Suffragette City

Manchester, the birth place of Christabel Pankhurst – suffragette and co-founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union and tireless campaigner for women’s rights. I wonder how she would have felt last week, more than a century later, to see 800 women descend on Manchester for the largest national women’s event of the year; the Annual Labour Party Women’s Conference.

Frances O’Grady as she addressed the all-woman audience received thunderous applause at Women’s Conference for becoming the first ever female General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

I was delighted when she told me: “I went to university in Manchester; I did politics and modern history in 1977. I loved Manchester because it was the time of new wave and plenty of occupations in Manchester; it was a very lively vibrant city.”

However, things began to change. “When I left it was 1980 so we went through the Thatcher years. We had this terrible paradox of a woman in power who did more to hurt ordinary working women and poor women than what had happened for generations. Many communities in the North West and elsewhere are still suffering the consequences of deindustrialisation, of attacking trade unions, and of many women who took the brunt of that attack on ordinary working people.”

Her voice rises passionately, she continues: “I think life’s pretty tough for young women, especially coming out of college looking for a decent job rather than an unpaid internship. Women have a right to expect a more equal life but I’m afraid that we’re being pushed onto dole queues or dead end jobs or back to the kitchen sink.”

But, Francis is positive about Women’s Conference, saying; it “had a real sense of strength to me and I also got the feeling that we were taking real solidarity from each other. I felt like we’re not going to be pushed back into our box. Adding: “So it’s tough times but as sisters we have to stick together.” And she means it, when we first met she gave me a big sisterly hug!

Angela Eagle became the first openly lesbian Member of Parliament when she came out publicly in 1997. She is now on the front bench and set to be in the next cabinet.

I asked her about what Women’s Conference meant to her:

“Well I think it’s important that we manage to get women together ahead of Labour Party conference to talk about the issues that most concern them. You often get issues like violence against women that aren’t always featured in ordinary party political discussions and certainly don’t appear on the news.

“We also hear about how women are in the forefront of the cuts and are having to cope with the withdrawal of benefits and support for children and older people.”

I asked her what she thought women could personally do about this.

“These women at conference are actually involved in politics and are fighting to keep services and get a government elected that’s going to care about social justice rather than just the top one per cent… if we had a Labour government then they’d be making very different choices. And they wouldn’t be giving a tax cut to millionaires, they’d be trying to preserve services and get young unemployed people back to work.”

I ask her for a final comment for women students: she doesn’t hesitate, saying: “join the Labour Party, get involved, politics is the way you change society and it’s not a spectator’s sport so come and join us.”

Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary spoke proudly about the event saying:

“We’ve had a brilliant women’s conference, women from all over the country, Labour women, getting together to talk not just the about the things that women care about, but also the pressures that women are facing across the country as a result of the frankly shocking things that this Tory-Liberal Democrat government is doing.”

“They’re cutting taxes for millionaires, most of whom are men, but they’re also cutting tax credits, child tax credits for women on low pay. It’s deeply unfair what they’re doing and that’s why women across the country are angry, and that’s the kind of thing we’ve been talking about today.”

She adds “There is a lot of anger. David Cameron famously said calm down dear…” but before she gets into full stride Harriet Harman began her address to the many tea drinking ladies and Yvette was whisked away.

I left feeling quite excited about Women’s Conference; it felt as though heavy barriers had been lifted where the obstacles between individuals had broken down and we were all able to come together, talk and share (and hug!). And the hurdles we need to pass to enact political change seemed a whole lot smaller with the support of other women. We have come a long way since Emily Davison died whilst throwing a suffragette banner in front of the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby just less than one hundred years ago but there is still a fight that continues to this day.

But perhaps there’s a man out there who would like to tell me to ‘CALM DOWN DEAR!’