Protests & Suffragettes

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We're excited to be at WestFest!

Come and visit the Protests & Suffragettes stall at Westfest at Cottiers on Wednesday 17th June, 10am–3pm.

We'll be celebrating Glasgow's rich history of protest, activism and the fight for equality, sharing stories of the women and movements that helped shape Scotland and beyond.
Visit our stall to enjoy mindful colouring, badge making, and quick-fire rounds of our Scotland's Suffragette Playing Card Game.
Whether you're interested in social history, women's history, activism and campaigning, or simply curious to learn more, we'd love to chat with you.

Cottiers, 93 Hyndland Street, Glasgow G11 5PU
Wednesday 17th June
10am–3pm
Free event – all welcome
Alongside a fantastic programme of traditional skills workshops, heritage organisations and community stalls, it's set to be a brilliant day celebrating Glasgow's history and heritage.
We hope to see you there!

Suffragette Pennies: A Small Coin, A Big Statement

Penny for your thoughts?

Tiny, powerful, historic — and utterly giftable.

Inspired by the historic "Votes for Women" pennies carried and marked by campaigners, our hand-stamped Replica Suffragette Pennies celebrate the courage, determination and collective action that helped change history.

Each penny is stamped one letter at a time, making every piece unique. Beautifully presented on a historical information card and accompanied by two Suffragette postcards, they're ready to gift straight out of the envelope.

Choose from:
• Vintage-style penny for keeping or display
• Drilled penny with keyring attachment

Perfect for heritage lovers, history enthusiasts, feminists and anyone who loves a gift with a story behind it.

A small keepsake of rebellion. A thoughtful gift. A piece of women's history you can hold in your hand.

OTD Jessie Stephen MBE died in 1979.

Not much was recorded about the efforts of working-class women in the Suffrage movement, but Jessie wrote her autobiography and claimed her place in history.

A fierce and militant activist, Jessie was a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union and at the age of 16, she was vice president of the Maryhill Branch of the Independent Labour Party — she sold copies of “Labour Women” outside St Andrew’s Hall at the same age.

She formed a trade union for domestic workers, and organised with her fellow maids in 1911-1912, holding meetings firstly in the streets and later in Alston's Tea Rooms in Bothwell Street, Glasgow

Jessie was the youngest member of the WSPU Glasgow delegation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George in 1912, and she took part in the first of the ‘Scottish Outrages’, involving dropping acid into postal pillar boxes, in Glasgow in February 1913. After being approached by Syliva Pankhurst, she moved to London and was considered ‘one of the most active members’ of the Workers Suffrage Federation.

Her passionate activism continued throughout her life, and in 1977 she was appointed MBE for "services to the trade union movement"

Jessie’s unpublished autobiography, ‘Submission is for Slaves’, is available in the Working Class Movement Library in Salford.

We’ll be celebrating Jessie Stephen this Saturday at Maryhill Burgh Halls event- Maryhill is Wonderful. Considering Jessie is a Maryhill local- it only seemed right! Come join us for the day at this incredible FREE event.

🚨Upcoming Suffragette Stall alert – 17 June!

Right now, we just can’t get enough of our Suffragette Stall- so we’re taking it over to WestFest

On Wednesday 17th June, 10am-3pm, we’ll be at Cottiers for A Celebration of Glasgow: History, Heritage & Traditional Skills. We’ll be there with badgemaking, colouring in, lightning rounds of our Scotland’s Suffragette Playing Card Game & more as we chat with schools from around Glasgow.

WestFest is Glasgow’s biggest cultural and community festival and every June captures the imaginations of participants, residents and visitors in the West End of Glasgow.

We’ll be joined by other incredible organisations: Scotland’s Traditional Skills Forum, Glasgow Zine Library, City of Glasgow College, Glasgow City of Heritage Trust & Under One Roof. What a line up! 🤩

Join us for this FREE event & learn more about what WestFest has in store for the rest of the month.

OTD Dr Mary McNeill died in 1928.

A member of the Orcadian Woman’s Suffrage Society, Dr Mary McNeill was an exceptionally talented medical professional, who was awarded four different medals from three countries for her work during WW1.

After studying music and languages in Germany and Switzerland, Mary received her medical education at Queen Margaret College (now Glasgow Uni), graduating MB. Ch.B. in 1905. In 1918 at the outset of WW1, she joined the staff of the Scottish Women’s Hospital- led by Dr Elsie Inglis- and served with them until the end of the war.

Mary spent her life travelling the world to provide medical treatment to those in need. She practiced medicine in Orkney, London, Leicester, Northern France, Salonika, Serbia, Greece, Palestine and East Africa to name a few.

Dedicated to her work, family and equal justice- her obituary remembers her:

“Those who knew Dr Mary McNeill loved her for her upright character, her unselfish life, her devotion to her family, and her loyalty as a colleague. The deep joy she took in living was a source of inspiration to her friends. [...] She might’ve well been called ‘the beloved physician’.”

There are currently no known pictures of her.

Help to keep stories like Mary’s alive through sponsoring one of our Education Packs, which contain our Rent Strikers & Suffragette zines, Suffragette Playing Cards game, and extensive teacher’s notes and lesson plans exploring the history of Scotland’s Women’s Suffrage. The Pack is designed for late Primary and early Secondary students.

🚨Upcoming Suffragette Stall!

On Saturday 13th June, we’re delighted to say we’ll be at Maryhill Burgh Halls with our Suffragette Stall for their Maryhill is Wonderful Event, celebrating 170 years of Maryhill.

We’ll be hosting activities like:

🎨Badgemaking w/ incredible feminist & activist slogans
✏️Mindful colouring w/ designs of our STEM Suffragettes
⚡Lightning rounds of our Scotland’s Suffragette Playing Card Game
🗣️Chat’s about Scotland’s herstories & why they’re so essential to protect
💜& More!

Come & catch us from 12pm-3pm! See you there!

Maryhill is Wonderful is NEXT SATURDAY, 12pm-3pm! 🎉

We're celebrating 170 years of Maryhill with bouncy castles, face painting, balloon animals, arts & crafts, community stalls, the Partick Thistle FC exhibition: all at the Halls, plus loads more happening across the other venues too.

With stalls and activities by Protests & Suffragettes, Glasgow Afghan United, Maryhill FC, Jobs & Business Glasgow, IntoUniversity, Maryhill Against Racism , Greenpeace Glasgow and more!

and of course The Maryhill Hub Cafe will be open.

Free, fun, and for everyone. Don't miss it! ❤️

Thanks to our partners The Maryhill HUB, Maryhill FC and The Punch Bowl.

A couple of weeks ago, we partnered with Kinning Park Complex to put on a special screening of the documentary Caroline Walker: Women’s Work, directed by Nicola Black & we had an INCREDIBLE time!

We were lucky enough to have Nicola come along to the screening & answer some of our questions afterward.

We took our Suffragette Stall & badge-maker, where we got to create special, Kinning Park Complex themed badges that celebrated the 30th Anniversary of their Community Sit-in. The sit-in in 1996 saw a group of young women and mothers stand up and demand the centre be put into community hands, when it was faced with closure by the council. They occupied the building 24/7 for 55 days straight, leading to a victorious community buyout.

A big thank you to Kinning Park Complex , Nicola & everyone who came along to the screening. If you missed out on this one, never fear! We’ve got plenty of events coming up in June- keep your eyes peeled for more details! 👀

🚀 We'd like to introduce Laura who is leading our Business Development!

Thanks to our Build It Funding from Firstport , we have been working with Laura Brown to develop our income generation strategies.

Laura has held several senior leadership roles in audience and income development within the arts and museums sector, social enterprise, and the third sector.

Laura recently launched Impact Catalyst Partners where she and her co-founders work with various third sector and arts organisations to develop their income and communication strategies. Laura said, 'I was really interested to work with Protests and Suffragettes as it was obvious that their artistic offer, their method of working alongside communities, and their artworks were clearly a scalable proposition. I like the fact that they do not shy away from the history of women's protest and how relevant that issue remains today. Having started my career in the arts, it's wonderful to be involved with an organisation which has so much artistic integrity and passion. I'm really looking forward to learning more about the fearless women of Scotland who came before us and how their protest and suffering helped shape modern society.'

Thank you once again to Firstport for supporting our journey to sustainability!

💥 P&S Patreon Live Gathering 💥
🚀 The History of Kinning Park Complex’s Community Sit-in, 30 Years On…

This Saturday 30th, from 10-11am, we go live on our Patreon with our very first Special Guest Ren Clark! Ren is the Events and Volunteer Coordinator for Kinning Park Complex ex & they'll be talking about KPC's present, as well as its history, and the current Anniversary Celebrations they've been involved in organising.

"We have to try and change things, and we have to do it... from a grass roots level."

We’ll also be sharing from our oral history interview of Helen Kyle, one of the activists involved in the Sit-In. Helen's background was in community development and she knew how to organise, so when the Town Council announced the building would be shut and would no longer be a community centre, she sprang into action 🗣️

Join us for just £5! (the price of a fancy coffee or sandwich ☕ 🥪)

That £5 helps support our work – and by joining our Patreon as a Community Champion, you’ll get access to events like this one, our exclusive Discord chat, and more!

We’ll see you, live, this Saturday! 👋