst arrived in Bow, East As well as using militant tactics to fight for opened a social centre called the Women’s Hall. campaigning for the vote too – unlike the WSPU London, determined to recruit local working-class all women to have the vote, the East London and NUWSS, who suspended their campaigns. women into the WSPU. After a shaky start (they Federation adopted a broad campaigning were pelted with fish heads at least once), by programme and formed alliances with other The East London suffragettes continually 1914 the new East London WSPU branches had groups. They lobbied and protested for a connected individual hardship to the bigger become a powerful, democratic campaigning living wage, decent housing, equal pay, old picture of structural inequality. Their remarkable force with thousands of members and strong age pensions, home rule for Ireland and many organisation existed until 1924, and in that time local support from men as well as women. other issues. This helped them build a large it was entirely transformed, eventually becoming support base and show that if women won the Workers Socialist Federation and advocating Like the radical suffragists in the North of the vote it would bring more power to the revolution over parliamentary democracy as the England – such as Selina Cooper, Sarah Reddish whole community. They even recruited a small best path to equality. and many others - the East London Federation ‘People’s Army’ of supporters to defend them of the WSPU saw the importance of linking the from police brutality. Visit ‘East End Suffragettes: the photographs of struggle for the vote with the struggle for better Norah Smyth’, a free exhibition at Four Corners working and living conditions. By expanding the In 1914, however, the East London Federation Gallery, 2 November – 9 February 2019, 11am – fight for equality beyond the vote, they relieved was expelled from the WSPU by Christabel 6pm Tues-Sat the pressure on many politically active working- Pankhurst, who claimed that they were too class women to choose between their gender independent and ‘mixed up’ with other Sarah Jackson is a trustee of the East End and their class. causes. Women’s Museum.

4 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 5 Oldham Honours Annie Debbie Abrahams

As we mark the centenary of the first phase of Many of the union’s other leaders were criticised Her husband James Taylor, who Annie Kenney women’s suffrage in the UK it is right to focus on for being ‘elite bourgeois’, existing only to serve married in 1920, said Annie never really some of the lesser known women that fought the middle and upper classes, but Annie bucked recovered from the impact of these hunger for the rights we enjoy today. Without doubt this trend and helped publicise the suffragette strikes and after a long and steady decline, Annie one of them was Annie Kenney, born in 1879 in cause to other female workers. When the died at Lister Hospital in Hitchen in 1953. Springhead in my Oldham East and Saddleworth WSPU decided to open a branch in the East End, constituency, into a working class, mill working Annie was asked to leave the mill and become a It’s therefore disappointing that in spite of her family who went on to become a leading full-time worker for the organisation, working to dedication to the cause, she is less remembered figurehead in the Women’s Social and Political persuade working class women to join them. than other key suffragette colleagues, like Union (WSPU). the Pankhursts. To rectify this, alongside my By 1912 when Emmeline Pankhurst had been colleague Jim McMahon MP for Oldham West Annie was the fifth of twelve children and at the imprisoned for militant activism and Christabel and Royton and local campaigners, including age of ten began to work in a local cotton mill. had fled to Paris, Annie was effectively actress Maxine Peake, we have been working Soon afterwards a whirling bobbin tore off one leading the organisation, right up to the 1918 to crowdfund a statue of Annie, which will be of her fingers, but this didn’t stop her working Representation of the People Act. Annie unveiled outside Oldham’s Old Town Hall on 14th full time 12-hour shifts by the time she was 13. was imprisoned several times throughout December, the centenary of the first time some After being inspired by an article she read in the campaign for women’s suffrage – and her women were able to vote in a General Election, The Clarion Annie joined the local branch of the recently discovered letter reveals the extent of with 8.5 million women eligible. Independent Labour Party and at one of their the brutality she endured. meetings in 1905 she and her sister Jessie heard Throughout our work for the Annie Kenney Christabel Pankhurst speak on women’s rights. In 1905 she attended a meeting, with Project to raise funds, we have seen increased Christabel Pankhurst, to hear Sir Edward Grey, local and regional awareness of Annie’s role in Annie joined the Women’s Social and Political a Government Minister. When they constantly the suffragette movement, her vital importance Union and quickly rose through the ranks, shouted about votes for women, they were in encouraging other working class women to At the current rate of progress it will take 50 eventually becoming its Deputy in 1912, arrested, found guilty of assault and when they join the cause and the importance of the North years to achieve gender equality in Parliament – something which was extremely rare for refused to pay the five shilling fine each, they in the campaign for women’s suffrage. although 45% of current Labour MPs are women. someone from the working classes. were imprisoned. The case was shocking at a Local government is similar, with the last councillor national level, as it was the first time in Britain But there’s still much more to do to ensure true census in 2013 finding that just 32 per cent of local that women had used militant means in an equality. Currently, 51% of the population are authority councillors in England are women. attempt to win the vote. women yet there are twice the numbers of men than women elected to Parliament. As well as problems with equal representation, After being sentenced to 18 months in the Government’s austerity policies have Maidstone Prison for ‘incitement to riot’ in 1913, disproportionately affected women, with the Annie immediately went on hunger strike and House of Commons Library’s gender audit of tax became the first suffragette to be released under and spending policies showing that 86% of the the provisions of the Cat and Mouse Act, which burden of austerity between 2010-17 has fallen allowed for the early release of prisoners who on women. were so weakened by hunger striking that they were at risk of death. They were to be recalled It is therefore incumbent upon us all to take to prison once their health was recovered, where inspiration from Annie Kenney’s determination the process would begin again. to achieve women’s suffrage and work for a truly equal, representative society which removes barriers for many women who are particularly under-represented, including working class, BAME and disabled women.

Debbie Abrahams is the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth and public health specialist.

6 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 7 Noor Behind the Lines Deeba Syed Algorithm Pioneer ADA Aysha Raza

On the Centenary of the battle in 1799. She was brought Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated Known for his love of women The vivacious Victorian ‘it girl’ also Armistice this year marking the up with a fierce nationalist pride, internationally each year on the and epic mood swings it’s quite made quite an impression at court end of the World War One, we her father Hazrat Inayat Khan, a second Tuesday of October to miraculous there was a wedding being the daughter of Byron, and remember all those who made Sufi preacher and musician was a recognise the achievements of at all. The marriage, as predicted, after entertaining many admirers, the ultimate sacrifice for our friend of Nehru and Ghandi. women in science, technology, was short lived. Not that Ada Ada married William King who country. Over the decades since, engineering and mathematics lost out. We all stand on the was made 1st Earl of Lovelace there have been tributes and Noor’s story is even more (STEM). shoulders of giants and Ada and they had three children. She memorials to many men, but remarkable given in context of the too was blessed to be born to a remained engaged in the scientific few individual women. We must fact the war was in opposition to A modest board outside William remarkable woman. Her mother dilemmas of the day and hoped to never forget the sacrifice and her Sufi religion, which teaches Perkin High School in Greenford was a keen educationalist, work on a ’calculus of the nervous bravery of war heroines during non-violence and peace. She popped up this September, hailing committed to social causes system’ to model the brain, times of conflicts, especially fought anyway to oppose racism the imminent opening of the new like prison reform and the futuristically once again using those women of a BAME and fascism. But while other Ada Lovelace High School. abolishment of slavery. Highly electric currents as her point of background, who need to be far women in the Special Operations educated, religious and now a reference. Sadly, in November better remembered. Executive stories have been Already deliriously happy to have single parent, she surrounded 1852, at the age of just thirty-six, celebrated with and even turn a school specialising in science her daughter with many strong Ada died of uterine cancer. So I want to share the story of sent to help had already been into movies, her inspirational in my ward and with students’ female role models, including Noor Inayat Khan with you. She infiltrated, even the man who story is not as well-known as it blazers in my favourite shade Mary Somerville the notable Oxford University holds the is particularly important in light greeted from the plan worked should be. of violet, now to have another science writer. archives of Lovelace family of recent public debate as to for the Gestapo. Despite her named after a pioneering woman papers, in particular Lovelace’s whether the annual poppy appeal team crumbling around her In 2014, the Royal Mail issued in STEM, with school colours Raised in aristocratic elite circles, “correspondence course” has racist overtones. Noor was a she ran a cell of agents single- a stamp of Noor as part of their in teal, which jointly recreate a Ada was given the best education with the Augustus De Morgan young Muslim woman of Indian handedly, changing her name and Remarkable Lives series. This suffragette banner, is fantastic. and mental stimulation afforded (1806-1871, UCL’s first professor origin, a British secret agent and appearance as many times as she year, after the Bank of England Alarmingly high numbers of the by the society of the day which of mathematics), and a new the first female radio operator had to. announced there would be an non-science community have was hungry for information and study in progress with the sent behind enemy lines. open process for the new face never heard of Ada Lovelace – on the cusp of changes that first professional historians of Eventually, she was betrayed by of the £50 note a campaign was some poured scorn on her name would revolutionise our modern mathematics to work on this Born in Moscow, Noor’s family a French woman and arrested by launched earlier this year to have being put forward as the face of world – her mother believing this material. moved to France where she the Gestapo. She was imprisoned her story remembered in this way. the new £50 note. would also ‘inoculate against the was brought up in Paris until in chains and tortured for 10 insanity’ which had plagued her In Greenford, teal coloured it became occupied in 1940, months, however she never To recognise her heroism, she father. blazers decorate our roads in when she was able to escape to gave up any information to her was posthumously awarded the the morning and again at home London. Before the war, Noor interrogators. She didn’t even George Cross, the highest civilian In 1828 my ‘godless college’ time, soon to transfer to the had been a successful children’s give up her name. To her captors decoration by England and the inspired by Jeremy Bentham school’s eventual home near author but after war broke out she was Nora Baker. She was Croix de Guerre by France. There opened on Gower Street. Hanger Hill, Ealing, where Ada’s she volunteered for the Women’s later executed by the Germans is memorial bust of her in Gordon UCL had a policy of admitting home Fordhook House once Auxiliary Air Force. Since she was at Dachau concentration camp. Square Gardens, near Euston everyone who wished to learn, stood - a bus ride away from the fluent in French she was recruited Her last words to firing squad Square in London where she spent not just limiting education to University of West London on the for the Special Operations were “Liberte”. She was only 30 part of childhood growing up. It the clergy. Charles Darwin had site of Ealing Grove School where Executive, a secret army started years old. was the first memorial statue ever inspired much introspection she taught. by the Prime Minister, Winston dedicated to a Muslim woman. into the natural world after his Churchill. Unfortunately the Gestapo found travels on the HMS Beagle, and Ada Lovelace High School, her radio codes in the back of World War weapons and bravery Charles Babbage had thoughts soon to be full of eager girls She was told in the interview her diary although she had been paid no heed to ethnicity or Even within the ranks of scientists, on an analytic engine which armed with smart phones, if she got caught she would ordered to destroy them. As a gender. many struggle to pinpoint why captivated Ada’s mathematical will specialise in coding and likely be shot, at the time life result, they were able to send her name ought to have some mind. With her unique brand of computing - a fitting legacy for expectancy was only six-weeks in messages to London, pretending As Vera Brittain wrote in Testament meaning, amongst feminists ‘poetical science’ she was the the grandmother of computer occupied enemy space. She went to be Noor and managed to of Youth: ‘What you have striven though, her name has recognition first to recognise that Babbage’s science, the ‘Enchantress of anyway. Amusingly, her interview delivering plans and agents for will not end in nothing, all that as a trail blazer. Ada Lovelace was as yet un-built machine had Numbers’. I am delighted that assessment said she was “not straight into the Nazi hands for you have done and been will not a remarkable woman pushing the applications beyond just my ward will shortly have two overburdened with brains”. four months. be wasted, for it will be a part of frontiers of science with a vision calculations. She wrote what schools specialising in STEM, me as long as I live, and I shall which continues to shape our was has been described as a inspiring many of the next In 1943 she was flown undercover Noor wasn’t the first in her family remember, always.” world today. ‘remarkably prescient paper’ generation of scientists. to Nazi-occupied France to to show extraordinary bravery, and the first algorithm for such become the radio operator for she was descended from Tipu Remembering is for everyone. Ada was the only legitimate a computational engine - or Cllr Dr Aysha Raza is a proud the ‘Prosper’ resistance network Sultan, the famous 18th-century child of Lord Byron and Anna computer as we of course know councillor for Greenford Green in Paris. She was given the code ruler of the kingdom of Mysore Deeba Syed is Young Fabians Law Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke. As them today. Ada Lovelace was ward at London Borough of name ‘Madeleine’. However, the in South India. He had refused to Network Chair and a member of with much of Byron’s life, it was the world’s first computer Ealing & Neuroscientist & resistance group she had been submit to British rule and died in the Young Fabians Executive. ‘complicated’. programmer. Teaching Associate at UCL

8 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 9 360 DEGREE SUFFRAGETTES

a definite Mike Leigh influence!). Suffragette had her and set family and workplace scenes with a majority female crew, but we really wanted to Carey and Anne Marie Duff in amongst political give space to as many women technicians and rallies and meetings and the Emily Davison scene. production workers as possible on this one. Maud’s journey is the journey of the suffragette movement at another level than the more After the accolades for Brick Lane, a film ofa affluent lead players. book of a young woman’s eye view of East End immigrant communities, what exactly drew you After Brick Lane, there have been questions as to to making Suffragette? the lack of BAME faces in Suffragette – was that The Suffragettes have obviously left a huge deliberate or accidental? legacy, but one which is not really portrayed in It was deliberate in that our library research the cinema – and really only on television in the didn’t reveal BAME suffragettes in the events 1979 dramatisation of Testament of Youth and we featured - except for Sophia Duleep Singh the 1974 ground breaking Shoulder to Shoulder. who deserves her own movie to do her justice. Testament of Youth was then released as a film in We would probably do it differently now - for 2014. Aside from that, suffrage and suffragettes instance we’ve just seen what the Old Vic have only got a mention in the context of the comedy done with Sylvia and an exciting BAME cast - factor Mrs Barnes in Mary Poppins, or other but for the community of women in which this cameos. I wanted to take a serious view. was set we went with the archives and went for historical accuracy. The group of Indian women Venturing into the Suffragette project also who joined the Coronation Procession, which we seemed very timely with what was happening didn’t feature, later went on to be very active in in the world – shining a light onto the lack of Indian suffragette movement. day tasks as well as at public events. We took rights and ongoing struggles of women around a deliberately realistic approach to the Black the world. You portrayed the reality of grinding poverty – Friday demonstration – where the women had Jos Bell interviewed Sarah Gavron, Film the feel, touch and almost the smell of it. There been literally at the mercy of an army of police, Director and champion of women in film I wanted to do their legacy justice and look at were several heartrending scenes – particularly ordered by Churchill to ‘manhandle’ them rather over huge mugs of tea squeezed in between suffragettes in terms of the story we don’t know, giving up children and force feeding. How did you than make immediate arrests. hours of intensive editing... not simply focus on well known figures such as create such a sense of atmosphere and emotion? the Pankhursts, Pethwick Lawrence and Singh We were determined to get close – we used real Filming outside Parliament was surreal and also from more affluent backgrounds, but to focus on clothes of the time. To create the laundry we used very poignant and emotional – especially as we What exactly inspired you to go into film making? the story of working class women who joined the real equipment installed in a converted basketball had direct descendants from key characters from I always enjoyed watching movies. At school we movement. I wanted to detail the human rights court and all the actors went through a laundry opposing sides with us – Helen Pankhurst (grand- only knew about mainstream cinema – it was the aspects of the journeys of women whose lives ‘boot camp’ to learn the ropes and know what daughter of Emmeline), and Helena Bonham era of Tom Cruise. We didn’t know about art house would otherwise be seen as ordinary and who they were doing. The heat and damp completely Carter, great grand-daughter of PM of the time movies, Bergman or Loach. Film didn’t seem to were forced to give up so much to achieve the got under our skin – it must have been exhausting (H H Asquith 1908-16). Suffragette was the first reflect politics – and the kind of films I watched first steps of equality. work, day after day. film with permission to be given to film inside the didn’t seem to reflect the world around us. I Parliamentary estate. always felt there should be something more than In a search for authenticity, we conducted extensive We wanted to demonstrate the privations and I was able to find. I went onto study English and research in the Women’s Library with Abi Morgan prejudice in a real way – we felt it was important then completed a Masters in Film. After spending (who I had previously worked with on Brick Lane), to shock, because that was a real and true part of 4 yrs working on documentaries I ventured into 3 Faye Ward and Alison Owen, delving into the being a suffragette. It’s not well known that some years of studying film making at the National Film archives and working with academics until we jointly gave up everything – jobs, families, homes. For Institute. At the last minute, I opted to swap from ‘found a way in’. the poor women it was far more difficult to keep my intention to pursue documentary making – their children and of course force feeding became first making shorts and then expanding into full Suffragette is a movie of layers – with personal increasingly common and increasingly brutal. length films. sub plots set against the history we all know well. How did that evolve? In our age of #MeToo, the role of the police and Talking of women as film makers – the film We wanted to take a 360 degrees approach, the prison workers is particularly hard to watch. industry is notoriously tough for women to casting Carey Mulligan /Maud as the pivot of the Again we took to the archives and discovered break into at all levels - movie - she said yes to the role almost immediately that even 100 years ago, the police conducted 90% of the team on my current film are women – a – just 15 minutes into a conversation after reading surveillance operations – there were lots of devised piece with a young cast (here Sarah shows the script. From there we built the cast around photos of suffragettes going about their day to

10 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 11 360 DEGREE SUFFRAGETTES Sisters & Brothers Emma Whysall

One word. Trump? The Arts and Crafts community revived craft law. It is also thought he inspired the county’s most Trump is obviously a horrible threat. Women traditions and had a more significant impact on famous suffragette ‘outrage’, the burning down of in the US feel as though hard won rights are in the rural than the urban economy. It also created Saunderton Station. His wife Elsie Duval was next reversal – in terms of racism and division – and a pioneering environment in which women as to be released under the Cat and Mouse but never then with the Kavanaugh appointment and the well as men could begin to take an active role in recovered from the force feeding and prison brutality, way it was done, it’s really alarming. Although UK developing new forms of design. and she sadly died in the 1919 flu pandemic. women have borne the brunt of 80% austerity, the The architectural style of Chartridge Lodge, the H e r l e tt e r s d e s c r i b e w h a t s h e e n d u r e d . . . threat in the US is much more tangible because former family home of Arthur Ellis and Caroline ‘when I was sick I was told I wasn’t to and said I Trump is actively challenging the Constitution and Franklin, deep in the Chilterns, much reflects the did it for purpose and told me to keep still on my all forms of equal rights. direction of travel for their family. Alice, Hugh, Helen back but couldn’t, had pain in heart and stomach and Ellis, along with their mother, turned from the & also headache. Sick in 3 handkerchiefs and after #MeToo was at first shocking and then really a Liberal Party tradition of the family and took the wardress left cell’ huge relief that the men who have behaved so path set by Caroline’s sister Henrietta who had set badly were being held to account. I felt somehow up the Jewish League for Women’s Suffrage. Elsie’s brother Victor married Una Dugdale, lighter for the revelation. Not everyone had debutante niece of Viscount Peel, Speaker of the shared before this – there were rumours of Nearby Chesham had an active suffragette House of Commons. Una famously protested the course, but too little questioning. I really hope movement. The Bucks Examiner had a supportive marriage ‘obey’. Christabel Pankhurst, Constance editor and reported all meetings as well as an (anon) Lytton and the Pethick-Lawrences attended their Sarah Gavron, Film Director this encourages more diversity and safety in the industry, but there’s still some way to go. suffragette column. This was the only branch of Emily wedding dressed in WSPU colours. Una was also Pankhurst’s WSPU in Buckinghamshire – the majority imprisoned for a month and her sister Marjorie of women locally in favour of women’s suffrage were ‘Daisie’ Dugdale led the procession to welcome We knew no one had been given permission to usually supporters of the NUWSS, including social Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst on their film there before, but we felt it was worth asking, reformer Margaret McDonald, wife of the future release from prison on 19 Dec 1908. and when we were given the ok we felt very Labour Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald. She was privileged. opposed to militant action. Not so the Franklins. Brother Ellis was a merchant banker who taught part time at the Working Men’s College and with The casting of Meryl Streep was Carey’s mum’s The feminist Franklin sisters Alice and Helen, were his wife was active in the 1930s Kindertransport idea, which then took off because Meryl quickly both active in Jewish suffragette organisations. scheme, taking in two children to their home. Their became very supportive of the project. As a film Alice became secretary of the League set up by her daughter Rosalind was the brilliant chemist and icon it seemed fitting that she take the Pankhurst aunt. During WW1 Helen became a forewoman at X-ray crystallographer who contributed vital work role. She has also helped promote the film and the Woolwich Arsenal and fought for the rights of to the understanding of the molecular structures women workers, but was forced to resign trying of DNA as well as viruses, coal and graphite. Her the overall message in the US, which has been to form a trade union. Instead she became an contributions to the discovery of the structure of brilliant. organiser for the Women’s Land Army. Helen and DNA was only recognised posthumously because her husband Norman Bentwich moved to Palestine in a sad echo of the early loss of Ada Lovelace, she in 1919, where he was appointed attorney-general sadly died at the age of 37 from ovarian cancer – while Helen organised nursery schools, formed and would have been in line for a Nobel prize for her arts and crafts centres and became secretary of the work on the molecular structure of viruses had she Palestine Council of Jewish Women. survived, the team she led ultimately being given the award. Ironically gynaecological cancer can be On returning to the UK, unhappy with what she inherited through Ashkenazi Jewish DNA, but it is Above all we must continue to challenge and viewed as divisive Middle East developments, Helen also thought excessive radiation exposure may have protest at grass roots and keep a spirit of optimism. joined the Labour Party and although she failed in been the cause of her untimely early death. two attempts to get into Parliament, won council – and with that typically upbeat rallying call, this seats in North Kensington, Bethnal Green North Women’s suffrage was built upon community, gentle and unassuming BAFTA winner returned East and Stoke Newington and Hackney North. She but also through family. The Franklins and their to her edit suite for the next stint in completing became an Alderman and Chair of London County extended family are a remarkable example of Council and in 1965 was awarded a CBE. the honesty of expression typified by the Arts her latest movie, on teenage girls growing up in and Crafts movement which was the catalyst for contemporary London. Title as yet unconfirmed Hugh Franklin became the most radical in the family, radical forms of progress and invention. Although - another one to look out for! and was cut off by his father as a result. He was one in the UK the movement dwindled after WW1, the of only a few men to be imprisoned for his part in the tireless efforts of the Franklins and the suffragette (Fabiana Editor, Jos Bell studied film making suffragette cause. Noted for taking a whip to Churchill movement had only just begun to flower. and women’s rights in her first degree – so this on a train journey in protest at his police tactics and conversation was an absolute pleasure. Thanks repeatedly imprisoned and force-fed, he was one Emma Whysall is a practising solicitor and Labour so much Sarah. ) of the first to be released under the Cat and Mouse PPC for Chipping Barnet.

12 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 13 NHS Windrush Janet Daby ON THE BREXIt BRINK Mary Honeyball MEP

During the 60s my teenage mother, responding Windrush Scandal has seen many rightful British under threat will disproportionately affect to a call for skilled workers, excitedly travelled citizens lose everything under the Government’s This year commemorates the anniversaries women workers. From the employment rights from Jamaica to the UK. Many of her family ‘Hostile Environment’. of two powerful steps taken in Britain’s of pregnant women, to parental leave rights, to members were already there and she felt she long march towards gender equality and part-time workers rights (42% of women work was coming from her British Caribbean Island to The hardship the Windrush Generation women’s rights - the centenary of the first part-time), women under EU law are protected the ‘motherland’, a name given to the UK, from have endured is palpable, and we are yet to UK female suffrage legislation and the 90th at work regardless of their nationality. which she like many others fantasied about. understand the full price of their mistreatment. anniversary of universal women’s suffrage. Indeed, she did make it her home. She raised They need to see action, not just platitudes. The financial impact of Brexit has worrying her family and contributed to society. She, like consequences for women across the UK. The many others who arrived in the 50s, 60s, and After a lifetime of building a community, current economic system undermines the value 70s from the commonwealth countries are now working, paying taxes and bringing up their of the unpaid, invisible work done by women, known as the Windrush Generation. family, many from the Windrush Generation who not only contribute to the economy through have found that the country they contributed unpaid domestic and caregiving labour, but also My mother is now a retired nurse. She was to no longer legally recognised them as British make up a large amount of part-time, agency, first trained in the countryside at Lincolnshire citizens. Many elderly people have undergone and zero-hour contract workers. Hospital before proudly starting her new career inconceivable treatment of wrongful detention as an NHS nurse in South East London. She and deportation. By the end of August, the As the primary users of public services and worked in several hospitals there, including the Jamaican Foreign Ministry reported the workers in the public sector, women will also Dreadnought Seamans Hospital in Greenwich saddening news that at least three of these be disproportionately affected by changes and and the old St John’s Hospital in Lewisham (both people had died before officials were able to cuts to public services and the resulting budget of which have since closed). Many women, provide them a safe return to the UK. As a deficit. Vital services like women’s refuges and like my mother, were to embark on this new result, I pressed for the Government to accept legal aid in family law and housing are also adventure to the UK to become trained nurses, responsibility and to redress this. The number under threat, as with all women’s services they working for the public-sector in our flagship has since risen, and on the 12th November it have already seen a decline in funding and NHS. Yet, when they arrived in the UK they were was confirmed by the Home Secretary, Sajid scope. Without protections of EU migrants’ met with much hostility. They soon discovered Javid, that the total was now 11 people. Whilst these steps are shared in the history of right to work, the shortage of carers forecast by that they were welcomed by many and not nearly every country on earth, the timings are the Department of Health will add enormous welcomed, wanted or treated fairly by others. Following widespread pressure, the not. The distance between the first and most pressure to women who are expected to make Government has backtracked and confirmed recent countries to grant women the vote spans up for this shortfall. The irony was that on one hand they were that the Windrush Generation do have the right over a century, with Saudi Arabia allowing needed as a new labour workforce, building to remain and will be granted back their British women to vote only 7 years ago. Years of austerity have hit women particularly up the country following the war, but on the citizenship. This is a welcomed outcome, but hard, where women received 86% of the burden other hand they were being accused of taking more needs to be done to heal the overall harm The past two years of this path has taken us of the government’s tax and benefit changes. jobs. They were faced with hostile signs saying created. Compensation alone is not enough. through turbulent times. As Brexit clouds darken An EHRC review found that the recent welfare ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No dogs’. They were If we are truly to confront this issue, we must the horizon, the future of women in the UK reforms resulted in women losing £400 per barred from certain cafes, getting jobs, renting have an independent public inquiry so that we is looking more uncertain than ever. Various year compared to the £30 lost by men based on accommodation or buying properties in some can understand and address the full extent of reports have cautioned on the impact of Brexit, income averages. An LSE study now predicts a areas. Most shockingly, the churches also turn the damage done. We also need to understand particularly on women, from the financial £850-6400 decline in household income per year, them away. Instead, black communities forced if this has disproportionally affected women and burden on household income and benefits, and which will also hit women particularly hard as to set up their own places of worship and were take a hard look at the ‘hostile environment’ a decline in funding for vital women’s services, the primary ‘shock-absorbers’ of family poverty. segregated in certain parts of the country. policy in a wider context, closely scrutinising its to the impending risk of leaving a ‘gaping hole’ in consequences and human cost. women’s rights and of ‘turning back the clock’ on Women’s citizen rights are doubly threatened I feel the most painful aspect of the recent gender equality in the UK. by the UK’s impending departure from both the Windrush Scandal is the double jeopardy this Our patients and our NHS have always European Court of Justice and the protections generation have had to experience two of the appreciated our Windrush nurses, now our While UK negotiators clamour to secure the of European human rights laws. Notably, the most vulnerable times in their lives: when they country needs to do the same. ‘best’ deal for the UK, in focusing on trade and UK has still not ratified the Istanbul Convention first arrived as young people and then in their immigration, the issue of workers’ and citizens’ on preventing and combating violence against retirement years facing accusations of illegality, Janet Daby is MP for Lewisham East and a rights is left as a bargaining chip rather than an women and domestic violence, which it signed as a consequence of racial discrimination. The daughter of Windrush. ultimatum in future deals. Many of the rights in 2012.

14 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 15 ON THE BREXIT BRINK Jennifer Hall Lee

The Equality and Human Rights Commission IS THE U.S. FUTURE REALLY FEMALE (EHRC) has reported that both future and ? existing equality and human rights protections from the EU may no longer protect women A new tee shirt has entered the fashion scene in the United States. following Brexit. More concerning still is the effects of hate-crime against migrant and ethnic- It has a bold message: “The Future is Female”. It’s a garment ripe for minority women, which has seen a sharp rise in the 21st Century. If worn with ripped jeans and slouchy motorcycle the UK since Brexit. boots one would resemble a female character in a remake of the ‘Road Warrior’. New fashion rises from the streets and in the case Yet, for those bearing the brunt of Brexit, women of this particular tee, it arose in the last century at the height of the have been largely excluded from discussions of women’s liberation movement. The Future is Female is right back Britain’s future. from the past.

Despite having a female PM, only one of the five Brexit ministers is a woman. As Theresa May struggles, women are pushed to the side lines. The men dominating the political scene are It’s a successful reissue because our present Even those who refused to vote for her thought those who have campaigned most aggressively certainly isn’t female. The message still speaks. she would win! Imagine that? for Brexit. Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage The original tee shirt was created in 1975 at the have pivoted the focus on issues of trade and height of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Alas, all good things don’t come to those who migration, eclipsing the rights and protections This was a time when we knew we had the power wait. We all know how the election ended. of women as workers and citizens. Lord Martin to build a feminist future. The tee shirt was bold Extreme sexism was considered okay by a Callanan, DExEU Minister has previously called political and national divides. The EU has been just like those Twentieth Century feminists who sizeable number of Americans and the rights for scrapping the EU’s employment protections a champion of women’s freedom in Europe, rejected beauty parlors, nail polish and brassieres. of women and children were not considered for pregnant women in a desire to ‘get rid of all offering protection and stability against changing We knew the future was going to be fully female, important enough to fight for. Let’s ask ourselves the red tape’, which includes so many hard- political and social landscapes. It provides a not an empty image of woman created from the a hard question “Is the future female in the fought employment rights. platform and framework through which states male gaze as objects for mass consumption. We United States?” can come together to discuss gender inequality were demolishing that monster by uniting with Only 16% of televised Referendum coverage and propose means of progress for all nations in each other as sisters. Women were taking space The success of the tee shirt in the marketplace included women. As well as the exclusion of the EU. and power. We would no longer be decorative says, yes, we believe we can achieve a different female politicians and experts, women citizens objects, even the font on the tee shirt was boxy world where feminist ideas are woven into represent only 39% of contributors. Women As a party, as a society, we must step forward and utilitarian. It lacked a seraph. our domestic and foreign policy.... but Hillary voted against Brexit (51%); YouGov polling in to prevent so much progress from being swept espoused those ideas and was hated by the September 2018 indicates a 12 point margin in out from beneath us. We cannot leave women’s The tee made its big comeback in 2015 because right and many on the left. She was deemed not favour of women supporting remain as well as rights as both workers and citizens exposed to 58% of women (excluding don’t knows) backing uncertainty and erosion or allow women to bear in that year the United States was getting ready good enough despite her extraordinary level of a People’s Vote on the final deal. 73% of women the brunt of economic shock. We cannot stand for that female future. Some may disagree that experience. That’s sexism. Our problem isn’t with now fear the protection of our rights to be by as female politicians and experts’ voices are this is why the tee shirt reappeared, but one a mythical patriarchy looming over our heads, it’s ‘empty promises by politicians’ (YouGov poll). drowned out by careerist political posturing. can’t uncouple the reissue of the tee with the the patriarchy in our minds which destroys us. first female and feminist nominee for President. Leaving the EU not only means abandoning our The Labour Party must step forward and claim its Hillary Clinton, the experienced politician with This isn’t a new problem. Suffragettes grappled place in influencing and deciding the future of historic role to protect those most threatened by a lifetime of work for women and children, both with patriarchy and sexism. Even after decades of women’s rights and protections in Europe, but the uncertainty, vulnerability and hardship that here in America and around the world, was fighting, many women weren’t sure they would also putting our current rights and protections in clouds the horizon. running for POTUS. A feminist future was swirling win the right to vote. jeopardy. in the air (and in women’s minds). Despite all Mary Honeyball is MEP for London and UK the negativity towards Hillary Clinton (a strong Susan B. Anthony, in 1906, at 86 years old gave a The rights of women should not be determined Labour representative in the Women’s Rights hatred towards her existed on the progressive speech to despondent suffragists and she said... “ by nationality, nor economic status, but and Gender Equality Committee in the European left that I will still never fully understand), we still with all the help with people like we have in this instead be part of a shared project that spans Parliament. had a feeling she’d win the election. room, failure is impossible”.

16 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 17 IS THE U.S. FUTURE REALLY FEMALE? The Political Code in Fashion Tamara Cincik

It bolstered them up and they kept fighting. Fashion is a huge part of the marketing strategy U.S. House of Representatives. She smashes After the election of Trump I am as despondent for any aspiring politician, because it is a key it. Red lipstick, wide smile, smart. She has a as the suffragists listening to Anthony. determinant in whether people who have millennial’s intuitive understanding of her online never met you, will trust and vote for you. For audience. Her Instagram is personal, personable politicians, this comes with a unique set of and resonates with new inclusive policy ideas to In December 2016, less than two months after challenges: think what you want to represent and galvanise her local community. the election, I visited the International Islamic do it clearly. Keep it local: wear brands from your University in Islamabad, Pakistan, to discuss the own country and don’t overreach. Fashion makes the UK £30bn a year (fishing makes U.S. Women’s Liberation Movement. A female £1.4bn GVA), employing almost 1m workers. student looked at me with a question. I knew what Think then, of Theresa May wearing £995 brown Globally, if it were a nation state, it would be the the question would be and I was dreading it. leather trousers for The Sunday Times, soon 7th richest economy. after taking the premiership, as a warning for all wanting to walk the tightrope of public life. Michelle Obama visited London this month: She asked, “What happened?” I had a hard time Subsequently, it was claimed that her former tickets for her talk at The South Bank sold out answering her and I stumbled, embarrassed joint chief of staff Fiona Hill had called in the in seconds. Gal-Dem have launched a pop up in by our election result. Pakistani women, as all clothes. By not checking the price point, what partnership with Penguin in celebration of her women and children, needed a feminist woman should have been a soft pitch piece to refocus book “Becoming”, where she tackles the challenge to enter the Oval Office. These students in front the PM as an everywoman at home – albeit the of taking on the huge role as Flotus. “your story of me were sure Hillary would win. Instead we leader of a government guiding the UK through is what you have, what you will always have. It is gave them more patriarchy to fight. We gave Brexit after several years of Austerity, became something to own.” them a man who evidently revels in misogyny political nitroglycerin. On-the-sofa May became symbolised as Marie Antoinette at Petit Trianon and racism (and who would appoint someone playing at being a farmhand, while Paris starved. accused of serial sexual misdemeanours to be a lifetime Justice of the Supreme Court). Now Out of touch, over-indulged, removed. Dangerous that’s embarrassing. I should have had an answer Melania Trump and her stylist Herve Pierre for any public figure who consistently needs to for her but I was tongue-tied or maybe my mind knew exactly what they were doing and saying know the prices of milk, bread and butter, as couldn’t process the election and I had no words. when she wore a white trouser suit by Christian Mrs Thatcher famously did and David Cameron Dior at The 2018 State Of The Union Address famously didn’t – and look where he has taken us. Now here I am two years after the election and – they made a direct play on the sartorial Back to Melania Trump and her recent Africa I am beginning to see a positive future again. language of Hillary Clinton who wore a trouser suit through her entire Presidential campaign, tour wardrobe of pith helmet and khakis. As Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, age 78, will once even wearing white to accept her Presidential Klara Glowczewska wrote for Town and Country: again be our Speaker of the House and we have candidate nomination in 2016. “It was not clothing, but costume. And costume a new young group of feminist Representatives. always attracts attention, invites interpretation, Pelosi made a statement which shifted my In the US, white is also the colour of the and sends its own message.” perspective – “No one gives you power, you suffragette movement, of pure protest and female Gal-Dem pose the question for one event: “What must take it from them”. emancipation – in the UK of course, there were two Having a stylist (who avoids costume drama!) would Michelle Do? (if women ruled the world)”. groups, red and green for suffragists and green and takes budget, but arguably in a world where From Michelle, the audience was treated to the purple for suffragettes, both often worn with white. digital access creates a 24/7 platform and the most impassioned, inclusive and intersectional political landscape is this fragile, it’s a cost worth speech while wearing a cool outfit on stage, a white According to Business Insider, it takes 3 seconds spending, With the red tops always on the hunt outfit, which supported who she is, respecting her for someone to assess your clothes - and whether for a story and on a day when matters personal audience and did not consume her in costume they trust, like, or will hire you. and deep rooted, clothing can be a key to winning parody. any forthcoming election, an opportunity to win Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of American Vogue, over voters who are swayed by public perception. If there is one lesson all of our politicians could a key mover in the global fashion industry known learn from this, it is to be more Michelle : hire a to make careers, hails from a politically literate There is a really fine line between being authentic stylist, or don’t, wear high end if you can afford and seeming fake. The world is now saturated This is true. The Future is Female. family - her father Charles, was Editor in Chief of to sometimes, but mix it with high street. Know the Evening Standard, while her brother is Patrick with content and reaction to our every nuanced your audience and communicate with them Wintour, Diplomatic Editor at The Guardian, and move. New politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, authentically. What you wear really does matter. Jennifer Hall Lee is a feminist film maker and is rumoured to have been behind the scenes for who last year worked in a bar while campaigning, Fulbright Scholar working in California and both Hillary and Michelle Obama. She knows that overturning an incumbent candidate, will in Tamara Cincik is founder and CEO of Fashion Islamabad. a political uniform is a code. January become the youngest Member of the Round Table.

18 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 19 PHOTO? Patrician Press Ups Patricia Borlenghi

The non-profit Patrician Press was formed by Patricia Borlenghi in 2012 after she completed Professor Jean McHale also knowledgeably Independence in 1947. Another of our authors, her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. A children’s imprint, Pudding Press, was contributed an article about healthcare issues, journalist Wersha Bhadradwa has written launched in March 2015. post Brexit, to the same anthology. internationally about women’s rights for over two decades. (Since) ‘the pledge on the side of the big red bus Patricia writes: of an extra £350m to the NHS, nonetheless as The first novel by Anna Vaught that we published the dust has settled, it is increasingly apparent in 2016, Killing Hapless Ally, addresses women’s The philosophy and aim of the Patrician Press Poet Catherine Coldstream who this year was that Brexit will have consequences for the NHS mental health issues; Emma Kittle-Pey’s two is to encourage and promote writers of high shortlisted for the Robert Graves prize, has other than a simple transfer of cash to provide short-story collections, Fat Maggie (2013) and quality fiction and poetry. We are small, contributed to all three anthologies. We were enhanced services’. Gold Adornments (2017) have a feminist and independent and courageous. We strongly also delighted that Christine De Luca, who witty slant; and Duff by Suzy Norman is a road- believe that it is imperative to uphold and was appointed Edinburgh’s Makar, or poet In our latest anthology, Tempest, about the trip novel examining women’s relationships with maintain the quality of contemporary literature laureate, from 2014 to 2017, donated a poem advent of Trump and our present political both men and women. in today’s challenging, competitive and ever- in three languages: Shetlandic, English and tumultuous times (to be published spring 2019), changing technological world. Italian to the My Europe anthology. We are Professor Chantal Mouffe, professor of political Soon to be the Patrician Press Collective, we now in discussion to publish a collection of her theory at the University of Westminster, as well hope to continue to publish books addressing The majority of submissions received by the bilingual poetry in Shetlandic and English. The as Ivana Bartoletti, chair of the Fabian Women’s international political issues, conflicts and press are predominantly by male writers, so it is first bilingual poetry collection we published in Network, have kindly given permission for their equal rights. Proceeds from the anthologies are vital to advocate that women writers still need Italian and English was Arcobaleno-Rainbow by articles (both published in The Guardian this donated to charities, including Help Refugees, to be encouraged and promoted. Sara Elena Rossetti (2013). year) to be reproduced. Europaeum and Amnesty International.

We are proud to have published diverse women With Brexit in full view, we are also very Refugees and Peacekeepers was published after Patricia Borlenghi, who is hearing impaired, writers, who through their creative talents, privileged that Baroness Helena Kennedy QC we ran a writing competition for short fiction has been working in publishing for many years explore many contemporary and complex has kindly contributed an essay about the legal and poetry. All contributions were submitted and plans to retire in 2020. She is the author of issues. Together, we have produced our three problems surrounding Brexit to My Europe. anonymously. The judges were led by Anna several children’s books and divides her time topical and politically-motivated anthology She adroitly forecast the many complications Johnson, (consultant editor for Patrician Press) between Mistley, Manningtree in England and collections of short fiction, poetry and essays. and hurdles concerning cross border rights and and I was thrilled that the shortlisted writers, Castelletto di Vernasca in Italy. contracts and the unresolved problem of the who were subsequently published in the Refugees and Peacekeepers, Irish border would be very difficult for the UK anthology – were all women. edited by Anna Johnson (2017) government to negotiate. She concluded: We extend our congratulations to Gillian The two historical novels by actor and Wearing OBE and coding and Bletchley Park My Europe, “Harmonising law across Europe has raised screenwriter Melanie Hughes - War Changes champion, Prof Sue Black OBE, awarded edited by Anna Johnson and Anna Vaught (2018) standards – to our advantage. Europe-wide law Everything and Midnight Legacy (2017) honorary doctorates by the University of is now integrated into our lives, albeit without are about a progressive woman’s personal London in recognition of their remarkable Tempest, much visibility, but it makes our European struggles, along with her work for the Indian achievements. edited by Anna Vaught and Anna Johnson (2019) engagement safer and stronger.” League in London, culminating in India’s

20 WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD WOMEN SHAPING OUR WORLD 21 ‘Mrs Hughes’ spoke first after Mrs Scurr’s introduction. Her speech to the Prime Minister was brief, but conveyed the hardship she had known her whole life:

“I am a brush maker... while I work I have to cut my hands with wire, as the bristles are very soft to get in. I have brought brushes to show to you. This is a brush I have to make for 2d, and it is worth 10s 6d.

As I have to work so hard to support myself I think it is very wrong that I cannot have a voice in the making of the laws that I have to uphold… I do not like having to work 14 hours a day without having a voice on it, and I think when a woman works 14 hours a day she has a right to a vote, as her husband has…

We want votes for women.”

Norah Smyth and East End, courtesy of the East End Women’s Museum Suffragette and Brick Lane photos, courtesy of Sarah Gavron Bnss Helena Kennedy of The Shaws QC Pr Sophia Duleep Singh stamp Archive : Black Friday Annie Kenney and Annie’s lette Ada Lovelace Noor Inayat Khan Vera Brittain Henrietta and Rosalind Franklin Windrush arrivals Votes for Women U.S. suffragette Elsie Duval

In 1914, Dr Elsie Inglis, one of 500 qualified women doctors was famously dismissed by the War Office with the words “My good lady, go home and sit still”. She ignored this advice and went on to found the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in Belgium, Serbia and France. There were 90,000 Red Cross volunteers during WWI and by the end of the war the majority of them were women. @FabianWomen

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