Banner, suffrage banner

'Home-Makers' suffrage banner. The banner is rectangle shaped with seven top loops for a carrying pole. At the top the words 'Home makers' are applied in yellow silk satin edged with metal braid on dark brown panel. Below are the words, 'Demand Votes' in satin outlined with braid below. In the centre is a design of a fire representing 'the fire of the hearth and a lamp of happy evenings' appliqued on purple panel in centre with the words 'Remember their Homeless Sisters' on either side.
This banner was designed by Mary Lowndes for the highly choroegraphed procession through London organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies on 13th June 1908.
The banner was referenced in Women's Franchise, the newspaper of the NUWSS, on 14 May 1908 with the comment 'Under it [this banner] we hope that any will walk who feel their special sphere is the home. The group should comprise all classes of home-makers, the lady at the head of the house, the housekeeper, the children's nurse, the cook, the parlourmaid'

The NUWSS procession of June 1908 was intended to convince the new Liberal Prime Minister Asquith that there was mass support in the country for female suffrage. It was attended by thousands of women members of the NUWSS from all corners 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, press and photographic interest, including that of the female photographer Christina Broom. Women's traditional but vital domestic role in society was referred to on several banners carried at the event.