Celebrating Women for International Women's Day
To mark International Women's Day the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) Women's Committee held a cross party bouquet laying ceremony in front of the statue of pioneering suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in Victoria Tower Gardens on Wednesday 5th March 2008.
Bouquets in the suffragette colours of purple, green and white were laid by prominent women Members of Parliament. Among them was the Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Ashton, the Minister for Women, the Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP, the Deputy Minister for Women and Equalities and Stevenage MP, Barbara Follett and the Chair of the PLP Women's Committee, Barbara Keeley MP. A short ceremony honoured the achievements of the suffragettes and their sacrifices in the hard fight to win the vote for British women.
After the bouquets had been laid people were invited to join the Parliamentary Choir in the crypt of the House of Commons Chapel to sing 'The Women are Marching On' and other suffragette songs. On the night of the 1911 Census, suffragette Emily Wilding Davison hid in one of the cupboards in the crypt so she could, truthfully, give her address as the House of Commons.
Issued: 10.03.2008
Further information
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