Women and Power exhibitions, art installations and events

2018 marks 100 years since some women were granted the right to vote. To honour this milestone, we are highlighting stories and personalities from women’s history and the fight for female suffrage.

We’re hosting events, exhibitions and art installations, bringing to life the women who helped shape our places on both sides of the suffrage debate.

Opening this month:

We are Bess web banner

We are Bess exhibition at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire 

Explore the life of Bess of Hardwick, the second most powerful women in Tudor England after Elizabeth I, in a new exhibition opening this month at Hardwick Hall. Demonised in history by her husbands, we’ll be re-examining her life using modern women to help us consider how we talk about women in history and in the present day.

More about the exhibition

Our highlights:

A suffragette meeting from 1906

Faces of Change: Votes for Women 

29 April onwards

We’re partnering with the National Portrait Gallery on a touring exhibition of rarely seen paintings, drawings, photographs and archival documents, from surveillance photographs of militant suffragettes to portraits of the key players in the suffrage movement.

Virginia Woolf sits in her room at Monk's House

A Room of One's Own events 

June onwards

See the lives of pioneering women brought to life through art, poetry, and film. We've asked female artists, writers and academics to tell the often untold stories of the women connected to five of our special places.

Oil painting on canvas, Victoria (Vita) Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson (1892-1962) by Philip Alexius de László de Lombos

A Woman's Place at Knole, Kent 

17 May – 4 November 2018

Winner of the prestigious Turner Prize, Lubaina Himid, joins five other artists exploring gender equality through the stories of women who have contributed to the spirit and history of Knole. Using different media including sculpture and film, they will create works that encompass themes of love, betrayal, class, gender and inheritance.

Misrepresented

Misrepresented? at Cliveden, Berkshire 

February 2018 onwards

Discover an outdoor exhibition and an immersive audio experience as you learn about the real-life inspiring stories of Cliveden's women, from past to present.

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Potratis of Gertrude and Eleanor Acland.

Votes for Women? and Branded: fashion, femininity and the right to vote at Killerton, Devon 

Feb – October 2018

Discover Killerton’s stories of suffrage through two exhibitions. Votes for Women? explores how the Aclands were a family divided over the question of women’s suffrage. You can also explore the fashion exhibition, Branded: fashion, femininity and the right to vote. You’ll be able to see the clothing worn by suffragettes and suffragists, including Eleanor Acland’s spectacular hand-embroidered couture wedding dress.

Explore the exhibition
Dunham's housekeeper for 28 years from 1908-1936.

A Woman's Place? at Dunham Massey, Cheshire 

March 2018 onwards

Follow in the footsteps of some of the previous female inhabitants of the house. There will be plenty to get involved in, from reading and drawing, to watching short films, or taking part in workshops or debates. There is also an all-female picture hang in the Great Gallery.

Find out more
A pencil sketch depicting two lovers sitting on a bench under a tree

Beyond Ophelia - A Celebration of Lizzie Siddal at Wightwick, Wolverhampton 

1 March - 24 December 2018

A journey into the life of the woman who was a Pre-Raphaelite muse, as well as a professional artist and poet in her own right. View some of her rarely displayed paintings and discover more about her struggle for recognition in a patriarchal Victorian art world.

Explore the exhibition
Archive image of 3 women in Styal village

Discover the Lost Voices of Quarry Bank, Cheshire 

3 March – 7 October 2018

Hear the voices of some incredible women, from mill workers to mill owners, whose stories could have so easily been lost in history, due to their social and political status.

Uncovering women’s voices
The Entrance Front at Cragside

Women of Industry at Cragside, Northumberland 

April – November 2018

Inspired by the history of innovation and engineering at Cragside, you will be able to explore the lives of pioneering women who worked in the factory of Lord Armstrong, industrialist and builder of Cragside, during the First World War. Through an exhibition, trail and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) related family activities, the question of why women are still underrepresented in the engineering profession today will be explored.

Discover more about Cragside
The 17th century barn theatre at Smallhythe Place

Triumphant Women at Smallhythe Place, Kent 

5 April 2018 onwards

In a new exhibition Triumphant Women, you can learn more about the women from Smallhythe who were involved in the Suffrage movement. Edy Craig: Women, Suffrage and the Theatre will be on show in the Barn Theatre and green room, whilst The Shakespearean Lectures of Ellen Terry will be exhibited in the main house.

Learn more