Dr Stella Moss – A Film about Women’s Rights
The film Suffragette (2015) casts fresh light on the history of women's rights. While prominent figures like Emmeline Pankhurst feature in the film, the story offers vivid insights into the role of working-class women in the fight for women’s rights and female enfranchisement – a history not well known today among the general public, but certainly one that deserves much more attention.
Incidentally, this film includes a representation of Emily Wilding Davison, who attended Royal Holloway in 1892-4, and after whom we named our new library building. You can find out more about our famous graduate here and explore her life further through video and other media here.
Questions to consider after watching:
- Why was there so much resistance to giving women the vote?
- Were women at this time more united by their gender or their social class?
- What does the film reveal about daily life for the working classes (both women and men) in the early twentieth century?
- Some historians and social commentators have argued that militant suffragettes were terrorists: do you agree?
