149 3 Role models Suffragettes Once upon a time, but not very long ago, women around the world were politically powerless. Oh, they had to follow the laws, but there was very little interest in women being able to change any laws. Voting, you see, was reserved for the logical, objective minds of men. Equal rights? What’s that? Suffrage is a word that means “the right to vote”. It seems hard to believe, but the fight for women’s right to vote wasn’t an easy one. The women who took part in campaigns for voting rights were called suffragettes, and they were often considered to be troublemakers. However, they could not accept the idea that their voices were not to be heard. Australian suffragette, Mary Lee, put it quite clearly in 1899, when she said, “Nineteenth century civilisation has accorded to women the same political status as to the idiot and the criminal.” Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, a woman named Kate Sheppard was also busy rocking the political boat. She and her fellow suffragettes organised huge petitions to ask their government for equal voting rights. Between 1891 and 1893, they gathered almost 61,000 signatures urging further reading Before reading What do you think life was like for women in the late 1800s? What were their rights and freedoms compared to the ones you have today? Freewrite for a couple of minutes. suffrage – kosningaréttur to be considered – vera talinn to accord – veita the Tasman Sea – Tasmanhafið, hafsvæði milli Ástralíu og NýjaSjálands a petition – undirskriftasöfnun voting rights – kosningaréttur to gather – safna to urge – hvetja til Suffragettes protest in London, 1912.
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