MARCH WINDS

When in Rome….

In ancient Rome, March began with festivals to celebrate the start of the military campaigning season. They were dedicated to Mars, the god of war (his name is for ever linked with the month), who became the focus of religious and military cults across Europe.

Now, in March 2026, wars rage and powerful men sit in gold encrusted rooms showing footage of real war interspersed with clips from action movies and describing ‘beautiful B2 bombers’ or dismissing their enemy as ‘toast and they know it’.

It’s a bit worrying that the worship and cults of Mars seem actually less deranged than the present day. Mars was esteemed for his virtue, was the protector of agriculture, had a romantic liaison with Venus and was father to Cupid, as well as Romulus and Remus. However, he wasn’t actually real, unlike the men bashing each other’s countries to bits at the moment.

Music for marching

So having set this dismal context for March 2026, we should pause for a moment and look at a March that is infinitely more inspiring. In 1910, Dame Ethel Smyth, the composer and supporter of women’s suffrage, wrote The March of the Women. It’s a rousing and memorable piece of music, and even though the lyrics by Cicely Hamilton are a bit archaic, they can certainly bring a lump to the throat. There are quite a number of different recordings and versions, but if you can click on this link of the Seattle Pro Musica you will feel much better after seeing this lovely group of women in all their diversity singing from their hearts.

Ethel Smyth, who had a close relationship with Emmeline Pankhurst, was quite a difficult woman and not someone to be trifled with. In March 1911 she was imprisoned, together with Pankhurst, for smashing windows at the Houses of Parliament. She had been befriended by the conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, who visited her at Holloway, and described a scene in the courtyard with the ‘noble company of martyrs marching round it and singing lustily their war chant, while the composer, beaming approbation from an overlooking upper window, beat time in almost Bacchic frenzy with a toothbrush’.

The Women’s Marseillaise was also a popular marching song with the Suffragettes. Florence Macaulay, an active member of the movement, rewrote the words to the original La Marseillaise and it became their official anthem for a while. There is a lively description of a judge being pelted with apples by women in the courtroom singing the anthem as he was passing sentence.

The protest march

In February’s blog we had a reminder of Millicent Fawcett’s famous ‘Mud March’ of 1909, and we know that women’s suffrage movements were very good at organising effective and well supported marches and protests. But they were not the first, by any means, and if you search for information about other women’s marches and protests, there is a wealth of interesting stuff, like the 1789 March on Versailles. This began with market women protesting over the extortionate price of bread, quickly attracting thousands of supporters and revolutionaries, who marched on the Palace of Versailles and forced the exodus of Louis XVI away from his comfortable opulence and back to Paris. Although the march took place before the storming of the Bastille, it was a key moment in the French Revolution.

On a different scale, and rather better humoured, the protests by the Whitehall Women Cleaners in 1949 nevertheless had a deadly serious purpose. In response to their demands for an increase on their basic weekly pay of £2.10s.7d, Prime Minister Stafford Cripps offered a measly one farthing per hour, which enraged the women. Armed with brushes and mops, and carrying placards reading ‘Cleanliness is next to godliness. Women cleaners are next to starvation they marched to Lincoln’s Inn, attracting much sympathy and support.

The third month of the year

If we return to March the month, as opposed to the protest march, the military march and the musical march, it’s always good to remember that International Women’s Day takes place annually on March 8, and that March is designated as Women’s History Month. There are also two patron saints’ days – David and Patrick – which might give us cause to wonder at the lack of publicity about designated days for women patron saints in Britain. That’s for another day perhaps.

This blog began by referencing the awful aggression and hatred that we are seeing at the moment. So, to find a little hope in this grim setting, have a look at Never Backing Down. This document, from UNWOMEN, was produced at the end of February this year and gives us a timeline of women’s rights from 1848 to 2026, reminding us of the victories achieved by ‘fearless feminists organising, protesting and demanding action.’

Daffodils

March is notorious for changeable weather – ‘Serene and savage’ and ‘In like a lion, out like a lamb’ they say. But no matter the weather, up come the daffodils, bright, resilient, filling gardens and verges, easy to grow, cheap to buy, beloved by poets. Other flowers are a bit more tentative, worried about the possibility of frost and damage. But not the daffodils. Up they come, strong and determined. Shakespeare noticed them of course, praising the toughness and beauty of ‘Daffodils / That come before the swallow dares, and take / The winds of March with beauty.'

Is there a message for us there?

MARCH UPDATE ON THE MK FAWCETT CAMPAIGN FOR A SAFER, HEALTHIER, FAIRER MILTON KEYNES

• The latest Evidence Paper, a compilation of data relating to Milton Keynes and our Safer, Healthier and Fairer manifesto, is now published and can be found HERE
• We are ready with our Use Your Vote leaflets and Manifesto boards for outreach sessions next month, in the lead up to the local elections. We are grateful to all the parish councils, faith groups etc who have invited us to visit their community cafes in the areas where engagement in MK elections can be lowest.
• Freedom from Violence and Abuse: A cross-government Strategy to build a safer society for women and girls. On May 13th we will be running a half-day workshop in central MK, with our friends from C2C and SAASS, focussing on what is IN the strategy and what it MEANS for you and your organisation / group. Get in touch for more details:
  miltonkeynesfawcettgroup@gmail.com
• As the new enlarged Integrated Care Board (ICB) takes shape, we will continue to monitor how women’s health needs are considered. We are watching how ideas such as Women’s Health Clinics are piloted and evaluated and of course, we are closely following the development of the Women and Children’s hospital: www.mkuh.nhs.uk/mkview/estates-projects/mkuh-nhp
• We will continue to follow the progress and implementation of the recently approved MKCC Domestic Abuse strategy
• Did you see? The recent exhibition at the OU campus of the craftivism project which was part of MK’s contribution to mark the Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls on 25th November. Watch out for more venues – and suggest some!
• The Fawcett Society Conference will be on June 13th this year. Do consider attending – more information here: https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/misogyny-matters-fawcett-conference-2026
• We will continue to promote the manifesto campaign and encourage people to become more involved with the political process.
• MKF now has a Linkedin presence as well as being on BlueSky. Please follow us on these platforms as well as at www.fawcettmk.org.uk