A Tribute to the Suffragettes!

This is not a Feminist rant...there is a property angle to this post.... honest!

Last night I was watching a documentary about the Suffragettes. Living in Epsom I'm very close to the home of the Epsom Derby where Emily Davison was killed pinning a purple, green and white rosette to the Kings horse. 

It might not surprise you to hear that I'm also a Feminist. I find the history of how women got the vote fascinating, not least because it's so recent, I mean sooooo recent... most of us probably knew women who lived before they were given the vote. My granny was born in 1901 after all... there she is, the lovely Olive Perkins.

On Sunday evening I also watched a documentary on Margret Atwood ... she who wrote The Handmaid's Tale.... she is such a quiet, dry humoured lady with a sparkle in her eye. 

The book is small and pretty bleak. It reminded me of the part that stopped me in my tracks. I had been wondering how on earth the powers that be had managed to suppress women, who had been used to a life like mine... able to vote, work, earn and own. Atwood talks about this as putting the butterflies back in the box... she took things that were happening 30 years ago to build the plot. Everything in the book was happening in the world at that time, or had been used to suppress women in the recent past. The thing that finally dis-empowered the women in the book? All their bank account were handed to their husbands, fathers or another 'suitable males' to manage. They had no rights to earn or own. They had no rights to vote or decide.... their lives and bodies were no longer theirs.

Before we roll our eyes and think this would never happen to us ... just remember it was happening just 100 years ago and we knew people born into the end of such a society.... we also live in a world with women who are living this reality too. Just to give you a bit of perspective.. In 1900 there were 2 women in the UK whose job was listed as Architect. Even in the 1950s Margret Atwood remembers being given a book listing jobs suitable for women, it had 5 jobs in it... guess which ones?!... you know you can ....

Scroll forward to this weekend's property conference with Gill Fielding... I was there on Saturday and I hope they didn't change anything for the Sunday... basically there were soo many moments that the stage and the videos were full of women. Gill kept on mentioning that she was an equal opportunity employer and we all laughed! It was funny but I'm sure I wasn't the only woman (or man) in the room who thought yay!

I know that, had I been born a few decades earlier, my life would have been very different.... I would have had to do one of those 5 jobs. My mum wanted to be a designer, a farmer or a gardener... but those were all very difficult areas for a woman to get into ...instead she was a mum and a nurse (two of the five jobs!)... at least she could work, earn and vote!... however, she couldn't have dual nationality (she was born Swedish) when she married my English dad... she also couldn't get a mortgage on her own!

When I first started in property I remember feeling very nervous about being on sites full of men, or even asking a man to paint a wall! Twenty years on there are still few of us women on sites but far more than there ever were. There is still crap to swim through... surprise that I can use a power tool for example and dodging stupid remarks from some planks... I can also claim 'Me Too' for various things that have happened to me at work :(
But I'm here... I can run a business, own a mortgage, have several bank accounts, own a credit card (and the balance) and together my husband and I can create a life on an equal footing.

Thanks to the ladies before me...

Tx