209 Women Exhibition

‘209 Women’ is a national, artist-led project to celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage and champion the visibility of women, particularly in environments that are still largely maledominated. A collective of 209 female photographers, from across the UK, volunteered their time to make and mark history.

Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle Upon Tyne Central, by Tereza Červeňová

To celebrate the 100 years since some women achieved the right to vote, they created new portraits of all 209 female Members of Parliament (MPs). These images are displayed in a free public exhibition in the parliamentary offices at Portcullis House. It opened on the 14 December – 100 years to the day since the first women cast their votes in the 1918 general election.

The exhibition fills the walls of the first-floor gallery, but it’s worth noting that even just a few years ago there wouldn’t have been enough female MPs for the portraits to reach half way round. This highlights how much progress has been made even though there is much more to achieve.

The 209 Women portraits have certainly inspired the exhibition visitors, as well as those seeing the images in the press and on social media. The MPs worked with the photographers to create pictures that conveyed their identities, their role in the community, and in parliament. They are pictured around the Houses of Parliament, at their own homes and in other significant locations. The exhibition encompasses a diverse range of styles and approaches showcasing the talent working in the UK today. We can’t begin to do it justice here but the visitors’ notes from the 209 Women website give a fantastic insight into the process and what it means to those who were involved.

Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South, by Hilary Wood ARPS

“The idea for the exhibition came from my own experiences of gender inequality. I’ve worked mainly in male-dominated fields for the past 18 years. I’ve got two daughters and I wanted to be part of changing things so that they grow up in a society that is more gender equal. Since 1918, 4,503 men have been elected to the UK parliament - compared to just 491 women. On the centenary year of women’s suffrage, I wanted to celebrate how far we’ve come, but I also want to bring awareness to continued gender inequality by championing the visibility of women in power. This exhibition will bring visibility to those women that are part of making the fundamental changes to women’s equality.” Hilary Wood ARPS, founder and curator

Rebecca Harris, MP for Castle Point, by Reme Campos

The 209 Women project has proved to be immensely popular, with the Friday viewing slots for the exhibition being fully booked within days of tickets being released. The Visit Parliament team are looking to add more dates before the scheduled close on the 14 February 2019. All is not lost, however, as the exhibition then moves to the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, starting with a public launch event on 28 February. The exhibition then runs from 1 March to 14 April 2019.

If you cannot get to the exhibition, then you can see a range of the work via the 209 Women social media channels and dive into see more work by the photographers involved from the website: www.209women.co.uk/photographers

It is also still possible to support the project by becoming a patron and by engaging in the conversation that the exhibition is intended to provoke: to explore why gender remains a barrier in the workplace, politics and society.

www.209women.co.uk

Rosie Duffield, MP for Canterbury, by Alice Zoo