The Great Women of Bow

The Great Women of Bow

Join me on a walk through the unknown East End in the footsteps of four great women: Annie Besant, Eleanor Marx, Sylvia Pankhurst and Minnie Lansbury who over a period of forty years worked for women's rights. They fought for the right to vote, to organise, for contraception, for peace and for the alleviation of the grinding poverty that characterised the area.
They were at the head of a movement that inspired thousands of women from the Matchgirls, the East London Federation of Suffragettes to the rent strikes of the twenties. They worked with and were aided by some of the great men of the Labour Movement: Keir Hardie, Clement Attlee and George Lansbury all make an appearance.

These women were instrumental in the birth of the Labour Party and the formation of the great industrial unions at The Labour Party's heart. We'll be talking about the match girls strike, women's suffrage, pacifism, epidemics and the welfare state. As relevant today as it was then, it's an inspiring story of how our forebears created a better society for us all.

We start near Bow church by a statue which now is a commemoration of the Match girls strike It’s close to Bow Road on the Districtct line or Bow Church on the DLR. We end in a fine pub overlooking Victoria Park and close to Mile End tube

Fee is £12, payable by PayPal, Bank Transfer or by card and cash on the day

Biographies and Timeline

Annie Besant - married at 20. Completely unprepared for marriage. 2 children. Scandalous divorce. Campaigning journalist for atheism, rights of women and anti-poverty. Prosecuted for promoting contraception. Elected to London School Board. Wrote about the Match Girls and became secretary of the matchgirls union in 1888. Collaborator and sometime rival of:
Eleanor Marx - youngest daughter of Karl. Worked with Match Girls and then key trade union leaders in the East End especially during the Gas Workers and Dockers Strikes of 1889 which led to the formation of the great general workers unions of 20th Century. Friend and drinking companion of leaders of British Labour Movement including Keir Hardie. So knows:
Sylvia Pankhurst; daughter of Emmeline. Comes to the East End in 1912 to support George Lansbury's re-election campaign on the basis of votes for women. She forms the East London Federation of Suffragettes, a key force both in the suffragette movement and within the East End. Expelled by Emmeline for being too close to the Labour movement (Keir Hardie was her long-term lover) she took an anti-war position in 1914. Trying to protect the interests of working class women, Sylvia sets up workshops, nurseries, clinics and restaurants in the area. One of her closest lieutenants was:
Minnie Lansbury, married to George's son. She's a suffragette, teaching union activist, women's organiser and councillor. She is imprisoned along with the whole council in 1921 for using council funds to protect the enemployed. Released from prison after the government backed down, Minnie died 3 months later at the age of 30.