How Women Won the Vote

17 March 2018 – 3 May 2018

Our ‘How Women Won the Vote’ exhibition marked the centenary anniversary of (some) women receiving the right to vote. Visitors could find out about women’s suffrage and gain insight into the suffragette’s struggle to ensure that women had the same rights as men. The exhibition included details about the women who drove the movement for suffrage, how they were imprisoned, force fed and beaten, as well as the North East’s history of women’s suffrage and women in politics.

Along with clips and songs from both Mary Poppins (1964) and Suffragette (2015), the exhibition featured an unofficial ballot box, where visitors could vote for who they thought was the most influential woman featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition was officially opened by Dame Vera Baird, Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria, who gave a speech alongside Ruth Berkley from WHiST (Women’s Health in South Tyneside) which paid tribute to the women who drove the movement for suffrage.