Women in Parliament exhibit to open this summer

Tickets are now available for Voice and Vote: Women’s Place in Parliament, a major summer exhibition running between 27th June and 6th October in Westminster Hall.

The free exhibition, within the Parliamentary estate, uses immersive and interactive technologies to tell the story of a century of women’s voices in Parliament, the journey towards universal suffrage and the first female MPs.

Lost historic spaces known as ‘The Ventilator’, ‘The Cage’ and ‘The Tomb’, which were used to segregate women from the business of Parliament, will be recreated.

The exhibition features key historic objects from Parliamentary collections and a series of significant items on loan from around the UK. One of the loans reveals the story of Alice Hawkins, a Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) suffragette from Leicester who was jailed five times for campaigning for women’s rights.

The loan from Alice’s family to the Voice and Vote exhibition includes her original WSPU sash, a ‘Holloway’ portcullis brooch and her hunger strike medal, awarded by the WSPU for “a gallant action”. It is the first time these items have been put on public display. 

Melanie Unwin, co-curator of the Voice and Vote exhibition, said: “This exciting exhibition should really give the public a sense of the barriers that women had to overcome to participate in democracy.”

Extra for groups

Groups are welcome to combine a visit to this free exhibition in historic Westminster Hall with a tour of the Houses of Parliament.

A tour looks at how Parliament works, and visits the Commons Chamber, the Lords Chamber, and Westminster Hall which is almost 1000 years old, plus follows in the footsteps of the Queen at the State Opening.

For more information about the exhibition and tours, go to www.parliament.uk/visit.

(Photo credit: Parliament WOA)