Why the suffragettes still matter: 'they dared to act as the equals of men'

They endured violence and cruelty to further the cause of votes and equality for women. Ahead of the release of the movie Suffragette, we asked writers to reflect on the meanings and modern relevance of the militants’ direct action

Still from Suffragette (2015). Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid

Helen Lewis, Tessa Hadley, Jacqueline Rose, Sarah Crompton, Rachel Holmes, Bridget Christie

Saturday 19 September 2015 - The Guardian

Helen Lewis

‘The suffragettes should not be used as a reproach to modern feminists’
As political movements fade from living memory, they are pummelled and marshalled into neatness. At worst, they become a simple story of good versus evil, with all their agonised debates, bitter personal rivalries and thunderous schisms smoothed out into a easy narrative arc.
But history doesn’t feel like history when it is being made. As a novelist, Hilary Mantel’s greatest achievement has been to put the French revolution and Henry VIII’s break with Rome back into the present tense. She strips away the feeling of inertia from historical events; she makes us see her characters wavering over the road not travelled.

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