The Project
The Royal Holloway Suffrage Centenary Project is a student led Project within the local community led by community action volunteers.
Royal Holloway student volunteers will be assisting at weekly workshop sessions with local youth groups. These arts and craft based activities are aimed at inspiring the young people on their own voice within politics, as well as their democratic right to vote. This is an important topic to introduce young people to because of the struggles that people have had to go though in the past. The weekly sessions are all creative arts, crafts and drama based. At the end of the project, the aim is for the young people to help design a mosaic based on the suffrage centenary, which will be placed on the new build in Egham high street.
Students will be writing about their experiences on running sessions with a local youth group on our blog page!
Royal Holloway student volunteers will be assisting at weekly workshop sessions with local youth groups. These arts and craft based activities are aimed at inspiring the young people on their own voice within politics, as well as their democratic right to vote. This is an important topic to introduce young people to because of the struggles that people have had to go though in the past. The weekly sessions are all creative arts, crafts and drama based. At the end of the project, the aim is for the young people to help design a mosaic based on the suffrage centenary, which will be placed on the new build in Egham high street.
Students will be writing about their experiences on running sessions with a local youth group on our blog page!
The Suffrage Movement
The Women’s Suffrage movement began in 1840, and was originally a peaceful campaign led by Millicent Fawcett under the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). In 1904, a NUWSS member, Emmeline Pankhurst broke away from the group and formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). This group would later gain the name the Suffragettes. They became a militant political group often chaining themselves to fences outside Parliament and throwing stones at shops. In 1913, the infamous Emily Wilding Davidson became a martyr for the cause after throwing herself in front of the King’s horse, Amner, at the Epsom Derby.
In 1918, after the First World War, women over 30 (who owned property) and all men over 21 were given the right to vote by the ‘Representation of the People Act’.
It was not until 1928 that all women over the age of 21 were given the vote in the UK.
In 1918, after the First World War, women over 30 (who owned property) and all men over 21 were given the right to vote by the ‘Representation of the People Act’.
It was not until 1928 that all women over the age of 21 were given the vote in the UK.
Inspirational Political Figures
Margaret Thatcher: First Female Prime Minister
Winston Churchill: Lead Britain through WW2
Suu Kyi: Won the Nobel Peace prize in 1991 for fighting for democracy in Burmese
Benazir Bhutto: First female president of Pakistan
Nelson Mandela: broke down the apartheid in South Africa
Emmeline Pankhurst: Leader of the WSPU
Martin Luther King junior: Led the Civil Rights Movement in America
Millicent Fawcett: Leader of the NUWSS
Rosa Parks: Known as “the First Lady of Civil Rights”
Indira Gandhi: First Female Prime Minister of India, paved the way for democracy
Winston Churchill: Lead Britain through WW2
Suu Kyi: Won the Nobel Peace prize in 1991 for fighting for democracy in Burmese
Benazir Bhutto: First female president of Pakistan
Nelson Mandela: broke down the apartheid in South Africa
Emmeline Pankhurst: Leader of the WSPU
Martin Luther King junior: Led the Civil Rights Movement in America
Millicent Fawcett: Leader of the NUWSS
Rosa Parks: Known as “the First Lady of Civil Rights”
Indira Gandhi: First Female Prime Minister of India, paved the way for democracy