With a new bill going through Parliament seeking to curb right of assembly and demonstrations, this programme from the series, The Battles that Won Our Freedom, first broadcast in 2019 seems highly relevant.
All the more so given the events of Saturday on Clapham Common.**
"Dr Sharon Thompson tells the story of the struggle of Victorian women, led by a largely forgotten figure called Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, to win wives a crucial freedom: the right to own their property, keep their own earnings, and to be counted under the law as citizens in their own right.
Energy trader Julie Arnold finds out how the 1882 law that resulted from this struggle shaped the result of her 2017 divorce case.
And Dr Thompson also explores how the struggle for separate property rights helped to pave the way for women winning the vote in the early 20th century.
First broadcast in 2019.
Producer: Phil Tinline*
Location; Britain
Picture, Mrs Pankhurst, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson
*The Married Women's Property Act, The Battles That Won Our Freedoms, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002196
**Sarah Everard: Police remove people at Clapham vigil, BBC News, March 14th, 2021, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-56388455
No comments:
Post a Comment