Votes For Women

To go anywhere in the world, collecting stories by or about women as she goes. 

I bought this key ring in the House of Commons gift shop and have released it in the cache closest to the Houses of Parliament. The key ring commemorates the fight for universal suffrage and symbolises ongoing worldwide campaigns for equality for women and men. 

I would like like everyone who helps the bug on her journey to leave a story in the log that relates in some positive way to a woman or women. It could be a story about someone who has inspired you; could be a story about yourself or someone you love; it could be anywhere or anything in between. 

This is meant to be a celebration of women rather than anything divisive; if your story relates to someone who has changed gender then that's just as welcome as any other story.

This bug's mission was inspired by Emily Wilding Davison, a British campaigner for women's suffrage in the early years of the 20th century. On the night of the 1911 census, she hid in a cupboard in the chapel of the Palace of Westminster: her address on the census was therefore recorded as the House of Commons, at a time when women weren't allowed to vote, let alone sit in the Commons or Lords. Although she also participated in some more aggressive forms of protest, this act beautifully illustrates the many imaginative and peaceful acts of subversion employed by suffragists and suffragettes in pursuit of equality. Emily later attempted to affix a protest banner to the King's horse in the course of the 1913 Epsom Derby: she was trampled by the horse and died from her injuries four days later. In 1999, the veteran activist and politician, Tony Benn, set a commemorative plaque (without permission) in the cupboard at the Palace of Westminster where Emily hid on the night of the census. The cupboard is now a cleaning store and the plaque is maintained lovingly by the cleaning staff. I owe my ability to vote, and my job in the Ministry of Justice, to Emily and her comrades.