It’s a 100 years since the Representation of the People Act 1918 and women getting the vote – as a proud Northerner I have long been aware of the sacrifices made by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia who founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903 in achieving the votes ….
Their slogan of "Deeds Not Words" was a real call
to action and really captured the mood of the time, as we now all know
passionate women can change the world ……..
Suffragette. Emmeline Pankhurst grew up all too aware of the
prevailing attitude of her day: that men were considered superior to women.
When she was just fourteen she attended her first suffrage meeting, and
returned home a confirmed suffragist. Throughout the course of her career she
endured humiliation, prison, hunger strikes and the repeated frustration of her
aims by men in power, but she rose to become a guiding light of the Suffragette
movement. This is the story, in Pankhurst's own words, of her struggle for
equality.
Queen Victoria is most anxious to enlist everyone who can
speak or write to join in checking this mad wicked folly of women's rights,
with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor sex is bent' - 1870
It was a bloody and dangerous war lasting several decades,
won finally by sheer will and determination in 1928. Drawing on extracts from
diaries, newspapers, letters, journals and books, Joyce Marlow has pieced
together this inspiring, poignant and exciting history using the voices of the
women themselves. Some of the people and events are well-known, but Marlow has
gone beyond the obvious, particularly beyond London, to show us the ordinary
women - middle and working-class, who had the breathtaking courage to stand up
and be counted - or just as likely hectored, or pelted with eggs. These women
were clever and determined, knew the power of humour and surprise and exhibited
'unladylike' passion and bravery. Joyce Marlow's anthology is lively,
comprehensive, surprising and triumphant.
Make More Noise!: New
stories in honour of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage by numerous authors
£7.99 Waterstones (Shop Now)
An incredible collection of brand new short stories, from
ten of the UK's very best storytellers, celebrating inspirational girls and
women, being published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage
in the UK. £1 from the sale of every book will be donated to Camfed, an
international charity which tackles poverty and inequality by supporting
women's education in the developing world.
Featuring short stories by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author
of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize-wining The Girl of Ink and Stars, M.G. Leonard, author of Beetle Boy, Patrice Lawrence, author of the
Waterstones Children's Book Prize-winning
Orangeboy, Katherine Woodfine, author of TheMystery of the Clockwork Sparrow, Sally Nicholls, author of Things aBright Girl Can Do, Emma Carroll, author of Letters fromthe Lighthouse, and more!
'Pink is my favourite colour. I used to say my favourite
colour was black to be cool, but it is pink - all shades of pink. If I have an
accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I'm not doing it ironically,
though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.'
In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us
through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of colour
(The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few
years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today
(abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an
incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our
society, but also one of our culture. Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny and
sincere look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are,
and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.
We have to retell stories of women’s power, re-evaluate what
power is. Acclaimed classicist Mary Beard presents a revolutionary manifesto
for our time, exploring women in power from Medusa to Merkel and presenting a
new feminist roadmap. Hard-hitting, unapologetic and wise.
Beard explores the cultural underpinnings of misogyny,
considering the public voice of women, our cultural assumptions about women's
relationship with power, and how powerful women resist being packaged into a
male template. With personal reflections on her own experiences of the sexism
and gendered aggression she has endured online, Mary asks: if women aren't
perceived to be within the structures of power, isn't it power that we need to
redefine?
They told you you need to be thin and beautiful. They told
you to wear longer skirts, avoid going out late at night and move in groups -
never accept drinks from a stranger, and wear shoes you can run in more easily
than heels. They told you to wear just enough make-up to look presentable but
not enough to be a slut; to dress to flatter your apple, pear, hourglass
figure, but not to be too tarty. They warned you that if you try to be strong,
or take control, you'll be shrill, bossy, a ballbreaker. Of course it's fine
for the boys, but you should know your place. They told you 'that's not for
girls' - 'take it as a compliment' - 'don't rock the boat' - 'that'll go
straight to your hips'. They told you 'beauty is on the inside', but you knew
they didn't really mean it. Well screw that. I'm here to tell you something
else. Hilarious, jaunty and bold, GIRL UP exposes the truth about the pressures
surrounding body image, the false representations in media, the complexities of
a sex and relationships, the trials of social media and all the other lies they
told us.
In 1973, Sue Lloyd-Roberts joined ITN as a news trainee and
went on to be one of the UK's first video-journalists to report from the bleak
outposts of the Soviet Union. Travelling as a tourist, she also gained access
to some of the world's most impenetrable places like China, Tibet and Burma.
During her 40-year-long career she witnessed the worst atrocities inflicted on
women across the world. But in observing first-hand the war on the female race
she also documented their incredible determination to fight back.
The War on Women brings to life the inconceivable and
dangerous life Sue led. It tells the story of orphan Mary Merritt who, age
sixteen, instead of being released from the care of nuns was interned by them
in a Magdalen Laundry and forced to work twelve hours a day six days a week,
without pay, for over a decade. She gives voice to Maimouna, the woman
responsible for taking over her mother's role as the village female circumciser
in The Gambia and provides a platform for the 11-year-old Manemma, who was
married off in Jaipur at the age of six. From the gender pay gap in Britain to
forced marriage in Kashmir and from rape as a weapon of war to honour killings,
Sue has examined humankind's history and takes us on a journey to analyse the
state of women's lives today. Most importantly she acts as a mouthpiece for the
brave ones; the ones who challenge wrongdoing; the ones who show courage no
matter how afraid they are; the ones who are combatting violence across the
globe; the ones who are fighting back.
Sue sadly died in 2015, shortly after writing this book,
today she is widely recognised as one of the most acclaimed television journalists
of her generation. This book is the small tribute to the full and incredible
life she lived and through it these women's voices are still being heard.
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