UK Feminista march to Parliament

**Dr Helen Pankhurst joined a march to parliament in aid of women’s rights last month. **

100 years ago suffragettes, lead by Emmeline Pankhurst, marched on Parliament. On October 24 they did so with the support of her granddaughter Dr Helen Pankhurst to continue defending women’s voices in parliament.

“A movement of ordinary men and women” is the tagline of UK Feminista, the organisers of the event. The charity organised a lobby against parliament for which constituents emailed their MPs about women’s issues to organise a meeting with them on Wednesday 24 October.

The day began with talks by Amber Rudd MP, Yvette Cooper MP and Caroline Lucas MP. The talks focused on the impact of cuts on women, rights of refugee women, the representation of women in parliament, low rape prosecutions, rights of women to abortion and access to childcare.

Nevertheless criticism was voiced over both the low turnout of MPs at the event – of which all were female – and of the ratio of female to male MPs which is currently 1 to 4. However in Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron said there were more women in work than at any time before.

Support for the event was wide-ranging, and attendees’ banners highlighted different problems in women’s position in society. Amongst them were: “where have all the women gone?”, “women not objects”, “no more female genital mutilation”, “our bodies, our lives, our right to decide”, and “women’s mental health needs should be met with support not prison”.

Ali Sargent, a first-year Liberal Arts student at Kings College London, spoke to the Boar at the event. She was concerned by “changes to childcare or working tax credit”, fearful of what this meant for women and young girls.

This opinion was supported by Kat Baynard of UK Feminsta who added: “Childcare support for low-income women is absolutely crucial to their economic independence.”