Suffragette cities: Centenary of women’s vote marked in UK
LONDON — Thousands of women turned cities in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales into rivers of green, white and violet Sunday to mark 100 years since the first women won the right to vote in the U.K.
Wearing scarves in the colours of the suffragette movement that fought for female political enfranchisement, women marched through London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast in events that were part artworks, part parades.
The milestone they observed was enactment of the Representation of the People Act, which in 1918 granted property-owning British women over age 30 the right to vote. It would be another decade before women in the U.K. would have the same voting rights as men.
Sunday’s celebrations were organized by arts group Artichoke, which specializes in large, participatory events. It asked 100 artists to work with women’s groups on banners inspired by the bold designs of the suffragettes, who led a decades-long campaign of protest and civil disobedience to get women the vote.