Looking back at the suffragettes we can see it was more than a man v woman battle.

It was also the posh against we plebs.

I did a bit of research locally for Ryland Wallace, dad of Glamorgan wicket-keeper Mark, when he was professor of history at the University of Glamorgan in Pontypool.

He complained to me that when researching the suffragettes in old newspapers he kept being distracted by the cricket scores.

I promised to approach it the other way and be distracted from cricket research by the suffragettes.

The first thing I checked was the autobiography of noted Ammanford politician Jim Griffiths. I’d often spoken to the first-ever Secretary of State for Wales, even though he was long retired.

It was obvious that Mrs Griffiths ruled the roost in their house, and the biography made it clear that at the height of his political successes she was the power behind the throne.

 


 

Christabel Pankhurst came to stay at the height of Votes for Women.

Now the girls in the Griffiths family shared a bedroom, and expected her to muck in in their little house.

It soon became clear that nose-in-the-air Pankhurst had never imagined sharing a bedroom, and the others had to make do, leading to much muttering in the Griffiths household.

Perhaps I am biaised towards female emancipation because for 40 years I have had women bosses.

Women have always ruled in my world - and they are better at it than I’d be.