The fight for the vote: suffragettes and nursing (Hybrid)
20 Aug 2026, 17:30 - 20:00
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Conditions in prisons were thrown into the spotlight by the wider battle for women’s rights.
You can also join us online for the talks from 6-7:30pm.
Conditions in prisons were thrown into the spotlight by the wider battle for women’s rights. In the early 1900s, many suffragettes were imprisoned and many experienced brutal force feeding. Nurses were amongst those who joined the public outcry, both as suffragettes and pointing out that there were often no nursing staff onsite to help suffragettes recover after this ordeal. Join our speakers to explore nurses who were suffragettes, arrested and imprisoned.
This event will be chaired by Pam Smith, Professor Emerita, and former head of Nursing Studies (2010-13) at the University of Edinburgh. She has worked as a nurse and teacher in Tanzania, Mozambique and Britain and as a nurse researcher in Britain, Malawi, Nepal and the USA. Her interests lie in nursing history and the study of emotions and caring, women’s work, nurse migration, international development and decolonisation. She is currently undertaking archival work in the University of Edinburgh with Professor Alison Tierney to bring the living memory to the seventy-year history of Nursing Studies and in the RCN archives, to collate the history of the Radical Nurses’ Group, active in the 1980s.
- Hear from Jenny Noble from Glasgow Women's Library, who will give an introduction to GWL followed by a "show and tell" of key suffrage materials in their collections.
Jenny was a seasonal attendant at the Highland Folk Museum in the late 1990s while studying for an MA in English Language & Scottish Literature at Glasgow University. She has worked continuously in the sector since 2001. Previous roles include Education Facilitator at the National Museum of Rural Life, Education Officer at Paisley Museum, Outreach Officer in a pan-Lanarkshire partnership project and Social History Curator at CultureNL (North Lanarkshire). Jenny was appointed Museum Curator at Glasgow Women's Library in 2017. The role combines Jenny’s love of heritage and literature, giving her the chance to explore and develop her knowledge of women’s history, museum practices and intersectional feminism while managing and caring for GWL’s museum collections. - Hear from Vari Drennan MBE and Dr Alison O’Donnell
Vari M Drennan MBE is a Professor of Health Care & Policy Research at Kingston University, London and Chair of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ 's History of Nursing Forum (RCN-HONF). Professor Drennan has been undertaking research into nurses and the suffragette movement and has published in the UK Association of History of Nursing Bulletin on the subject. She is also a member of the RCN-HONF project group of Wikipedia editors, 'Nurses in Red', who are writing nurses and nursing history back into the public domain.
Alison O'Donnell is a retired Lecturer in Nursing at the University of Dundee and has a long-held interest in nursing and its history.
Vari and Alison will speak on Deeds Not Words : the Scottish Nurse Suffragettes Arrested 1906-1914. Between 1906 and 1914 over 1000 women were arrested for acts in support of the campaign for female suffrage in the United Kingdom. We know nurses were involved in supporting the Women’s Social and Political Union campaign for Votes for Women in many ways, such as marching in the great processions in their indoor nurses' uniform, but were they also arrested for more militant acts? In this presentation we will explore this question. Vari will provide an overview of all the nurse suffragettes arrested in this period. Alison will then share more detailed insights into the lives and nursing careers of Scottish nurse suffragettes who were arrested and imprisoned in their fight for 'A Guid Cause'. - Hear from Professor Nicola Ring, Professor of Nursing at Edinburgh Napier University about the RCN History of Nursing Forum
This event accompanies the exhibition Prison Nursing Unlocked: A history of care and justice. The exhibition will be open for visitors Mondays to Thursdays 10 – 4pm.
This event is open to all.
If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please contact us on scotland.library@rcn.org.uk or 0131 662 6163.
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RCN Scotland Headquarters (Edinburgh)
42 South Oswald Road
Edinburgh
EH9 2HH
2.5 miles from Edinburgh Waverley Station
Page last updated - 06/05/2026
