#Emilymatters – Birthday celebrations – Everyone’s invited!
Emily matters is a social media campaign to support and advance gender equality, particularly focusing on the importance of voting. See our #Emilymatters page to find out more about what we do.
# E M I L Y M A T T E R S – B I R T H D A Y C E L E B R A T I O N S
The 11th October is suffragette Emily Davison’s birthday. It’s also International Day of the Girl. Last year we received lots of wonderful Happy Birthday Emily messages and #Votingmatters photos.
This year, in the lead up to Emily’s birthday and the UK release of the pioneering film Suffragette, we would love you to send your #DearEmily messages.
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This is an ideal chance for you to share your reflections on the progress made since Emily and her brave band of sister suffragettes fought to ensure that women of ‘generations yet unborn’ would have the right to vote, to have an equal say in what matters.
- Would Emily be pleased with what she’d see today?
- Are we truly equal?
- What will you do to make a positive difference?
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Emily had a great sense of humour and fabulous flair for creativity. She was known for brilliant campaigning – often with a generous dash of wit that had the Establishment grasping at evermore ridiculous excuses for blocking change. They had no chance.
#DearEmily Events
3rd October
#DearEmily was launched at Saturday’s Women & Politics event in Birmingham. Thanks to everyone who got involved including Hifzha and Nicola featured in our #DearEmily photo montage). The event was a great success and we’ll continue to work with the Sikh Network to encourage women to ‘Step Up, Vote and Lead’.
Historian, broadcaster and #Emilymatters supporter Matthew Ward covered the event via Twitter and Periscope (@HistoryNeedsYou), including footage of my speech, which is featured at the end of this post.
6th October
Emily made several protests in UK Houses of Parliament, most notably when she took up residence there during the 1911 Census, to claim that right on behalf of all women and even today, only 29% of MPs are women. Parliamentary Archivist Mari Takayanagi.
9th October
Kate will be at the Pankhurst Centre’s special screening of Suffragette in Manchester, which includes a post film discussion with Dr Helen Pankhurst (great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst) and Stella Duffy from the Women’s Equality Party.
11th October
Team #Emilymatters will be holding our very first virtual suffragette tea party in honour of Emily Davison on her birthday. Emily lived life to the full and had a multitude of friends, so get your suffragette colours on (purple, white & green), because everyone’s invited!
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Join us via @Emilymatters as we raise a cup to this ‘Bright Sunbeam’ of a woman. From 4.30pm (UK).
We’ve got another suffragette inspired idea for how you can get involved, especially if you have a sweet tooth! We’ve come a long way since Emily and her sister suffragettes set us on the path to equality. Let’s celebrate these remarkable women in style!
We’ll RT & share your #DearEmily messages on Sunday afternoon, or get in touch live and join us virtually!
- Raise a cup & have a slice of cake or something sweet (baked or bought).
- Include a birthday greeting to Emily, with #DearEmily in your message.
- It’s also a chance to get your 21st century suffragette colours on (purple, white & green) – wear them with pride!
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Like Emily Davison herself, we believe in social justice and equality worldwide, not just the right to vote.
We’ve got some big plans in the pipeline, so now’s a great time to get in touch. If the suffragettes had been around today, they’d have been all over social media, so that is at the heart of our campaign.
However, we also have the new #Emilymatters live interactive performance, talks, speeches and my Emily play To Freedom’s Cause, which is the reason for #Emilymatters.
We began as we mean to go on, in the House of Commons, as a means to open up the performance of To Freedom’s Cause and post show discussion on equality matters beyond Westminster’s walls.
If you believe equality matters that voting matters then we’d love to hear from you.
You can find us on:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Our future plans are taking shape and so we’d love you to get involved and be part of our #Emilymatters Crew. Be inspired by remarkable women like Emily Davison, Sophia Duleep Singh and Sylvia Pankhurst but most of all take action.
Listening and valuing others’ contributions is very much a part of what we do. We think the quiet voices often have the most interesting things to say.
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And don’t forget to get your tickets to see the brilliant new film Suffragette, which will be in cinemas UK-wide from 12th October!
Kate Willoughby
Actor & Writer of Emily Wilding Davison play To Freedom’s Cause
It’s time to Step Up | Vote | Lead
