Suffragette – The Orbital

Make your mark and register to vote this Autumn!

30Oct

By Alex JonesNo Comments

Features

Make your mark and register to vote this Autumn!

Social media. Phones. The internet. We live in an interconnected world in which everyone has an opinion and are one click away from showing it off for everybody to see. Why then is voter turnout, especially in the 18-24 age group slowly decreasing? We all clearly want to express our opinions but it seems we’ve lost the ability to do this in a meaningful way. Don’t get us wrong; we are fed up of talking about Brexit and for people who are interested in politics we are both bored and deeply upset with the political situation in Britain at the moment. And that is why we are going to vote. Knife crime, poverty, the NHS, cuts to education funding, climate change and a deeply divided society are issues we all face in this country at the moment. These are the issues that we all care abo...

7Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

Surface Level Suffragettes?

The history of the suffrage movement is obviously very important here at Royal Holloway. So, itt makes sense for the college to find ways of celebrating this history during the centenary anniversary of Women’s Suffrage, right? Wrong. With so many lingering issues surrounding women on this campus, I'm not sure Royal Holloway should be capitalising on the suffrage movement without addressing these important issues. Since the recent unveiling of the Davison Building, named after suffragette Emily Wilding Davison as she is an alumna of this ‘feminist institution’, Royal Holloway has also placed a open exhibition with archived memorabilia in the Davison exhibition space as well as enlisting students to dress in Suffragette outfits and walk around campus on February 6, which was the day that ...

28Oct

By Olivia AtkinsonNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Suffragette: the fear of change

Family movie night premiered Sarah Gavron’s latest film, "Suffragette"; a raw, eye opening success that has introduced significant thought and discussion both within the public eye and my own living room. Not a single word was spoken as my family and I were fixated on the motion picture. In my awestruck eyes, this interpretation of the development of our democratic history perfectly encapsulates the lengths it took for the women of the past 100 years to get to 1 vote for the women of today. The film highlights the immense effort, thought and planning that went into protests, both passive and violent. Beatings carried out in the streets and the death of world-renowned martyr, Emily Wilding-Davison, were incredibly intense moments and were, at times, rather grotesque and shocking, yet w...

6May

By No Comments

News

Reclaiming our Suffragette History!

At the general meeting on March 10th, a motion was passed to lobby the college to name the new library after one of our most famous alumni, Emily Wilding Davison. The new library on campus, due to open in mid-2017, remains as yet unnamed. The planning has been under way for some time now, with construction due to begin in the autumn of 2015. The build involves moving the college shop from its current position to an as yet, undisclosed location. Royal Holloway shares a proud history for women and the suffragette movement, being officially opened in 1886 by Queen Victoria as an all-women college with Bedford College, another former all women’s college. Emily Wilding Davison herself was a student at Royal Holloway College in 1891 after winning a bursary from Kensington High School, stud...