British women join living artwork to mark 100 years since vote

0
165

LONDON: Thousands of women wearing the colours of the Suffragettes marched through British cities on Sunday in a living artwork to mark 100 years since British women won the right to vote.
Participants were given a piece of fabric to wear in either green, white or violet and choreographed to appear as a flowing river of colour through the streets of London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
Many were carrying banners hand-made for the Processions event in collaboration with female artists.
Frustrated with years of peaceful campaigning for the vote, Suffragettes adopted militant tactics, chaining themselves to railings, breaking shop windows and blowing up post boxes.
The 1918 Representation of the People Act extended the right to vote in Britain to women over the age of 30 who had a minimum property qualification.
But it was not until 1928 that women gained the same rights as men with the Equal Franchise Act, which reduced the voting age to 21, regardless of property ownership.