Pankhurst great-granddaughter urges women to take inspiration from suffragettes

The great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst sees great parallels between the battle for women’s right to vote 100 years ago and the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements of today.

Dr Helen Pankhurst said the suffragettes fought for many years to win universal suffrage and that change did not happen overnight.

And she urged the women of today to take inspiration from the suffragettes.

“They were persistent and they were resilient and they kept at it. They supported it and it was very difficult. They had to keep at it,” Dr Pankhurst said.

“I think there is something about knowing this struggle has been there for the millennium and it will continue… things are shifting very slowly – but they are shifting.”

Dr Pankhurst was speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to discuss the impact of the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment and abuse.

It is 12 months since the campaign was launched when the first women came forward to make allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Dr Pankhurst said the world was in middle of a resurgence of “dinosaurs”, but equally this was being challenged by people believing in equality.

“Right now we are poised in a world with the resurgence of the dinosaurs, with the ideas of male power and entitlement and a single person’s view should dominate,” she said.

“We have got that globally getting more and more power.

“On the other hand, more and more people are believing in equality and understanding that equality is across the board.

“It’s colour, it’s gender, it’s sexuality, it’s all these ‘isms’.

“I think that (it’s about) understanding we have to work together across our issues and that we just can’t talk about women’s rights without addressing intersectionality.

“For me, the lesson is the major force is not the disagreements within us, it’s a world balance between those that believe in entitlement and those that believe in equality.

“We have to work together if we want to ensure change.”

She said that #MeToo was important in not just challenging violence against women but also other inequalities.

Dr Pankhurst asked: “To what extent is the feminist movement when it is talking about #MeToo is it challenging just violence against women? Is it challenging the whole power structure that underlies the reason why this happens?”

“What’s the cause and effect of this? Is it fundamentally challenging unequal power? Is it just challenging that from a gender perspective or from a wider perspective, from a citizen perspective?”

Dr Pankhurst also called on more men to speak up against violence and abuse on women.

“It seems to me we are only hearing one voice and we need to hear both.”