GLASGOW Women’s Library workers are often invited to deliver talks about the work of our unique organisation. From small community groups to conference delegates, schools to academic institutions, we always relish the opportunity to tell people more about what goes on, and who our heroines are, at the only accredited museum in the UK dedicated to women’s history.

We never assume that all the work is done on feminism and it is always good to get a feel for your audience, so we like to play an icebreaker game where we talk about the work we do and why we do it. We often throw this question out: “Can you name a Suffragette?”

Cue the confident chorusing of “Emmeline Pankhurst”. Every time, universally, without hesitation.

So then we ask: “Now, does anyone know the name of a Scottish Suffragette?”

We stress that there is no obligation to speak a name, just the raising of a hand if you know a name. Yet quizzical faces stare back at us in silence and it is rare that any hands are raised or any names are forthcoming at all.

Thousands of women were imprisoned, force-fed, sexually and physically assaulted, verbally abused, vilified. Their physical, emotional and mental health suffered. Some lost their jobs, their children, their families; and a few lost their lives. But so few of us can name even one of them. Why is this?

A year ago we had thought that what many feminists cite as gendered amnesia around women’s historical achievements would be set to shift in anticipation of this, the centenary year of the Representation of the People Act (the 1918 Act that enabled women over the age of 30 who met a property qualification to vote), and that, by this stage in the year, we would have reached “Peak Suffragette”.

It is true, we have seen some remarkable rallying during the year, notably the UK-wide Processions phenomenon where hundreds of thousands of women marched in the four capital cities of the UK.

There have been projects funded across the country to involve communities in commemorations and, of course, there has been invaluable work undertaken in this area for a long time by academics, and championed by organisations such as Women’s History Scotland. Beyond those in the academic or museum sectors, though, there is clearly still work to do.

While there has undoubtedly been solid and successful consciousness raising about the fight for the vote this year more than in any other, individual Scottish women (and the women who fought for the right to vote in other international contexts, particularly Women of Colour) remain nameless and faceless to most people.

Addressing this is one of our aims at Glasgow Women’s Library: we want the names of Scottish Suffragettes and Suffragists to be rolling off the tongue as easily as that of Pankhurst.

Over the years Glasgow Women’s Library has worked hard to retrofit Scots heroines of enfranchisement into the public consciousness.

In our March of Women project of 2015, we partnered with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to stage a re-enactment of Cicely Hamilton’s 1910 theatrical propaganda, A Pageant of Great Women.

Working with a community of 100 women from across Scotland, March of Women inserted 50 names of Scottish women to sit alongside Florence Nightingale, Boudicca and Queen Elizabeth 1 into Hamilton’s original English-focussed script.

We staged the play at our then new home in Bridgeton and then spectacularly processed to Glasgow Green, with our eager audience and local people in tow.

IN the past decade, Women’s Library volunteers have developed a series of six Women’s Heritage Walks across different geographical areas of Glasgow in which Scottish Suffragettes and Suffragists inevitably feature strongly, and these guided walks are delivered to hundreds of locals and tourists each year.

This year, with funding support from the Scottish Government through the Vote 100 Centenary Fund, Glasgow Women’s Library is embarking on some fresh and impactful initiatives to spotlight and celebrate the lives of Scottish women who were in the vanguard of those who fought for the right of women to vote in the UK.

The Suffragette City project is creating two new trails in Glasgow. These are wholly centred on sites relating to women’s suffrage and activists involved in the struggle. Our Women’s History Detectives are hard at work creating new maps that will enable us to see Glasgow, a city still wrestling to shed its masculinised caste, in a new light.

In addition, The Moving Story – a project newly launched at Glasgow Women’s Library last week, and still open to join – aims to bring to life 100 Scottish and international women involved in women’s suffrage campaigning.

Glasgow Women’s Library is pleased to be working with animation and illustration students at both City of Glasgow College and Edinburgh College of Art to produce a new online resource that will be vibrant, accessible and will defy the tendency towards the all too common Mary Poppins styling of campaigning heroines evident in some Centenary gatherings and memorials.

Always mindful that our audiences are broad, we want to create information on, and generate interest in, each Suffragette or Suffragist – from “The General” Flora Drummond to the mighty McPhun sisters – in easily digestible, dynamic ways.

Each animation will be short, with just a couple of intriguing facts about each woman, and links to more detailed information for those who want to learn more.

In returning to the question of why we might not know about women who have made history in Scotland, it is sobering to hear the words of archivist Dr Alistair Tough, currently NHS archivist within library and collection services at the University of Glasgow.

In his 2016 article “Thinking about and working with archives and records: a personal reflection on theory and practice”, he speaks about two memorable – and frankly astounding – pieces of advice given to him by a senior colleague during his first week in the archives profession in Scotland in 1975:

“Never waste time on women’s papers; and make sure that anything earmarked for disposal is actually destroyed, and that no evidence of the matter is kept, lest historians should make a fuss about it later.”

This can be read as evidence of the institutional nature of the purging of women’s lives, achievements and historical contributions from our official records.

It is partly against this significant and indelibly ingrained systemic erasure of women and their historic contributions that the Women’s Library was established in 1991: a reaction against the defaulting to men’s histories as being the only and most significant stories to keep and tell.

But this centenary year can be the catalyst for us all to learn more and be able to advocate for an alternative – and more complete – history of our country so that we can proudly say: “If you think Scotland has produced some great men, you should meet some of our women!”

Glasgow Women’s Library
www.womenslibrary.org.uk