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The 1908 Pankhurst Medal: Remembering the Campaign for Votes for Women in Parliament
Author(s) -
UNWIN MELANIE
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
parliamentary history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.14
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1750-0206
pISSN - 0264-2824
DOI - 10.1111/j.1750-0206.2008.00059.x
Subject(s) - medal , parliament , house of commons , politics , commons , political science , ideology , history , law , media studies , sociology , art history
The house of commons has recently acquired the medal awarded to Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). This acquisition provides a timely reminder in 2008 that it is only 90 and 80 years respectively since women in Britain were granted the vote as well as marking the centenary of the ‘rush’ on the house of commons for which the medal was awarded. The ‘rush’ was just one of many occasions when members of the WSPU brought their campaign and protests to the Palace of Westminster. The palace was a site, both physically and ideologically, of suffragette protest, evidence of which remains on the building itself and, increasingly, as the acquisition of the medal suggests, in gestures of marking and remembrance of women's fight for the vote by parliament.