UK Celebrates Centenary of Women’s Suffrage Demonstrations [audio 8min]

On 9th February 1907, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies organised the first mass demonstration in the fight for the vote. Three thousand women marched from Hyde Park Corner to Exeter Hall -- in the pouring rain. Their bedraggled state when they arrived at the hall gave the demonstration its name -- The Mud March. The banners, the costumes, the highly efficient organisation became a trademark of the marches that followed -- attracting up to a quarter of a million women to take part. On the 100th anniversary of the first demonstration, presenter Martha Kearney is joined by Elizabeth Crawford, who has written widely about the women’s suffrage movement and Krista Cowman, Professor of History at the University of Lincoln. They consider the significance of this form of protest in the battle for women’s suffrage.