Exploring suffrage and the women in our history

This year marks the centenary of a key victory in the struggle for suffrage which gave some women the right to vote. Our Women and Power programme explores the lives of those who fought for the vote, as well as those who influenced change throughout history.

With a year of events and exhibitions, you’ll be able to discover how places we care for have been home to women of every background; women of incredible strength and determination, whose voices were often silenced. Join us to explore how their lives helped to shape the modern world.

What we’re doing this year

You’ll find a lot to uncover about suffrage at properties like Killerton, Wightwick, Cragside, and Bodnant Garden, which have very special links to both sides of the movement. 

But many of the stories we’ll be telling reach back much further than the 1918 Act of Parliament that granted women limited voting rights. At over 100 of the places we look after, you’ll have the chance to closely explore the stories of women from across history, some of which have never been told. When you want to dig deeper into these stories, look out for the National Trust podcast  and the guidebook.

There are also collaborations with the National Portrait Gallery and the National Archives for you to enjoy. Visit Women and Power exhibitions, the pop-up heritage project Suffragette City, and the specially commissioned creative project A Room of One’s Own.

Women’s history at the places we care for

We hope that, like us, you’re interested in learning from our shared history. Women’s achievements have not always been celebrated, which is something we’d like to challenge with ‘Women and Power’.

As a guardian of historic places, we have a special responsibility to highlight the ways real people have shaped their physical and cultural environments. The centenary of the vote is the perfect opportunity to make their voices heard.