THE forgotten history of Scottish suffrage has been unpacked in a new Top Trumps-style educational game.
Scotland’s Suffragette Trumps rank activists on “gallusness”, “barrier busting” and more, and reveal the hidden stories of the women who campaigned for the right to vote.
These include Jessie Margaret Soga, born in South Africa to a Glaswegian weaver mother and a Xhosa minister father who had attended the University of Glasgow.
Soga co-founded the Hillhead branch of the Women’s Freedom League (WFL) in Glasgow in January 1908. Protests & Suffragettes – the group behind the game – say she’s the only black suffrage campaigner they can find in Scotland and no photographs of her are known to exist.
Seven hundred decks of cards are now being sent to schools “from Shetland to Stranraer” along with 1000 zines after a year-long project that was backed by more than £20,000 in crowdfunding cash.
Lead artist Dr TS Beall commented: “We asked ourselves, ‘how many Scottish suffragettes can you name?’ We realised that much of the history taught in Scottish schools does not include activists who campaigned in Scotland – it’s as if there wasn’t much going on here. But that’s just not the case.
"There were women and men in every corner of the country who fought for the vote 100-plus years ago. So, we set out to develop a resource that highlights the incredible work of Scottish suffragettes and suffragists.”
Protests & Suffragettes is made up of artists, activists and local historians. Dr Yvonne McFadden of Women’s History Scotland said: “Women’s histories are underrepresented in the Scottish school curriculum so this resource is a fun and important tool to make sure these women and their stories are included.”
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