On Sunday 4th March, women (and some men) marched through central London for the #March4Women organised by Care International.

From Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square, they followed in the footsteps of the suffragettes. For one woman in particular, it meant a great deal.

Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline, the suffragette leader, describes being on the march as an amazing feeling.

“There’s nothing like being together in the moment, and marching together, and singing together. If that comes together with policy asks, you start creating an ethos of change and feeling of change, which is very positive.”

Last month it was exactly 100 years since women over 30 gained the right to vote, yet women everywhere are using the march and the hashtag #StillMarching to say that there is a lot more to be done for gender equality.

Maggie Matić, 25, a PhD candidate in the Contemporary Feminist Movement, says we are seeing increased conversations around intersectionality.

“There’s an awareness that, yes, white, middle-class, able-bodied, heterosexual women may have had it a lot easier than they have in previous decades, but there’s still a long way to go for women of colour, for working-class women, for queer women, for disabled women.”

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Social media is one way of making sure all women’s voices are heard.
Natasha Bishop, 20, founder of The Pants Project, an organisation that promotes body positivity and raises money for Fertility UK, says social media is activism’s best friend.

“People want to be part of things, and if that thing is important and making a difference in the grand scheme, they are surprisingly quick to jump on the band wagon.”

Amika George, the 18-year- old who started the Free Periods campaign, discovered this last year when she organised a rally attended by thousands. She says it has now turned into a “movement”.

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Read more about the activists pushing for gender equality in our first issue, out now.