Celebrate Women's Equality Day - Upcoming release of Suffragette on October 23

In anticipation of the upcoming release of Suffragette, and today being Women’s Equality Day I wanted my good friend Gretchen to offer her insight on how she feels about what the Suffrage movement did for women and how the fight isn’t over.

I was so excited when I turned 18, because that meant I got to vote. I had heard my parents talking about who they were going to vote for and I couldn’t wait for my turn to cast my ballot. I knew that women had to “fight” for the right to vote, but I never truly understood what that meant until I took Women’s Studies in college. They mostly glossed over it in grade school, skipping over the arrests and the forced feedings. Once I learned about what our foremothers really went through, I had an even greater respect for that right they fought so hard for us to have.

It pains me to this day when I hear women, especially young women, say they “forgot” to vote or who don’t really know who the candidates are. The sacrifices the suffragists made so that future generations of women would have a voice deserve respect and participation in that right. And it’s not just the Presidential elections that matter. The local elections sometimes affect our everyday lives even more than who will be our Commander-in-Chief.

One of my favorite quotes is “Well behaved women seldom make history”. Those who stood up and fought for our right to vote were not “well behaved”, and bless them for it. We might not have ever won the vote had it not been for those who called out the sexism that kept that right from women. I can’t wait to see the movie “Suffragette”! It’s another chance for the world to see just how strong women are and how important our right to use our voice really is. Women’s Equality Day is today.

Women’s Equality Day

August 26, 2015, marks the 95th anniversary of the admission of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the victory the Woman Suffrage Movement had worked so hard for. After 72 years of countless suffrage protests, petitions, speeches, pamphlets, and nights spent in jail, on August 26, 1920, women had won the right to vote and the Suffrage movement had finally accomplished its goal.

Celebrate Women’s Equality Day by wearing the colors of Suffrage, purple – for dignity and ability, green for hope and white for purity. Don’t stop there, encourage young women to exercise their right to vote.

About “Suffragette”

Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, lead the cast of a powerful drama about the women who were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality in early-20th-century Britain. The stirring story centers on Maud (played by Carey Mulligan), a working wife and mother whose life is forever changed when she is secretly recruited to join the U.K.’s growing Suffragette movement. Galvanized by the outlaw fugitive Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep), Maud becomes an activist for the cause alongside women from all walks of life. When increasingly aggressive police action forces Maud and her dedicated fellow Suffragettes underground, they engage in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the authorities, who are shocked as the women’s civil disobedience escalates and sparks debate across the nation. Inspired by true events, “Suffragette” is a moving drama exploring the passion and heartbreak of those who risked all they had for women’s right to vote – their jobs, their homes, their children, and even their lives. The film also stars Ben Whishaw, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Romola Garai, and Natalie Press. “Suffragette” is directed by BAFTA Award winner Sarah Gavron from an original screenplay by Abi Morgan.