In my home city of Manchester, there’s a statue of the influential feminist and activist Emmeline Pankhurst. She was a key figure in the Suffragette movement, fighting for women’s rights alongside Emily Davison, Dora Thewlis and many other women across Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The suffragette movement swept the western world, smashing traditions and upsetting the status quo and we can’t overlook the fact that it didn’t stop in Europe or the US. A world away in Japan, women were campaigning for their right to be seen as human beings in a society that had arguably even more restrictions than the west, with women like Hiratsuka Raicho leading the charge.
A pioneering feminist in Japan, Raicho shook the foundations of her country with the same force as Pankhurst did in the UK. Her character, strength and willpower are contained within the first issue of a feminist magazine she founded called Seito (Bluestocking): ‘In the beginning, woman was the sun. An authentic person. Now she’s the moon, a wan and sickly moon, dependent on another, reflecting another’s brilliance.’
Continue reading “The Thunderbird And The Fight For Women’s Rights”
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