Banner, suffrage banner

Suffrage banner focusing on 'The Housing Question'. The rectangular banner has a battlemented lower edge. It is composed from li ght blue and purple silk satin, cream silk, yellow sateen, cloth of gold, yellow, white and green paint. The words 'Home is the Woman's Castle' is painted in yellow on blue silk across the top of the banner. Below, to the left are the words 'The Housing Question will not be solved till women have votes' painted in white on purple silk on the left. To the right, diagonally divided from the message is a gold star on cream silk.
The banner was first carried in the votes for women procession through London organised by the non-militant National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies on 13th June 1908. It is likely to have been carried by women of the Southwark Working Women or the National Union of Women Workers. Women's traditional but vital domestic role in society was referenced in several banners carried at the event, including this example that refers to 'home' as the woman's castle'. The banner also refers to the question of poor and inadequate housing faced by many families in the early 20th century and argues that the issue will not be solved until women have the right to vote and, thereby, influence parliamentary debate and the passing of laws.
The NUWSS demonstration of 13 June 1908 was intended to convince the new Liberal Prime Minister Asquith that there was mass support in the country for female suffrage. The event was attended by thousands of women from all areas of the UK who arrived in London on specially chartered trains. The 'glorious spectacle' enhanced by the gowns of doctors and graduates and 'nearly a thousand beautiful banners and bannerettes, each different, each wrought in gorgeous colour and rich materials' attracted much public interest and publicity.