Wednesday 4 August 2010

Muriel Matters

I just saw on the news that the leading suffragist Muriel Matters had a plaque unveiled in her honour. She was the first woman to 'speak' in Parliament and lived in Hastings where the plaque has been placed.




Murial Lilah Matters - 1877 - 1969




Muriel was an Australian born suffragist, lecturer, journalist, educator, actress and elocutionist.  Matters is best known for her work as a prominent members of the Women’s Freedom League (WFL)and an agitator for women's suffrage in the UK.

She is most recognised for chaining herself to the grille of the Ladies’ Gallery in the British House of Commons on 28 October 1908. The ‘grille’ was a piece of ironwork placed in the Ladies’ Gallery that obscured the women’s view of parliamentary debates. Her non-violent solution to chain herself to the grille was the centre-piece of a larger protest conducted by the Women’s Freedom League.

In 1924 she ran as the Labour Candidate for the sea of Hastings in the General Election.



Anything I have aspired to be, even if I changed my mind afterwards, is in owing to activists like her. When I was younger I wanted to be a doctor, and I'm so lucky that my own judgement was what stopped me, not the society I live in. 

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