AN exhibition revealing the part played by North East women in the suffrage movement was officially opened by Dame Vera Baird

How Women Won the Vote, at The Word: National Centre for the Written Word, South Shields, celebrates the centenary anniversary of some women being given the right to vote.

The free exhibition, which will run until May 3 and is supported by Port of Tyne, will give visitors an insight into women’s suffrage and the suffragettes’ struggle to ensure women had the same rights as men.

It features some of the women who drove the movement for suffrage and explains how they were imprisoned, force fed and beaten.

It also examines the North East’s history of women’s suffrage and women in politics and visitors will be able to cast their vote – for the most influential woman from the exhibition – in a specially created ballot box.

Tania Robinson, head of marketing and culture at The Word, National Centre for the Written Word, said: “Very often the role of ordinary working women is forgotten in the story of women’s suffrage, yet here in the North East they really did play a key role in the movement. We are really honoured that Dame Vera agreed to open the exhibition. To achieve their aim, the suffragettes very often felt compelled to break the law and that our police commissioner is a woman shows how far we have come in the past century.”