Ayesha Hazarika: Save us from the mansplaining of the Suffragettes

The funeral procession for Emily Davison in Derby in 1913 (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

There has been a flurry of social media activity, selfies of female politicians and broadcasters wearing Suffragette badges and colours around Westminster. Even male MPs were falling over themselves to get inside the cupboard that Emily Wilding Davison famously hid overnight on the night of the 1911 census so that she could say her residence was the House of Commons.

Wilding Davison made history, and arguably made votes for women happen, tragically taking the slogan “deeds not words” literally by dying for the cause when she ran out onto the race course at Epsom, was trampled by the King’s horse and later died of her injuries.

There is debate about whether she intended to kill herself. Some say she wanted to drape the horse’s neck with the Suffragette scarf, but it was a pretty dangerous, high-risk gesture and not for the faint hearted. She knew it was a life or death situation. And that is how passionately the Suffragettes felt about their cause. Many went on hunger strike, were force-fed and suffered great brutality in prison. Many committed acts of vandalism and arson to make their point. A letter to the Telegraph sums it up. “Sir. Everyone seems to agree upon the necessity of putting a stop to Suffragist outrages … There are two, and only two, ways in which this can be done. Both will be effectual. 1. Kill every woman in the United Kingdom. 2. Give women the vote. Yours Truly, Bertha Brewster.”

Today, the Suffragettes are fashionable. They are the rock stars of political activism. Everyone loves them. And I love how so many blokes have jumped on the bandwagon and are praying them in aid as the poster girls for their own brand of politics. Men on the left say that they really wanted to smash capitalism. Men on the right say that it shows why having two female Prime Ministers matters. Only men in politics would try and mansplain the Suffragette movement.

There have even been calls for thousands of Suffragettes who were jailed to be pardoned retrospectively. Of course, our female Prime Minister ducked the question and said that the important thing was to encourage more women into politics. Presumably so they can get abused although the Suffragettes were no stranger to that. A historical postcard sent to Emmeline Pankhurst was published as part of a new exhibition. “You set of sickening fools. If you have no homes, no husbands, no children, no relations – why don’t you drown yourselves.”

What was a suffragette?

Plus ça change. The hate mail and death threats they received 100 years ago is comparable with the online abuse women politicians, activists and writers get today. These days you don’t even need a stamp. Just an anonymous Twitter account and a hatred for women with a voice or opinion you don’t like.

While all the mainstream and social media fanfare about the landmark centenary is course a good thing, and will educate people about the struggles that feminists have faced over the decades, I have an unease that the celebrations and the selfies mask the truth about gender equality. Yes, we have made great progress. Yes, we have a female First Minister and a female Prime Minister, but do not think for one second that the job is done. Nicola Sturgeon is right when she says there need to be more women in real positions of power in politics and also across every other part of society including business, media, the law, academia, science, sport, the arts and medicine.

Women are a long way off having real power at every level of society. We are rarely in the room in anywhere near approaching equal numbers when big decisions take place whether it’s in boardrooms, newsrooms, courtrooms or Cabinet rooms. And these big decisions often have a profound knock-on effect on women down the food chain. Take austerity. There has never been a female Chancellor or Shadow Chancellor in this country. So, a bunch of men decided that it would be a really good idea if the brunt of the cuts after the financial crash fell disproportionally on women. Women often look after the household budgets. Where are their voices and the stories of their lives when these discussions about changing benefits and tax credits are happening?

For all the hashtags trending on Twitter, women in almost every workplace, at all levels, do feel disempowered and unable to speak out about issues that hold them back or harm them – whether it’s how they balance their work with their children or looking after their older parents, how they get a promotion, how they handle sexism or harassment, how they get heard and, of course, how they ask for a pay rise. That doesn’t mean they are victims or not tough enough. It’s cultural, structural and it happens from the bottom right up the top.

There was a great irony in watching the BBC gushing about women’s rights when they can’t even sort out equal pay for its leading ladies. There are also many voices, tales and tributes which are sadly missing from all the celebrations – particularly to do with working-class women and women of colour such as Sophia Duleep Singh and the women who campaigned for the vote in their saris. Let’s remember that the Representation of the People Act on 1918 which we are celebrating,

only gave certain women the vote a hundred years ago – those over the age of 30 and who had property. The same Act gave the vote to all men over the age of 21. Mary MacArthur and Margaret Bondfield were two of the most senior Labour and Trade Union women in the country and they called it a “mean and inadequate little bill”. Nan Sloane, a leading expert in female political history, said that “it enfranchised Margaret and Mary, but not the working-class single mothers widowed by the war who lived in rented slum housing on next to nothing”.

Well connected, wealthy women got the vote in 1918 but women with the least access to power had to wait another decade. And that must be the lesson. Surely the whole point of feminism is to help all women – particularly working class and those from minority, marginalised backgrounds – to have rights and opportunities and a voice. For me, feminism is not just about getting power for yourself, it’s what you use it for and whether you leave the world a better place for other

women less fortunate than yourself. Becoming Britain’s first female Prime Minister was a tremendous personal achievement for Margaret Thatcher especially in the male-dominated Conservative party of the 1980s, but she left an all-male cabinet and didn’t exactly make life easier for low-paid women. As the Suffragettes said, it’s about deeds not words.