Diane Davies: The votes are in and women speak up
Those men and women are fortunate who are born at a time when a great struggle for human freedom is in progress,” boasted leader of the Suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst.
Indeed they were witnessing history in the making as it’s now 100 years since the blood, sweat and tears of the Suffragettes led to women getting the vote. Though only for those over the age of 30 and rich or married to money – it was another decade before women got the same vote as men. Thanks to the Suffragettes, women can now expect equality without fear of persecution, we are told.
It is a time when the BBC has realised that women doing the same job as male presenters should get equal pay. Not the extortionate pay of the men, the fellas are getting a wage cut.
And we will no longer have pretty girls paid to stand with a brolly at the F1. Lap dancers in seedy clubs, glamour models and porn stars can continue to find paid employment.
“Deeds, not words”, Emmeline famously said. What would she make of the lip service so readily touted today? We do live in a world where even Hollywood has realised it is not OK for actresses to be routinely groped if they want to work. Stars at the Golden Globes wore black dresses (usually revealing their assets and clinging to every curve) to make the point.
No doubt they were dressing ‘for themselves’, women have the right today to choose what to wear. And I’m sure that most singers really do want to wear underwear and ‘bondage gear’ (I’m thinking Little Mix, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus).
Are these role models for our daughters any more than the women on social media with their bums and boobs out in a quest for clicks? A world where reality TV and the Kardashians rule.
Do ladettes think drinking a chap under the table, throwing up and fighting is equality? Did Emily Davison sacrifice herself at Epsom for this?
As Emmeline’s daughter Christabel said: “Remember the dignity of your womanhood.”
Where is that dignity and self respect now? Yes we got the vote, even a woman prime minister, though the US was so against a female president they voted for Trump! And of course men can’t call us ‘honey’ any more. Hurrah (!)
But would Emmeline class this hard-fought ‘equality’ as a victory, I think not.
