On this day 100 years ago, Emily Wilding Davison was fatally wounded by the King’s Horse at the Epsom Derby as she stepped in front of it as part of her fight for votes for women. Tragically, this dedicated suffragette died in hospital four days later at the age of 40.
It is worth on this day remembering the courage and resolve of all the suffragettes who fought and endured privation, ridicule, abuse and torture for the basic fundamental right of women to vote. And with nearly one million women in membership of our union, we wear our union colours with pride – purple and green – the colour of those suffragettes.
The suffragettes and their actions were the springboard for all the equality gains that our women have made. And they should be a spur to us to ensure that we all, women and men, allow our voices to be heard in all our democratic processes.
Women are the ones who are keeping families together during this recession. Women are the ones who are caring for others, delivering services under more and more difficult times, queuing at foodbanks, enduring payday loan sharks and losing jobs by the thousands.
So it’s more important now than ever to stand up for our women, to fight to retain the gains we have made, to stop this government chipping away at them and to give people something to hope for and something to vote for.
Let’s celebrate today. Let’s celebrate the purple and green.