Summary Of Vida Levering's Play 'Votes For Women !'

Double reading: Votes for Women!’s Vida Levering’s speech in light of Olympe de Gouges’ Déclaration des droits de la femme

Elizabeth Robins’ play Votes for Women!, performed for the first time in 1907, depicts a meeting in Trafalgar Square that allows women to speak to the crowd and discuss their situation at the time. Between ignorance and attacks from the male assembled in the square and because they dared to speak up on their condition, the women taking a stand on that day are an example that deserved to be followed at this turn of the century when women were deprived of the most basic human rights. Inspiring women to do the same and to speak up is the goal of the play and it offers an interesting combination of propaganda and intellectual
When mentioning the role of women in the late 18th century France, De Gouges says that if they are good enough for the dirty work and the unpleasant jobs then they must also be rewarded with access to all jobs and dignities. This statement can be linked with Miss Levering’s opinion on women’s treatment in the face of justice on line 536. In fact, how is society supposed to be functioning when it refuses certain jobs to half its population? The revendications here are not only about the right of suffrage for women, they are about including women in the society they provide for by raising its children and feeding its workers. According to Miss Levering and Olympe de Gouges, women can’t be included in the society only when it is deemed important to the leading part of the male population. For Olympe de Gouges education and opportunities should be the same for both sexes: “elle [la formation] doit être la même pour tous: toutes les citoyennes et tous les citoyens, étant égaux à ses yeux, doivent être également admissibles à toutes dignités, places et emplois publics, selon leurs capacités et sans autres distinctions que celles de leurs vertus et de leurs talents » (les droits de la femme, 6th
and Olympe de Gouges’ déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne can be read together as complements to one another as they serve to both criticize the society their authors lived in and to inspire the creation of a better, more equal society where the rights of both women and men are treated with the same importance. Miss Levering’s speech at the Trafalgar Square meeting highlights the difficulties women at the time were facing but mostly it brings out the injustice of treatment towards half the country’s population. In fact, both in the face of justice and in society women were mistreated or at best ignored. The notion of being judged by one’s peer, so important for men of the time because of the disparities between the different classes in the society, ignored the fact that there is a difference between the two sexes. Being judged by its peers requires for said gender to be represented in the society and on every step on the ladder because women were not a lower cast who don’t deserve representation and power. With her speech, Miss Levering manages to highlight the incoherence in the structure of the British society of 1907 and to offer a vision of the problem that is both convincing and awakening to the male gaze because it encompasses notions that have been around for decades, if not longer, and that need to be reassessed. Just like today’s #metoo movement, which aims at a liberation of women’s voices, Votes for