Panel, grille

This panel was part of the grille positioned at the front of the Ladies' viewing Gallery in the House of Commons. The 'vile' grille behind which women visitors to the House of Commons were forced to sit as they observed proceedings and debates in the chamber below was regarded, by Votes for Women campaigners, as a material symbol of the barrier between women and liberty.
In 1908 the suffragettes Muriel Matters and Helen Fox entered the viewing gallery and padlocked themselves to the grille with chains attached to a belt concealed under their clothing. Officials, unable to break the chain were forced to unscrew the grille panel and remove the women from the gallery, still attached to the grille. As it took some time for the grille to be unscrewed Muriel was able to deliver a campaign speech urging the House to introduce a Votes for Women bill. Her action subsequently enabled the suffragettes to hail Muriel as 'the first woman to ever speak in the House of Commons'.
The grille was finally removed in 1917 at the request of the London Society for Women’s Suffrage as MPs debated the Representation of the People Act. Passed into law in 1918 the Act finally gave 8 million women, over the age of 30, the right to vote.