This little object is so small it could fit in your pocket, yet it's a powerful symbol of one woman's courage and activism in very difficult conditions.

Warning: The following includes graphic details of Frances Parker's treatment in prison

In the midst of the #MeToo and Time's Up movement, this object is perhaps more relevant than it has been for decades.

It takes us back to a time when women were seen as mad or hysterical for demanding to be treated as more than objects, sidekicks or second class citizens. A time that speaks to us in echoes even today.

So, in this week's episode we turn our attention to the Suffragette medal, which was awarded to Frances Parker, a New Zealander who fought for women's suffrage in Britain.

Te Papa bought the medal, known as the Women's Social and Political Union Medal for Valour, for about $40,000 in 2016 from auction house Dix Noonan Web in London.

Newspaper columnist and occasional demonstrator, Leah McFall, says she's in awe of Parker's medal and what it represents.

"It's militaristic really, an emblem of incredible suffering and courage and valour."

Parker, who was from Otago, grew up at a time of great political and social change. New Zealand, of course, was the first nation to give women the vote in 1893, with Kate Sheppard heading the movement. Three years later, at the age of 22, Parker left for Britain to study at Cambridge.

In Britain, Emmeline Pankhurst was leading the charge and formed the women's political and social union in 1903. By 1908, protests began to turn more militant and Parker was involved.

Te Papa's senior curator of history, Claire Regnault, says the group's acts were designed to attract publicity.

She gives the example of a window smashing campaign in London that resulted in Parker's arrest.

"[It was] co-ordinated for a Friday at 5.45 [pm] exactly, all these women who seemed to be peacefully going around town shopping suddenly - and the newspaper descriptions are wonderful - from their handbags and their muffs came stones and batons and sticks and they began violently smashing windows," Regnault says.

Parker eventually becoming a prominent leader of the Women's Political and Social Union in Scotland…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details