The New Suffragettes: Should feminism be back on the agenda?

While some women may feel that feminism has become a dirty word, the organization UK Feminista has taken to the streets to demonstrate against the erosion of the hard won rights that have been won since "first-wave" feminism first gained ground over a hundred years ago. Helen Pankhurst, granddaughter of the legendary Emmeline Pankhurst, led the demonstration to Parliament. The demo is covered here by The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/24/suffragettes-storm-parliament-feminism_n_2008361.html

UK Feminista calls itself "a  movement of ordinary men and women campaigning for gender equality". Find out more here:

http://ukfeminista.org.uk/

And in case you don't know who Emmeline Pankhurst was, read here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pankhurst_emmeline.shtml

The history of the original Suffragettes is summarised briefly here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/53819.stm

and here:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suffragettes.htm

A fuller accoount can be found here:

http://www.johndclare.net/Women1_cjbooks.htm

While the Suffragettes campaigned long and hard, especially under Pankhurst's leadership after 1903, but before the First World War they had little success. However, Pankhurst herself along with many other women in factories and fields campaigned for the war effort and it was perhaps this that swung political opinion in their favour. Pankhurst is sometimes remembered for chaining herself to the railings of Downing Street, Buckingham Palace or to a statue in the lobby of the House of Commons (to prevent being hauled off by police before she finished speaking) but although these events happened and chaining was a Suffragette tactic she did not use it herself. She was, however, imprisoned for demonstrating - which deeply affected her. She is also less often mistaken for the tragic Suffragette who threw herself under the King's Horse at the Derby in 1913, but that was Emily Davison. She died shortly after women received equal voting rights with men, in 1928.