More than 200 people turned out to learn about historical Perth women at the weekend at the city’s first Women’s History Museum.
Organised by the Perth’s Women campaign, the two-day pop-up museum took visitors on a journey from the witch trials, to the suffrage movement, the Second World War to the present day.
And a petition addressed to King George V in 1914 from suffragettes at Perth Prison went on display for the first time.
The petition urged the monarch to stop the torture of women by force feeding in prisons.
Meanwhile, items on loan from Perth Museum and Art Gallery, such as a nurse’s uniform, helped further illustrate women’s role in history.
‘Establish an ongoing conversation’
Perth’s Women was founded in October by local woman Taylor Waggoner, who wants to drive positive change in gender inequality.
Now, less then two months after Perth’s Women‘s creation, it has already attracted much interest and support from locals.
She said: “We are ecstatic that that Perth Museum has agreed to support us in our pilot project and hope to establish an ongoing conversation with them to ensure women’s history is given pride of place in our current and future cultural spaces.
“The mini-museum was a unique opportunity not only to walk through women’s history but to add your fingerprint to the story too.
“The new community-led movement aims to raise awareness of women’s history in the area.
“Female representation is just one of the ways we can re-shape our society for future women.”
Female underrepresentation
And despite the strides taken by women throughout history to tackle the issue, female underrepresentation is still noticeable in Perth and Kinross.
This motivated Taylor to take proactive action to commemorate the women who made the region what it is today.
The project also aims to give the women of the city a safe space to gather and discuss the issues in the area surrounding gender representation.
Taylor added: “There are more statues of fish in Perth than there are of women.
“The lack of female representation up and down the country is appalling but rather than just complain about it I want to do something positive.”
