Enquiry 3 Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue?

1. Enquiry 3Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue?

2. Enquiry overview • Lesson 1: Why did Manchester City Council pay for a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst? • Lesson 2: Why is there a statue of Alice Hawkins in Leicester? • Lessons 3–5: Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue? • suffrage case studies • male-centric media • statue design • Outcome activity: • Write an extended paragraph answering the enquiry question and design your own suffrage statue.

3. Lesson 4Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue?

4. Lesson 4 overview • Content covered in the lesson: • Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. • Why was this produced? • Our Island Story and male-centric history. • What lessons can statues teach in the present?

5. Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue? Recap Recap: Discussion Should it be the suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett? Should it be the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst? Should it be the working-class suffragette Alice Hawkins? Or someone else?

6. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls Q:What can you see? Q: What do you think this book is about? Have a look at the following pages from inside the book. Q: What is this book about?

7. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls This is the website for a book that was a surprising bestseller in 2017. Q: What do you notice about the stories in the book?

8. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls As it says on the book’s website: ‘Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls is a collection of illustrated stories that celebrate extraordinary women. Real women of the past and the present who have achieved incredible results, despite all odds. Rebel girls whose actions have changed the course of history. Painters, scientists, dancers, chefs, astronauts, jazz singers, pharaohs, boxers, writers, political leaders… from every corner of the globe!’ Q:So, what is this book about?

9. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls The book was written by Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli, two Italian women who moved to the USA in 2011. They financed their book through crowdfunding on Kickstarter and IndieGogo. They were hoping to raise $40,000 to print 1,000 copies. They ended up raising over $1 million, making it the most highly funded original book in the history of crowdfunding. Since its publication in 2016, the book has sold over a million copies in 36 languages.

10. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls In an interview with the Guardian, they said: ‘We saw how children’s media and books were still packed with gender stereotypes, and we really wanted to create something that could break the rules, with a new type of female protagonist, and examples of strong women from the past and present who have done incredible things. We really wanted to show the true variety of fields, disciplines and jobs, just to show the full capabilities of women and to inspire young girls to believe they can try to do anything. Q:Why did Cavallo and Favilli choose to write a book about 100 extraordinary women?

11. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls Both authors felt that they had to write a book to try to inspire young girls with stories of what women can achieve because of how few books there are written about strong women. This video advertising their book makes the point.

12. Our Island Story and male-centric history It’s not just children’s books that focus on men. This rather different, more traditional, history book, recommended by former prime minister David Cameron, features in its index (as we counted): 165 men 29 women 92 battles

13. Our Island Story and male-centric history Simon Schama’s recent three-volume history of Britain is no better. The books accompanied a documentary produced by the BBC. The third volume of the series (1776–2000) features in its index (as we counted): 398 men 65 women That’s roughly 85% men.

14. Our Island Story and male-centric history The authors of Rebel Girls wrote this book to correct the huge gender bias that is present in so many books and to try to correct the fact that so many stories and histories of inspiring individuals are stories of inspiring men – not women. But these authors didn’t just choose to write any old book about women. They unashamedly and unapologetically chose stories of inspiring women to try to inspire girls. They used history for their own purpose in the present Q:So why else did Cavallo and Favilli choose to write a book about 100 extraordinary women?

15. Our Island Story and male-centric history The designers of the statues we have looked at chose to do a similar thing. They also chose to recognise the achievements of inspiring women from the past, who had been overlooked. Campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez was so outraged by the fact that all the statues in Parliament Square were of men that she campaigned for a statue of a suffragette. She wanted to make sure that women were remembered and recognised.

16. Our Island Story and male-centric history These statues do more than just remember women. Like the writers of Rebel Girls, the creators have chosen to design statues of inspiring women for their own purpose in the present. The people who put up these statues are suggesting that their subjects deserve to be celebrated and looked up to.

17. Our Island Story and male-centric history Remember what one primary school pupil said of the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst at the planning meeting? She believed that the statue and story would encourage more people to fight for equality. There is still lots to do to make life more equal for men and women. Emmeline Pankhurst made change possible. Since then, our parents, grandparents and great grandparents have been working hard to carry on her vision and her principles. And my generation will make sure we have a truly equal world.

18. Our Island Story and male-centric history It’s not just the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst that has been used in this way. The statue and story of Alice Hawkins have also been used to teach lessons in the present.

19. Our Island Story and male-centric history Alice Hawkins’ great-grandson, Peter Barratt, believes that her story shows us how to be a good citizen in our society. He began one of his many talks about her, to school students, saying: ‘If you want a lesson on citizenship, it starts right here. The story of Alice Hawkins and her fight for her human rights and the rights of women of the day.’ The website he set up about Alice Hawkins makes it clear what this lesson is, by quoting the words of Alice Hawkins herself. ‘You must use your vote, we suffered for it.’

20. Enquiry: Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue? You are going to design your own statue to commemorate women who campaigned for the vote. You might want to use your statue as a moral lesson from the past for the present. You might want to choose a suffrage campaign story that can inspire people to fight for equality today. You might want to choose a suffrage campaign story that can remind people of the importance of voting. You might not want your statue to teach a moral lesson and that’s fine. You just need to make your own decision. Should it be the suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett? Should it be the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst? Should it be the working-class suffragette Alice Hawkins? Should it be one of the four women we looked at last lesson? Or someone else?

21. Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue? Activity: Interrogating the database Your challenge is to find out about all kinds of different women who fought for the right to vote by looking at this database. • Tasks: • As you study the database, you might like to try to find: • someone from the same area as you • someone from the same background as you • an ordinary story • an unusual story • an inspiring story

22. Whose suffrage campaign story should we commemorate with a statue? Plenary: Continue your discussion. Why do people put up statues of people from the past?