In recent years we have seen a run of political films, with high-end budgets – thankfully Suffragette is no different. Sat in the cinema, I was whisked back to 1912 London, with poor health, disease and inequality rife. Hollywood has a tendency to sex up British politics, but the director Sarah Gavron has tried to keep the rose tinted spectacles of Pinewood Studios at arm’s length. She nevertheless still makes this monumental piece of British history accessible.
There were some truly inspirational women with stirring stories across the Suffragette movement. Sadly, we find ourselves following the story of Maud, Carey Mulligan’s character. While I am sure there were many women’s stories documented throughout this fight, Maud Watts was not a real Suffragette. She is a Hollywood construct for the purposes of the film. I am sure if the screen writers looked hard enough they could have found some inspiring women to follow. This does not distract from some cracking acting from Brendan Gleeson as a police chief and Natalie Press as Emily Wilding Davidson.
The light shone on policing during this time of civil disobedience, including a scene of force feeding women on hunger strike, is brutal on the senses while sat in a twenty-first century cinema. I saw many turned heads, squeamish faces and tears shed.
Such scenes do not stop it being a fantastic film. It packs a punch and the story is not diluted by Maud, in fact it’s augmented. This is by no means just a documentary about the rise of the Suffragette movement in Britain and beyond. Gavron set out to challenge the injustices that still hang over modern society, like the smog of the industrial revolution, this is without doubt worth watching.
Votes for women has not been a story forgotten by the politically engaged. This film has raised its head above the parapet of the Westminster bubble, but also celebrates women in the film industry and has begun the difficult task of breaking that glass ceiling. Film making right across the world has fallen deeply into a gender binary of films for men and films for women, whether it be an action packed car chase or a loved up ‘rom-com’ – this film has to be seen by all, sons and daughters alike. It is as important for men to watch this as it is for women. Not just to watch an excellent movie, but to support the few women directors, writers, editors and producers who are still fighting for parity in their field. Just because this film is made by women and about women does not mean it is exclusively for women.
The film industry, like so many others, is an unequal playing field. Jennifer Lawrence made it clear in 2013 that she was still paid less than her male counterparts for her work, something which only came to light in leaked emails from Sony. Was this due to her lack of negotiation or what one producer described as ‘spoiled bratism’? Or maybe that uphill gradient is still too steep. This story is not about cash in Jennifer Lawrence’s pocket. Just like the Women’s Social and Political Union was not set up for the women of 1903 by fellow Mancunian, Emmeline Pankhurst. It is the next generation, the women yet to come, who need it most.
The Labour party grew out of these inequalities, we have heard lots in the last few months about how our party is held in trust for next generation to continue. We must uphold this in all we do.
But it is not over. The fight for women’s equality around the world ends this film, crediting the nations who legislated for its advancement and some of those yet to come. Such change has paved the way for many other countries to do the same, but there are still women across the world that do not have the right that Emily Davidson threw herself under a horse for. The tears shed in the theatre as the film finished pointed out the stark reality that my great grandmother being granted the vote and achieving equality today are two very different things.
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Jess Leigh is a Progress member
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Photo: National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution