Part of Channel 4’s remit is a requirement to raise awareness of social issues and inspire change in society. To celebrate 100 years of enfranchisement, our campaign sought to raise awareness of the power of protest, and urge the British public to keep fighting modern gender equality battles.

These battles are significant. Last year, an EU study found that Britain had made zero progress in tackling gender inequality over the past decade, while The World Economic Forum suggests it will take 100 years for Britain to close its gender equality gap, with one of the biggest issues being gender pay.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Years of campaigning brought about the female vote in 1918. And the spirit of protest and action is still alive and well today, as demonstrated by the level of public engagement in campaigns like #TimesUp and #everydaysexism, and legislative changes brought about by public pressure, such as new laws requiring certain companies to report their gender pay data.

Our campaign had two strands.

The first was a 90” film celebrating a century of progress by juxtaposing what, 100 years ago, women couldn’t do, with imagery of them doing those things.

The film repeatedly tells women ‘you can’t…’ and blends the serious with the light (such as, ‘you can’t buy your own place’ vs ‘you can’t cuss’) to expose how numerous and broad past inequalities were.

It blends archive footage and stills of real women defying inequalities with bespoke shot footage. And the script is rhythmical with a forthright, determined tone.

It ends with rallying cry for more change by listing modern gender issues as hashtags, like #metoo..

The second strand involved asking three 100-year-old women to introduce our programming for a week, during Channel 4 ad breaks. Millie, Beattie and Margaret reminded the nation of the century’s progress, and talked about change that still needs to happen.

The activity ran for a week and started a few days before the anniversary of UK women’s right to vote (6th February).

The film ran across on air, All 4 and social, while being adapted to best fit with those platforms – for example, the social trail was edited to a portrait format and subtitles were added to enhance Facebook viewing.

The 90” and cutdowns were seen by 17.6 million people (30% of the UK population) and each person saw a trail an average of 2.5 times. On All 4, the films made 435k impressions, reaching 284k people at least twice. And on social, the film reached 3.8 million people on Facebook and achieved 1.3 million Twitter impressions.

Whilst our 100-year-olds’ programme introductions reached over 12 million on air viewers, and more on social.

Awareness was on a par with campaigns of similar scale (30% of 16-34 adults).

The campaign resonated with viewers of all ages and genders, as research confirmed:

‘I LOVED the advert’

- Male 25-34

‘ It really made you think’

- Female, 16-24

Some resolved to continue to fight for equality:

‘This is a moment to…renew efforts on where we go next’

- Facebook user

While 26 members of UK Parliament tweeted the film:

‘This is awesome; utter pride…Well done @Channel4’

- Alison Thewliss, Scottish National Party

Many people commended Channel 4 for bringing the issue to a mainstream audience in an accessible way, while 59% viewers saw Channel 4 as the ‘leading broadcaster for raising awareness of social issues’, delivering on Channel 4’s remit.

‘Why aren't other channels celebrating women in this way? … It's something people need to be made aware of’

Male, 35-44

Women’s votes were just the beginning: equality is a process, not an event. So we chose to celebrate the vote and the progress that had followed, whilst looking ahead to equality battles that are yet to be won.

In terms of media, gender equality is for everyone, so our on air and social activity targeted all adults in order to achieve broad awareness.

We chose to run the 90” film, along with 40” and 20” cutdowns, across all Channel 4 channels (C4, E4, More4, Film4, 4Seven); on our digital platform All 4,; and promote it on our social channels (Facebook and Twitter).

While our Continuity films featuring three 100-year-olds ran in peak-time spots on Channel 4.

We also targeted gender equality stakeholders via social media, including prominent British MPs and leading charities, such as The Fawcett Society.

100 years ago, the first UK women won the right to vote.

We’ve made huge progress towards gender equality since then.

Many of the things we take for granted today weren’t allowed, or were frowned upon a century ago - from women serving in the armed forces or on a jury, to wearing miniskirts or riding a bike.

Channel 4 wanted to show that change is possible, if enough people get behind it; to take a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come over the last century, while highlighting how much further we need to go (as evidenced by #MeToo, #Timesup and countless other campaigns) to encourage the public to keep pushing for a gender-equal Britain