Audiences across Britain have rushed to see the inspirational story of the struggles and success of the suffragette movement told from the view point of an ordinary working class girl in the recent film Suffragette. The film highlights the abuse, injustice and discrimination women and young girls faced during the early 20th century, as well as the determination and dedication of women who gave everything to fight for the right to vote. But over almost one hundred years later does this compelling story still hold importance in today's society and are we doing enough to prevent injustice against women in the UK?

At the time of the suffragette movement there were no female MPs until 1918 and currently the number of female MPs is the highest it's ever been; so some aspects have improved dramatically. But the British government still does not reflect an equal portion of male to female. Only 29.4% (191 of 650) of MPs are female; if women are considered equal in today's society should they not be represented equally in parliament? In addition, although women now occupy some of the top management jobs in the country, female managers still face earnings of 22% less than their male colleagues. Despite great progress since the suffragette movement, top companies and the government should reflect on the equality of the pay and representation of women to immediately take action upon it because simply having female staff is not enough until it is equal to the number of men.  

Secondary education before 1918 was largely unavailable for working class girls, such as Maud in the film, but as of 1944, secondary education is compulsory for both boys and girls. Many suffragettes were working women who had grown up in factories from as young as seven. It is clear that there have been immense improvements since the early 20th century to the education system. Although girls consistently achieve a better pass rate at GCSE (73.1%) compared to their male peers (64.7%), there are many professions and subjects that are still perceived at ‘boys’ subjects’ such as computer science, engineering and building trades. There are already campaigns to break this barrier preventing girls from choosing these careers; however more needs to be done to educate girls, much like the suffragette movement, to pursue the male dominated careers.

Suffragette is an extraordinary film about a subject that many of us think we know so well, yet many of the issues visible in this film makes you appreciate even more the struggles women went through; and definitely emphasises how far society has moved on and maybe what still needs to be achieved.

 

Suffragette was released 16/10/15 and is currently in cinemas.  

 

By Emily Alexander, St Mark's Catholic School