The strength of the 19th/early 20th century struggle for women’s suffrage was its transnational nature. Cooperation between women of various nations gave each the resources they needed to overcome their marginalisation in the politics of their own nations.
In the later decades of the 19th century, the expansion of the telegraph and growth of women’s press allowed the discussion about women's status and roles to be communicated from country to country. Improvements in transportation facilitated like-minded women and men to attend international gathering where they met and organized.
Reasons for granting female suffrage have varied. Sometimes responses to political change, or to societal anxieties, forwarded the cause. In Sweden, for example, women’s suffrage seems to have been an attempt to ward off more radical changes. In Germany, the ending of imperial rule in 1918 opened the door for women to push for the vote. In Canada, the federal government used female suffrage as a political tool, enfranchising army nurses and female relatives of soldiers serving overseas in order to secure an election victory.
Full suffrage occurs when all groups of women are included in national voting and can run for any political office. In most cases women won the right to vote in uneven stages.Today only a few countries do not extend suffrage to women, or extend only limited suffrage.
Suffrage has not been an automatic stepping stone to full equality for women. One problem was that once suffrage was achieved, the common ground among women fighting for it was lost. Fears that participation in politics was “unladylike” remained, as did the old resistance and hostile attitudes against it.
This means that major changes in women’s political activities, other than exercising their right to vote, have been long in coming. Today, women are struggling to gain equal participation in political office alongside men.
posted on 25 Mar 2009 18:52 by womenmovements in Entertainment
If one is interested in the movie concerning women sufferage. Here are few movies which has the story related to women sufferage and how women can start to rule and become stronger in society.
Movies:
Iron Jawed Angels is a 2004 film about the American women's suffrage movement during the early 1900s. It was filmed in Virginia, released in 2004.
Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) return to the United States from England where they have been actively involved in the suffrage movement. As the duo becomes more active within the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), they begin to realize that their ideas were much too radical for the established activists, particularly Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston). Both women eventually leave NAWSA and create the National Woman's Party (NWP), a much more radical organization dedicated to the fight for women's rights.
Over time, tension between the NWP and NAWSA grows as NAWSA leaders criticize NWP tactics such as direct protesting of a wartime President and picketing directly outside the White House with their Silent Sentinels. Relations between the American government and the NWP protesters also intensify, as hundreds of women are arrested for their actions, though the official charge is "obstructing traffic." They are sent to Occoquan Workhouse for 60-day terms where they suffer poor conditions. During this time, Paul and other women undergo a hunger strike during which prison authorities force feed them milk and raw eggs through a tube. News of their treatment leaks to the media through the husband of one of the imprisoned women who had been able to lobby for a visit (the suffragists are depicted as otherwise unable to see visitors or lawyers). The media dubs these women 'Iron Jawed Angels.' Pressure is put on President Wilson as NAWSA seizes the opportunity to lobby tirelessly for the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution.
Paul, Burns and all of the other women are eventually pardoned by President Wilson. The Supreme Court rules that their arrests were, in fact,unconstitutional.
Another movie which is of cartoon type that got inspired from the history that can be referred to women movements is Mulan
Hua Mulan is a heroine who joined an all-male army, described in a famous Chinese poem known as the Ballad of Mulan.
STORY
When the Huns, led by the ruthless Shan Yu (Miguel Ferrer), invade China, the Chinese emperor commands a general mobilization in which each family is given a conscription notice. Fa Zhou (Soon-Tek Oh), having no son to fight, is forced to enlist despite his age and disability. Fa Mulan (Ming-Na Wen), his daughter, poses as a man and flees to join the army in his place. Mushu (Eddie Murphy), a small dragon, travels with her, in an attempt to regain his dignity among the family ancestors by making her a war hero. He, in turn, is accompanied by a dubiously "lucky" cricket named Cri-kee.
Mulan proceeds into camp and meets fellow soldiers, but under advice from Mushu on how to act like a real man, unwittingly starts a camp-wide brawl. In one of the tents, General Li (James Shigeta) promotes his son Captain Li Shang (B.D. Wong) to Captain and orders him to train new troops while the General attempts to stop Shan Yu at a nearby mountain pass. Li Shang stops the brawl and questions Mulan, who passes herself off as 'Ping'. Li Shang begins a grueling training schedule and is visibly disappointed at his new troop's abilities, or lack thereof. Eventually he orders Mulan to return home, but she succeeds in impressing him by retrieving an arrow from a tall pole while weighed down with brass amulets. The troops, inspired by this, all improve and become good soldiers; and three in particular : Ling, Yao and Chien-Po become Mulan's "buddies".
Mushu forges a letter from the General, ordering Li Shang to meet him at the pass. The troops set out to meet General Li, but find the village at the pass razed and the Imperial Troops slaughtered. After pausing to mourn, they make their way to the Emperor. As they journey, Mushu accidentally fires a cannon, giving their position away to the Huns. Shan Yu and a massive force begin stampeding down a snowbank towards the outnumbered troops. Mulan races to a snowbank and fires the last cannon at the mountain above, causing an avalanche and burying the Huns. Shan Yu, outraged at the loss, critically wounds Mulan before being overcome by snow. Mulan and the troops barely escape the snowbank, Mulan saving Li Shang in the process. She succumbs to her wounds shortly after, and while in care, is discovered to be a woman. While Chi Fu, the Emperor's advisor (who had hidden beneath a rock while the others fought) demands she be killed, Li Shang relents and spares her for saving him, but banishes her from the troops as they head to the city. Mulan and Mushu discuss the true reason why they are there: he to get back in the good graces of the ancestors, she to prove she can do something right for a change. As they prepare to leave, Shan Yu and half a dozen of his best warriors emerge from the snow, and head towards the Imperial City. Mulan quickly decides to follow them and warn Shang.
In the Imperial City, the troops are part of a parade in their honor as the 'Heroes of China', but none except Chi Fu are enjoying themselves, as they are in shock about Mulan. Shang is surprised when Mulan rides up, but dismisses her warning. Mulan pleads with the members of the crowd to believe her, but they shake her off. Mushu reminds her she is a girl again, and they will not listen. Shang presents the Emperor with the sword of Shan Yu, but Shan Yu's falcon snatches it from his hands and carries it to his master on the roof of the palace. Shan Yu and his troops reveals themselves, abducting the Emperor and sequestering themselves in his palace. Mulan leads Shang and her three "buddies" (comically disguised as concubines), in a ploy to rescue the Emperor. After a struggle, Mulan eventually overcomes Shan Yu by luring him into the path of fireworks to his death. The Emperor and others in the Imperial City all respect Mulan. The Emperor presents her with his crest and Shan Yu's sword to prove her deeds to anyone.
Mulan travels home and presents the gifts to her father, but he throws the priceless treasures aside and embraces her, calling her his 'greatest gift and honour'. Shang, having being advised by the Emperor that 'you don't meet a girl like THAT every dynasty', has followed her under the guise of returning her helmet. He gladly accepts her invitation to stay for dinner. In addition for helping Mulan, First Ancestor Fa, who grieves the truth about it, gives Mushu his job as a guardian again. Soon, he, Cri-Kee and the ancestors celebrate.
posted on 25 Mar 2009 18:38 by womenmovements in History
INDIA
In
India, Sarojini
Naidu headed a deputation of the Women's India Association,
which met with the British viceroy to demand the vote in 1919.
The
Indian National Congress supported woman suffrage.
In 1950, soon after
Indian independence, women were granted the vote.
JAPAN
Ichiwaka Fusae
and other women activists established Fusen Kakutou Domei ("Women's
Suffrage League") in 1924 in Japan.
They succeeded in gaining
the right to organize and attend political meetings,
After the Allied nations
defeated Japan in 1945, Japanese feminists and women staff officers
of the Allied Occupation cooperated in proposing that the new Japanese
constitution should enfranchise women. They hoped that women would
use the ballot to make the Japanese nation less warlike, and that
women would raise their children to believe in peace and democracy.
PHILIPPINES
In
the Philippines, women was allowed to vote in 1937.
Several
Filipinas have been actively engaging in networking with other women
sufraggists from all over the world. For instance, Clemencia
Lopez delivered a speech at the annual meeting of the New
England Woman Suffrage Association on May 29, 1902. Other notable
Filipina suffragists are Concepcion Felix de Calderon who formed the
Asociacion Feminista Filipina in June 1905, Rosa Sevilla de Alvero
and a young Trinidad Almeda, Miss Constancia Poblete, founder of Liga
Femenina de la Paz, Pura Villanueva Kalaw and Paz Mendoza Guazon,
Pilar Hidalgo Lim, President of the National Federation of Women’s
Clubs and Josefa Llanes Escoda, president of the Girl Scouts of the
Philippines. Province-based women were represented by Maria C. Manzano
of Pangasinan.
.
Sources:
Encyclopedia
Americana Women
of the Philippines by Clemencia Lopez Mabuhay
ang Filipina! Mabuhay ang Kalayaan! A
Celebration of Herstory: Women in Legislation, Women in Politics
