Catching Up & New Campaigns: Save the Women’s Library
My break from writing was much longer than anticipated. However, the silence has been deceiving.
The modern campaigner & the suffragette: Laura meets Emily
Photo: Toastyoneuk
Over the summer I have been working closely with Northumberland County Council and other North East partners to put together an exciting series of events to celebrate as well as commemorate a brave Northumbrian heroine, Emily Wilding Davison, whose Epsom Derby protest took place one hundred years ago next June.
The 11th October was Emily’s birthday and it is now also the UN’s International Day of the Girl, a day to challenge discrimination and injustice:
Girls face double discrimination due to their gender and age, and are the most marginalised and discriminated group across the globe. This new world day will help to prioritise girls’ rights as the salient issue in the coming decades.
It’s a clear sign that Emily’s struggle for equality is far from over and that we must continue to keep pushing for fairness, in this country and abroad.
Save the Women’s Library campaign – It’s no joke
Photo: Toastyoneuk
The Women’s Library has been central in the development of my play about Emily. The first spark of an idea for To Freedom’s Cause came from reading Margaret Davison’s desperate letter to her daughter, who lay gravely ill hundreds of miles away in Epsom.
Unfortunately this remarkable resource is under threat. There has been some talk of it being ‘saved’ by the LSE. However, many supporters of the Women’s Library would dispute this.
There is an active campaign run by #saveTWL to ensure that the collection and staff remain in the purpose built library. It is worth remembering that Public money has been invested in the library. Heritage Lottery Funding provided £4.2 million for the project only a decade ago.
Emily would no doubt have wholeheartedly supported this campaign. She is probably best known for being an intellectual woman and would have greatly appreciated such a resource as the Women’s Library.
There is more to follow about the play shortly. But for now, the fight for the Women’s Library continues.
