THE great-grand-daughter of Suffragette campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst spoke to a packed audience in Skipton recently.

Dr Helen Pankhurst spoke at the event organised by Soroptimist International of Skipton in Craven, before a mostly female crowd at St Andrew’s Church.

Dr Pankhurst invited questions on three topics as a starter to the event: the Suffragettes, the work of Care International, and how much things have changed for women over the last hundred years.

Her answers and the subsequent discussion covered subjects such as how the film Suffragette had combined historical fact with fiction in creating some characters, how providing wells and pumps for places where women still walk miles every day to fetch water can bring many benefits but also unforeseen consequences such as increasing a women’s fertility; and how much still remains to be done to achieve true equality for women in pay, in business and in politics.

After a brief talk about Soroptimism by the regional membership officer Pat Kilbane, the evening finished with refreshments.