Released in 2015, Suffragette is a British period drama which follows women in the Edwardian period as they go through trials and tribulations for the right to vote. Through the experiences of Maud, a woman working in a laundrette, we first witness and then gets caught up in the Suffragette movement throughout England in the early 1910s.
The stellar cast includes Meryl Streep, Brendan Gleeson, and Helena Bonham-Carter in key roles, with the former even taking on the role as famous Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst herself.
With “Deeds, not words” the women campaign and fight; we see them speaking infront of politicians, hunger strikes, and Emily Davidson’s death at the races trying to pin a purple, white and green Suffrage banner to the King’s Horse at the Derby. It’s pretty clear to audiences that the world is no kind place for women; scorned and belittled, cursed at and treated inhumanely while in custody, the fight for the vote is here in all of its nastiness. But we see them stand up for themselves, learn self-defence, and while some of their actions involved planting bombs, they swear to do no harm.
And as the information at the end of the film shows, that fight is not over. After real footage of Emily Davidson’s funeral, the closing words to Suffragette are a list of countries and the year the women there received the vote.
You can watch the trailer for Suffragette below:
