Women won equal political rights with men in 1928. So, we shall be celebrating the centenary of this long campaign for the Vote in 2028.
Across Calderdale, suffragettes were active: in Hebden Bridge, Lavena Saltonstall, fustian clothing tailoress; in Halifax, Mary Taylor, Poor Law Guardian; and in Todmorden, two suffragettes appeared before magistrates, and were sentenced to imprisonment in Armley gaol.
Jill’s first book, One Hand Tied Behind Us (Virago 1978) soon became a suffrage classic and remains in print nearly 50 years later. Her next suffrage history, Rebel Girls: their fight for the vote (Virago 2006) told the tale of the campaigners across vast Yorkshire.
Jill is Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies [CIGS] at the University of Leeds. She lives in Mytholmroyd.