Suffragette

Have you seen this film yet? It has received a fair bit of publicity and good reviews, although I've learnt not to rely too much on what other people say so far as both film and books are concerned. But the subject is one that I care about and Carey Mulligan is an excellent actress so it was on my list of films to see. In the event it did not disappoint.
Carey Mulligan has the central role of Maud, a young laundry worker in London who is gradually drawn into the cause for women's rights. (Meryl Streep has only a fleeting appearance as Emmeline Pankhurst.) It was well filmed. Of course, the camera lens is seductive and even squalor can look rather lovely when seen on screen! Some scenes in the film I recall from my childhood, the rows of terrace houses where the washing hung across the street. The fight for women's rights is such a recent history. How I would love to be able to talk to my grandmothers and hear what their opinions were! My paternal grandmother was a factory worker like Maud, working in the woollen mills of the West Riding of Yorkshire and I recall her well as an intelligent and quite formidable character.

My maternal grandmother, after whom I am named, was university educated and became a teacher. They were very different women who had been given greatly contrasting opportunities in life. Members of the Women's Suffrage Movement were from all levels of society but I have no knowledge as to whether either of my grandmothers were active in fighting for women's rights.

In the film it ended badly for Maud, as it did in real life for many women.  I hope that you will go and see this film. If you do, take your daughters and grand-daughters with you.