To Be A Woman

            Today I saw the movie Suffragette. This movie is about the Women’s Suffrage and it follows the journey of Maude Watts. At the beginning Maude didn’t want to get involved with the movement, but as the movie progressed, Maude realised how important this cause is and how it could make the future so much better for women everywhere.

            This movie has made me realise just how important it is that when I am old enough to vote, that I should do so. Thousands of women fighting for this cause in England were imprisoned, many going on hunger strikes. So many of these women were brutally force fed so that they couldn’t die of hunger and so the police wouldn’t have any blood on their hands.

            I never really thought it was that important to vote because I don’t take a particular interest in politics. But now I see that I must take advantage of the sacrifices of so many, and use the right that they fought so hard to get for future women, for me. It is so vital that we use the power that has been given to us so that we can sustain our right, and not have it revoked because we can’t be bothered, or just aren’t interested. Do we want to go back to that primitive life of only being a wife? Just an object? Cooking, cleaning, having children, looking nice? Woman now have so much more than that, and we have those millions of women who fought for the vote all over the world.

            I am incredibly proud to say that women in New Zealand got the vote on 19 September, 1893, before any other country in the world. I am so glad that enough men in my country saw clearly enough that women are just as smart and capable as any man. We deserve every little thing we fight for. And as of 2015, women were promised the right to vote in Saudi Arabia. This shows just how far the world has come, but it also shows just how far we still have to go.

            So when you turn 18, or 21, whatever the age is in your country, I implore you to register and to vote. Women died for our cause and we need to make sure that we use the power we’ve been given to continue to make tomorrow a better place. To continue to fight for all the rest of the equality we haven’t yet been granted. Unequal wages is just one. But women have come so far since 1893, and together with men by our sides, instead of one step ahead, we can go so much further and achieve so much more. We must continue improving the world for the future generations, and with man’s help, anything is possible.

Until next time, 

Helen xx