Historic movement

Women’s Suffrage movement

In response to these arrests, the imprisoned suffragettes often refused to pay their fines and went on hunger strike. This ultimately led to the Cat and Mouse Act which was passed in 1913, allowing for the early release of prisoners who had become so weak by hunger striking that they were at risk of death. However, this type of protest only proved successful for a limited time. Authorities implemented force-feeding into the prisons, whereby women who refused to eat were restrained while a tube was forced down their throat or up through their nose.

One of the most fateful incidents during the movement was the death of Emily Wilding Davidson at the Epsom Derby. The accident was broadcast live in which Davidson could be seen running out in front of the King’s horse in an attempt to attach a flag to it’s bridal. The act had failed horribly. Davidson was trampled by the horse and died four days later due to her extensive injuries. She became a martyr for the suffragettes and many applaud her for her commitment to the movement and admire her for her bravery.

When World War One commenced in 1914, the suffragette movement was suspended. However, progress was made in 1918, where women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote if they met certain property qualifications. Although it was a breakthrough, women’s rights were still not equal to those of men, who were given the right to vote at the age of 21. Furthermore, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 was passed, allowing women to be elected into Parliament. It took another decade before women were allowed to vote at 21 but the Representation of the People Act was passed in 1928, providing women with the same voting rights as men in the United Kingdom.

Modern Movement

The ‘Me Too’ Movement

It Focuses on the experiences of sexual violence survivors, has received a large response as sexual harassment and sexual assault impact the women in our society every day.

The movement became relatively prominent in 2017, when numerous high-profile actresses opened up about the sexual harassment they had experienced in the film industry. Many of these actresses spoke out about the harassment received from the film producer Harvey Weinstein. Alyssa Milano, specifically, acted as a catalyst for the movement after turning the phrase into the well known hashtag #MeToo.

Following this, the movement has provided solidarity for those who have experienced harassment of this sort by showing the world just how prominent sexual harassment is in our society and the movement helps to make these survivors aware that they’re not alone.

The media coverage of this movement has uncovered some heartbreaking statistics:

• In France, a person who makes a sexual harassment complaint at work is reprimanded or fired 40% of the time, while the accused person is typically not investigated or punished.
• In the United States, a 2016 report states that although 25–85% of women say they experience sexual harassment at work, few ever report the incidents, most commonly due to fear of reprisal.
• Evidence shows that in Japan, as little as 4% of rape victims report the crime, and the charges are often dropped half the time.

The movement has had a large global impact. After Milano tweeted #MeToo on October 15, 2017 it was used over  200,000 times by the end of the day and tweeted almost 500,000 times in 24 hours. Additionally, on Facebook, the hashtag was used over 4.7 million times on over 12 million posts in the first 24 hours. This led to many celebrities opening up about their experience of harassment, including men such as Terry Crews and James Van Der Beek.

A suffragette was a member of an activist women’s organisation in the early 20th Century who, under the banner ‘Votes for Women’, fought for the right to vote in public elections, known as women’s suffrage.

It was formen in 1903, by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil obedience. This meant that the suffragets usually engaged in heckling politicians, trying to storm parliament, being sexually assaulted during battles with the police, chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows, setting fire to post boxes and buildings, setting bombs, and faced enormous anger and ridicule from the media. This was a shock factor tactic in order to get people’s attention and to urge politicians to change the rights for women as soon as possible.

The suffraget campaign was suspended when WW1 broke out in 1914. After the war however, the Representation of People Act 1918 gave the vote to women over the age of 30 who met certain property qualifications. Ten years later, wome gained electoral equality with men when the Representation of People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gave all women the ability to vote at age 21.

This can be compared in a way to BLM (Black Lives Matter). Black people specifically have been scrutinized by police, mainly in America, however there has been examples of this kinds of prejudice in the UK also – police are making a stereotype against black people and harming them – sometimes to the point of death – due to the stereotype that is held by the police. This is unfair and is a form of discrimination held against them purely due to their skin colour. This is the same for women in the early 20th Century, because they were women, they were seen as unfit to vote and

were stereotyped into being less educated, less intelligent, less dominant etc. Because of their gender, their rights were taken away from them. The types of protests can also be compared, BLM and Votes for Women used violent, shock tactics in order to gain attention from world leaders and politicians since no one was listening or paying attention any other way. During BLM protests, riots were held, looting took place and fires were ignited.

Dadaism was a movement with explicitly political overtones and was a reaction to senseless slaughter of the trenches of WW1. It essentially declared war against war, countering the absurdity of the establishment’s descent into chaos with its own kind of nonsense.

Popular Dada artists include: Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, George Grosz, Otto Dix, John Heartfield, Hannah Hoch, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Richard Hulsenbeck and Marcel Janco.

There is some controversy over where Dada first originated. Some believe that the movement first developed in the Cabaret Voltaire, an avant-garde nightclub in Zurich, others claim a Romanian origin. Dadaism is often characterised by humor and whimsy, tending towards the absurd. This kind of attitude was used as a satirical critique of the prevailing societal and political systems . to which the onslaught of WW1 was largely attributed to.

The name Dada is one derived from nonsense and irrationality. In some languages in means ‘yes, yes’ as a parody of the population’s senseless obedience to authority, whilst in others it has completely different meanings or connotations.