EMMELINE PANKHURST (pictured) is going to get a statue in Manchester after a competition and campaign. But surely this is a fact she'd prefer. Manchester for the first time in its history has more female councillors than male: 49 to 47.
That Manchester, the home of the female suffrage movement, should have achieved this is a delicious moment
110 years since Pankhurst was imprisoned after raising the 'Votes for Women' banner in Manchester's Free Trade Hall, the female representation in the council chamber will have the majority.
Councillor and Confidential writer Joan Davies returned with a 64% share of the vote in the city centre. She said: "It's been a long time coming and something of which the city should be proud."
A brief, cursory search over the internet has failed to find another council in UK history where women are in the majority. But if there has been one then this is still a landmark for Manchester given its radical pedigree.
Manchester Town Hall: for the first time in its history the city has more female councillors than male The original female suffrage pioneer and Mancunian Lydia Becker would also be pleased as punch, and so would Lily Maxwell who was encouraged by Becker to become one of the first women to vote in 1867. Maxwell owned a shop in Manchester and this 'property qualification' led her to being entered on the electoral register as if she were a man.
A test case followed in which the law decided that the term 'man' was ambiguous and should be 'male'. Women were thus explicitly banned from voting and the long campaign for the female vote began, first in a limited way in 1918, then fully in 1928.
Of course, the simple fact that there's more women than men on the council is meaningless in terms of good governance of the city, strong local councillors are needed regardless of sex. But symbolically, in terms of equality, it carries weight. That Manchester, the home of the female suffrage movement, should have achieved this is a delicious moment.
The shades of Mary Fildes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Lydia Becker, Annie Kenney, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Louise Jopling, Shelagh Delaney, Ellen Wilkinson, Shena Simon and many, many other Mancunian female progressives would be proud of Thursday 5 May 2016.
For the record, of the 96 councillors in Manchester there are 95 Labour representatives and one Liberal Democrat, John Leech. The council leader is Sir Richard Leese who has been the leader for twenty years. Could it be a woman next time? Perhaps.
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