Today we went up to town to watch thousands of women, and a few men, march past to commemorate, and celebrate, the centenary of women first being given the right to vote in the UK. Well, some women. At the time it was only those over thirty, and with some claim to property rights, who were included, and it would be a further ten years before proper equality of voting rights was established. Even now there remains a part of the UK still holding out against equal rights for women. Maybe a reunited Ireland can sort that one out....
The march was a joyous affair, noisy, friendly, enthusiastic, with the widest possible range of ages and backgrounds taking part. And plenty of colour, the organisers having handed out bits of material in the three colours of the suffragette movement, green, white and violet. There was a lot of imagination being shown in how these might best be worn. And imagination, and humour, in many of the banners and placards being carried. Plus a cogent recognition that progress to full equality of rights has yet to be achieved.
The UK certainly wasn't the first state to extend voting rights to all people, regardless of gender, but it was still relatively early in world terms. Looking through the timeline of when various countries implemented equal voting rights, it's still a shock to remember that, even in progressive Europe, it was a change well within living memory - France in 1944, Switzerland in 1971, and tardy Liechtenstein only in '84. So there are plenty of women who can still recall when they were officially second class citizens.
Which is what makes the current series of The Handmaid's Tale, and Atwood's original novel, so chilling. What was so recently gained can always be reversed, and there is nothing about the dystopia portrayed that's hard to imagine happening. Especially in a world where a petulant orange manchild can become president of the USA.
Still, maybe he has some qualities that could come in useful. I can just about imagine him and Little Rocket Man getting along, because they have so much in common. Except I'm not sure puerile bullies are ever going to tolerate one another in the end, with such fragile egos involved.
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