The Gender Issue: Suffragettes

I was recently watching an episode of Cold Case that took place in the 1920s and involved the women's movement. In the episode, the girl that was killed was from a wealthy influential family and she was a suffragette. They showed her going to secret meetings and going through the trials of being a woman for change. Her family, including her mother, seriously disapproved of her beliefs that women should be given the same opportunities as men. Her father even threatened to disown her at one point. Although the episode is only fiction, I can imagine that the experiences of real suffragettes was similar. Many of them had to choose between the ones they loved, and what they believed in. Watching this episode made me realize how many rights I take for granted. These women gave up so much to fight for freedom and I can't say that I've never taken some of these freedoms for granted. Like the freedom to get a college degree, have a career, and vote. All of these rights have become common place and no one usually thinks about how hard it was to get them, but it was the suffragettes that gained respect for women and fought for most of the rights women have today.