Issues affecting women have been under a lot of focus in the last couple of weeks, with the celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 quickly turning to collective grief over the tragic killing of Sarah Everard, which combined with fury over the anti-democratic measures in the government’s new policing bill.

The coalescence of these events precisely pinpoints the purpose of the IWD, which is intended to commemorate women’s cultural, political, and socio-economic achievements and also serve as a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality and violence against women.

Incredibly, IWD has been celebrated for 110 years and originally grew out of the suffrage and labour movements and the demand for better pay and working conditions for women in Europe.

Equal pay legislation was eventually passed in the UK in 1970, but the gender pay gap has not closed to this day and currently stands at 15 to 20 per cent.

Women are suffering disproportionate disadvantage financially and through employment due to lockdowns and the many challenges caused by the pandemic. Unfortunately it is difficult to be precise about current figures because the government has paused the legal obligation to provide gender pay gap reports. Picking up on the theme of this year’s IWD, this is definitely something Brighton and Hove Labour Party Choose to Challenge.

Women have been extremely visible over this extraordinarily difficult year as they make up the vast majority of frontline workers, including cleaners, nurses, care providers, doctors, healthcare assistants, teachers and shopworkers. They need our support and solidarity as much as ever in the ongoing battle for gender and pay equality, as the recent one per cent offer to nurses demonstrates.

There are so many women past and present I would like to pay tribute to at this tumultuous time, but there is one story I would like to share here. It was brought back to my attention by skilled embroiderer Jenny Engledow who has spent lockdown making a beautiful banner in memory of suffragette Mary Jane Clarke, as reported in The Argus last week.

Born in Salford, Mary became a Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) organiser for Brighton in 1910. She lodged with fellow suffragette Minnie Turner in her boarding house, Sea View at 13 Victoria Road, which was commemorated with a blue plaque proposed by the Brighton and Hove Women’s History group and funded by the council, in 2018.

The house served as a haven for British suffragettes who had been imprisoned for the suffrage cause and Minnie was rightly proud that more suffragette leaders and speakers had stayed with her than in any other home.

Other guests of the period included Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, Annie Kenney, Flora Drummond, Mary Naylor, Ada Wright, Lady Constance Lytton, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Vera Wentworth and Emily Wilding Davison.

According to the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, it was from this address that Mary helped build the WSPU operation in the South East of England and ran the movement’s 1910 General Election campaign.

None of us should forget the extraordinary bravery Mary Clarke showed in attending the notorious Black Friday event of November 18, 1910, where women were beaten and sexually assaulted by police over six hours. She returned days later with Minnie to continue the struggle and was arrested for breaking a window and imprisoned in Holloway jail.

Tragically, Mary died of a brain haemorrhage two days after her release and Emmeline Pankhurst was in little doubt that her death was political. She was the first suffragette to die following police violence, hunger strike and force-feeding in prison.

I always think of her sacrifice whenever I have the opportunity to place my vote and never take this right for granted. I am also reminded that sometimes the activists that have won us our more important freedoms had to have the courage to go beyond legal means to right historic wrongs.

I look forward to seeing Jenny’s banner when it goes on display at Jubilee Library and look forward to seeing it flying at future IWD events. I also wish every success to the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal in reaching its target so that we can bring Mary back to Brighton with a visible spot in Pavilion Gardens.

Let’s take inspiration from all the women working on the frontline today and those who secured our rights and freedoms in the past. Let’s keep hope burning for a brighter future and continue the fight for justice and equality.