I was particularly aware of the diversity of her interests. I never knew Sylvia she died four years before I was born, but I have her name as a middle name and, growing up, her room in Ethiopia became my room, so I was always very aware of her influence. What influence did your grandmother have on your life? It's important to celebrate what the Representation of the People Act achieved, but its partial nature also still resonates, because even today we have that sense of partial success. Having a Parliamentary vote for the first time was about citizenship and political power, and opened the doors to policy change, including women becoming MPs that same year, so it was critical.Īs the flag-bearer of the Pankhurst family now, 2018 feels like an important moment to acknowledge the fight that got us to this point.

Why was 1918 such a pivotal year, and what does the centenary mean to you personally?ġ918 was absolutely pivotal because, after years of false dawns, this was the final moment where some women got the vote. We spoke to Helen about dealing with disagreement in the feminist movement, and what it was like growing up with such an iconic surname.

She's also the great-granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, and the granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst. Suggestions included recalibrating how we value different kinds of work examples about how to counter gender bias in language challenging ‘man-made’ norms that damage all – including men challenging the insidious inequalities wherever we see them – for instance the lack of pockets in girls’ clothes and critically the dangers of being complacent, evident from the seemingly strengthening power of some ‘dinosaurs’ wanting to take us back in time.Helen Pankhurst is a campaigner on international development and women's rights, and senior advisor to charity CARE International. The benchmark itself a useful framework to ensure sustained change. This mood echoes the moral indignation ignited by the suffragettes who forced the issue of gender equality into the limelight.Īt the Hay Festival on the 25 th of May, the audience and I used the framework of my book Deeds Not Words, to reflect on how far we have progressed in women’s rights, but also to look forward to see how we can build and maintain the current energy, to 2028, the centenary of equal franchise. Right now, in 2018, there is a resistance to sexism as usual - as evidenced by #MeToo, #TimesUp, the gender pay gap reporting and all the other ways business as usual is being called out, almost on a daily basis.

Deeds Not Words by Helen Pankhurst