Exeter Hall, The Strand It’s the 9th February 1907 and you find yourself in London. Perhaps you’ve been attending a matinee in one of the many theatres on The Strand. It’s pouring with rain and with your back to The Savoy you look across the street and watch as a long length of bedraggled rain-soaked women climb the stairs to the entrance of Exeter Hall. This strange sight is one of the first public marches for women’s suffrage organised by the suffragist Millicent Fawcett. To see women...

Man removes grille Before the fire which destroyed the Palace of Westminster in 1834, a woman wanting to watch Parliamentary proceedings had to do so via a ventilation shaft in the ceiling. Things weren't much better under Charles Barry's rebuild, which created a dedicated Ladies' Gallery but obscured the view with heavy metal grilles, which also made hearing difficult. Millicent Fawcett wrote: “It was like using a gigantic pair of spectacles which did not fit, and made the Ladies' Gallery a...

Newnham College Cambridge In 1869, Cambridge philosopher Henry Sidgwick set out to disprove the Victorian theory that educated women made unfit wives and mothers. His experiment: a few talks boldly titled "Lectures for Ladies". They proved ridiculously popular. By 1871 it was clear that a residence was needed for the women who travelled from afar to attend. Egged on by others including Millicent Fawcett, wife of another Cambridge academic, Henry Fawcett, by 1880 the whole enterprise had...