Member review

This was not my favourite genre of film but I found it was very factual and informative and it has thoroughly expanded my knowledge of the suffragettes. it has also given me a lot to think about including the lengths women went to, to gain the right to vote and speak up for themselves. The film is set in 1912, where Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) a 24-year-old laundress, while delivering a package one day, she gets caught up in a suffragette riot involving women smashing windows. Later, Alice Haughton (Romola Garai), the wife of an MP, encourages the women from the laundry to speak out to parliament and give testimony in order to secure the right to vote. Violet miller is the one who offers to testify; however, she is beaten by her abusive husband and subsequently Maud is the one who testifies. Maud is energized by her testimony and goes with Violet and other women to see if women have been given the right to vote. When she learns that they have not, the police officers turn on the women and begin beating them. Maud is caught up in the crowd and is arrested for a week. While in jail, she meets Emily Davison, a confidant of Emmeline Pankhurst. Returning home, Maud faces social stigma from her neighbours and co-workers. She promises her husband Sonny to stay away from the suffragettes. However, Maud is invited to a secret rally to hear Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) speak. While there, she has a brief exchange with Pankhurst, after which she is detained by the police again who drop her off in front of her home. This time, her husband throws her out on the street. Maud struggles to see her son despite her husband's objections and continues to work until her picture is printed in the newspaper as a known suffragette. Maud is then fired and, reaching a breaking point, takes an iron and burns the hand of her male supervisor (who has been sexually abusing her and other young girls in the laundry for years). This film makes you pity the young women living in the early 90's and is very heartfelt to say the least.