Suffragette charity screening, The Whitworth

Deeds not words

Votes for Women is a history with its roots in Manchester, as the home of Emmeline Pankhurst and the birthplace of the suffragette movement, so it was a huge honour for Fido to be working with the Pankhurst Trust during the centenary of the first women achieving the vote (2018).

Our focus was the Pankhurst Centre, the former home of Emmeline Pankhurst and now a small museum largely run by volunteers. The house only stands because it was saved from destruction by campaigners in the late 1970s. Ongoing is the campaign to restore the building and develop the museum into one that is truly befitting of its legacy and position as the only museum dedicated to the story of women’s suffrage.

Even many of those living and working in Manchester were not aware of the city’s unique place in the history of Votes for Women. A campaign to co-incide with the centenary would aim to achieve widespread awareness of the Pankhurst Centre and the recognition that it deserves as one of the nation’s most important heritage sites.

A profile raising 2018 began on New Year’s Day with the first wave of leading news pieces about the Pankhurst Centre (inc. The Guardian & BBC Breakfast). However, the planning work really came to fruition with the Pankhurst sitting at the centre of national coverage on the 6 February 1908; the centenary when the legislation was passed giving some women the vote for the first time. It was in the spotlight from first thing in the morning to last thing at night, when a House Party was held by Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst. One of the highlights saw BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour broadcasting its programme live from the parlour where the first suffragette meeting was held.

An International Women’s Day (8 March 2018) film screening of Suffragette in partnership with Village Screen Pop Up Cinema, a public affairs focused #PledgeforPankhurst and the unveiling of the Our Emmeline statue in St Peter’s Square on 14 December 2018, exactly 100 years since the first women voted in a UK General Election for the first time, were part of a year that saw the Pankhurst Centre achieve a place in the heart of the nation.