bodleianlibs:International Women’s Day Treasure TuesdayPictured above are three items which relate t
bodleianlibs:International Women’s Day Treasure TuesdayPictured above are three items which relate to the fight for equality. Two are souvenirs of Women’s Suffrage events, and the other is Magna Carta.While we may have established the principle that everyone is equal under the law in 1215, it would be another 703 years until women won the right to vote in the UK.These unofficial souvenirs were printed by Mrs S. Burgess, commemorating key protests and rallies from thecampaign for women’s right to vote. The floral borders and portraits of themovement’s leaders, printed on a delicate Japanese paper, were noted – with theimplication that they were somewhat frivolously feminine – in Votes for Women, the journal of theWomen’s Social and Political Union.Around 8.4 million women won the right to vote in 1918 with the Representation of the People Act. While several women MPs ran for office that year only the Sinn Féin candidate, Constance Markievicz, won her seat. She refused to sit in Westminster, however, and instead sat in Dáil Éireann in Dublin. The first woman MP in the House of Commons was instead Nancy Astor, who was elected in 1919.As of 2016, only 191 of 650 Members of Parliament in the UK are women.JJ Japanese Paper Souvenirs48, 49MS. Ch. Oxon. Oseney 142c + 142c* -- source link
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