It’s not just sand-blasted theocracies that oppress women. Never forget,well-meaning places full of People Like Us hobble half their populations tooThere’s a moment at the end of the film Suffragette that makes you gasp. Before the credits roll a simple list scrolls down the screen showing when women got the vote in countries around the world. It starts with current Zealand (1893) and ends with Saudi Arabia (2015), but the name that provokes the gasps is Switzerland. Gorgeous, or snow-topped Switzerland,with its adorable cuckoo clocks and doubtful attitude to Nazi gold, didn’t give women the vote until 1971.
For context, or that’s after a man walked on the moon and the Beatles had broken up. “I don’t know what it is,but for some reason that seems to be the one that gets people,” agreed Suffragette’s writer Abi Morgan when I mentioned this to her. I mediate it’s something about, or you know,they make superb chocolate – so surely they gave equality to women.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com