'Deeds not Words' - Forgotten Birmingham Suffragettes and Suffragists

For too long the importance of Birmingham and the West Midlands in the story of women’s struggle for the vote has been forgotten.
Now we have turned a spotlight on the stories of the women who as suffragists devoted their lives to the cause and the suffragettes whose militant acts resulted in imprisonment and, often, force-feeding.  Dr Nicola Gauld highlights the importance of the their struggle and discusses more in her important new book ‘Words and Deeds: Birmingham Suffragists and Suffragettes 1832-1918’

About the author - Dr Nicola Gauld

Nicola Gauld is a freelance outreach worker and curator based in Birmingham, United Kingdom. She studied History of Art at the University of Aberdeen and attained a PhD in 2006. Since then she has worked on a number of exhibitions and outreach projects including Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts (Fitzwilliam Museum, 2009), Children’s Lives (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 2011), Caught in the Crossfire: Artistic responses to conflict, peace and reconciliation (Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, 2013) and Fight for the Right: the Birmingham Suffragettes, a history project in which students from two local schools explored the suffrage campaign in Birmingham and made a short historical re-enactment film. Her current main role is Coordinator of Voices of War & Peace, an Arts & Humanities Research Council funded First World War Engagement Centre, led by the University of Birmingham. She also works with two organisations, Women’s History Birmingham and the People’s Heritage Co-operative, on community-focused heritage projects, most recently Untold Stories: Birmingham’s Wounded Soldiers from WW1 and Birmingham Women: Past and Present Revisited.

Keywords: Suffragettes, Suffragists, right to vote, Nicola Gauld, Words and Deeds, militant acts, women