Join us in our celebration of International Women’s Day! The theme, ‘Winning the Vote: Women’s Suffrage One Hundred Years’ on will be explored through music, discussion and debate. Oxford had large women’s suffrage and anti-suffrage organisations. They held many meetings in Oxford Town Hall. The first part of the evening will be an imagined debate between leading local and national speakers from both sides. This takes place in 1912, just after the failed arson attempt by two suffragettes and the subsequent court case in Oxford Crown Court and the failure of another women’s suffrage bill in Parliament.
Come, meet and hear the participants: Millicent Fawcett – President and Founder of the National Union of the Women’s Suffrage Societies (suffragist); Mrs Winifred Haverfield – Secretary of the Oxford Women’s Suffrage Society (suffragist); Annie Kenney – Organiser for the Women’s Social and Political Union (suffragette); Professor Albert Dicey – Vinerian Professor of Law, author of ‘Letters to a Friend on Votes for Women’ (anti-suffragist); Countess of Jersey – President of the National League Opposing Women’s Suffrage; Mrs Humphry Ward – Founder of the Women’s Anti-Suffrage League and editor of ‘The Anti-Suffrage Review’. The debate will be chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC. Suffrage music will be provided by the Windrush Quartet. The second part of the evening will be a discussion and reflection of what the vote means to women in the 21st century. This will be led by Diane Atkinson (historian and author of ‘The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes’); Helen Ghosh (DirectorGeneral, National Trust and future Master, Balliol College, Oxford); Kerry-Anne Mendoza (political journalist, writer and author of ‘Austerity: the Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie’); a member of the Women’s Equality Party and chaired by Anneliese Dodds (MP, Oxford East and Treasury Shadow Minister).
How to book: Contact: oxfordwomen@gmail.com or just drop in.
Entrance: £2 Refreshments included | Wheelchair access
This event is part of Oxford International Women's Festival 2018.
Humanities & Identities
Women's Suffrage 2018
Audience: Open to all
