Why Everyone Should Go See 'Suffragette' This Week

“Is this based on a true story?”, a young woman not-so-quietly whispered to her friend beside me. When I overheard this, a sudden sense of anger rushed through me. Not anger towards the woman, but towards society as a whole. It was that anger that inspired me to write this blog post- a review of the 2015 film, Suffragette, from the perspective of a 17 year old feminist.

‘Suffragette’ tells the story of a group of working women involved in the Suffragette movement back in 1912. Featuring key figures like Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison, the movie depicts the raw and honest truth about the fight for woman’s rights. When I first saw the trailer a couple of months back, I knew it was something I’d enjoy- what I didn’t realise is that it would inspire me too. 

These women fought for what we have today- the right to vote. They were assaulted, threatened, imprisoned, battered and even killed. To think that they went through all that to have their voices heard, to have OUR voices heard, really upset me. When I think back to the last major vote in Ireland, when many of my friends and family “weren’t bothered” to vote, it takes all I have not to clench my teeth and curl my fists. I’m currently below the voting age in Ireland, but I know that when the time comes around, I could never throw away my vote like that, as if it were nothing.

Something that really captured my attention was  a frame at the end of the film, when they displayed a list of countries accompanied by the year women received the vote. The fact that Switzerland only got it in 1974 really shocked me, and also that women in Saudi Arabia are still fighting for it to this day. 

As Meryl Streep said as Pankhurst in the film, “never give up the fight”. Although we may have the vote now, this still applies to us in our every day lives. Never give up the fight for equal wages. Never give up the fight for your voice to be heard. Never give up the fight for equality.

So, if you do anything this weekend, go see Suffragette. See it for the thousands of women that died for their rights, and more importantly, see it for those that are still fighting.

-Rachel x