The 2016 presidential elections are coming up and trust me, I’m lost, too. Originally I was beyond excited about it, being my first time to vote for a president, but as November crawls closer, the dread is building. The indecisiveness doesn’t change my mind about voting, though. And this is my plea to all the women out there who have thrown in the towel and are refusing to “pick the lesser of the two evils.”
Your vote came at too high of price to ignore it.
If you haven’t seen the movie "Suffragette," I can do nothing but offer it praises. Released last fall, it tells the story of the ordinary working-class women who fought to get the right to vote. With an impeccable cast lead by Carey Mulligan, the film is a painful and inspirational reminder of what women had to suffer through before becoming “equal” in the eyes of the law.
It wasn’t until 1920 that women in America won the right to vote. Yea you read that right, that’s less than 100 years ago. It’s only taken us 96 years to forget the steep price the vote cost to some women.
As I watched the movie "Suffragette," I kept thinking how closely the word sounds life “suffer,” as if those women knew from the beginning that this was going to be a long and painful fight. Nonetheless, they fought and won, and now you’re willing to look at the prize they struggled so desperately for, suffered for and turn your back on it.
I implore you not to.
“Women should not exercise judgment in political affairs.”
“If we allow women to vote, it would mean the loss of social structure.”
Do those statements make you angry or make you feel offended? Good. They should upset you. And yet some of you are still considering driving by the polls on November 8th and not voting.
You don’t like something? Fix it.
You don’t agree with something? Change it.
You won’t change anything by doing nothing.
Nothing ever changes until change cannot be stopped.
These women's stories throughout the movie are based on true events. Women were beaten, arrested, went on hunger strikes, force fed through tubes and tortured. Some of these women lost their children. Some of these women were thrown out of their homes.
These women were willing to give up everything so that maybe one day, their daughters could live in a different world. Maybe one day their sons wouldn't look down on women. Maybe one day their daughters wouldn't have to work under men who abused them and raped them. Yes, it happened because women were "less" than men. If any of this upsets you or makes you thankful this didn't happen to you, it's because those women suffered. It's because those women were suffragettes.
Don't let November roll around and not vote. Don't think that if you don't vote it won't matter. "It's just one vote," you think, but when 100 women think that then a 1,000 women think that. And all those years of fighting will have been for nothing.
There's still a lot of work to do towards equality, whether that'd be gender equality, race equality or equality between social classes. Even now, in 2016, there are girls all over the world who are not allowed to go to school, drive cars, wear certain clothes or go anywhere without permission.
So now, I suppose it's our turn to fight.
Join the women who are fighting for change. Join the women who think every girl should go to school. Join the women who believe girls are not less than boys and women aren't inferior to men. Join the women who think 78 cents is not equal to $1. Join the women who are going to the polls in November to vote, not because they're required to or because they may agree with one candidate, but because they remember the fight that some women fought so they'd have the right.
Your vote came at too high of price to ignore it.
