I’m honoured to be the guest speaker for the 2018 Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Lecture. I’ll be delivering a Cycling to Suffrage Talk with a focus on how cycling was part of Sylvia Pankhurst’s personal and political life.
The 2018 Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Lecture takes place on Saturday 16 August, 7:00pm at Wortley Hall near Sheffield. Refreshments and further discussion to follow.
There will be several bike rides in varying distances during the day to get you on your bike and ready for the talk! The talk and rides are part of the campaign to support a new statue of Sylvia Pankhurst in Clerkenwell.
You can contribute to the campaign at: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sylviastatue
For more details and to register please contact @pedal4progress, @mdobney or @sylviastatue on Twitter.
“Pedalling Days: Sylvia Pankhurst and political cycling traditions, from Clarionettes to Suffragettes”
A Cycling to Suffrage Lecture by Dr Sheila Hanlon
Saturday 11 August, 7:00-10:00pm, Wortley Hall
In this illustrated lecture, Dr Sheila Hanlon will trace the history and politics of women’s cycling from Victorian times to today. The talk will focus on the integration of the bicycle into the Edwardian suffrage campaign as a form of transportation, protest and spectacle. Sylvia Pankhurst, an avid cyclist, will be at the centre of the narrative from her early days learning to ride with the Clarion Cycling Club to the adaptation of the bicycle into the battle for the vote for women and beyond. We’ll ride along with lady cyclists from the golden age of the tricycle to the everyday use of safety bicycles with a few surprises along the way.
Dr Sheila Hanlon is an historian specialising in the history of women’s cycling, particularly as it intersects gender politics from Victorian times to today. She completed her PhD at York University, Toronto and held a Vera Douie Research Fellowship at The Women’s Library. Her research has been featured on BBC radio and TV, and published in journals and magazines. Much of her work focuses on the importance of bicycles to the Edwardian suffrage campaign. She also brings history to modern cycling advocacy, working with a number of organisations such as CyclingUK.
Sponsored by the Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Committee, the National Assembly of Women, and Wortley Hall. The lecture will be followed by light refreshments.
**Join us for a day of cycling and suffrage at beautiful Wortley Hall!**
