The Humboldt and District Museum held a historically-themed pink tea party on Wednesday to celebrate the 102nd anniversary of the first women to get the vote in Saskatchewan.

“We were still not quite there - not all women could vote yet - but it was the first wave,” cultural programmer Catherine Harrison said.

Suffragists had been looking for stealthy ways to build the movement, and pink tea parties were essentially secret meetings held in the open.

“Frilly, pink tea parties were largely ignored by men so women could go and do what they wanted and pretty much nobody would notice,” Harrison said.

Men in a suffragist’s life who were supportive of the cause but concerned about her joining a political movement were much more comfortable with her going to a tea party.

“So the work still got done, but under this super frilly guise of femininity that allowed the movement to grow and build without too much fuss from the people who were trying to stop it.”