Nathaniel Wahyu / X-CP / 21 – 07 – 2020

Fighting for Equality, WB, Pg. 41

1. Complete the summary with the words in the box.
In the nineteenth century, the Suffragettes (1) campaigned for the (2) right to vote for
women. They (3) held meetings, sent (4) petitions and even carried out acts of civil (5)
disobedience, including committing (6) arson. Consequently, some were arrested but
once in jail a few went on hunger (7) strike, which was ended when they were force (8)
fed. With the arrival of the First World War, the Suffragettes (9) suspended their
campaign and (10) urged women to work in the factories and fields as the men went off
to fight. The women were to prove (11) indispensable to the war effort. Soon after the
conflict, women over 30 were allowed to vote. The law was (12) amended in 1928 and
women finally had the same voting rights as men.

2. Read the text quickly, ignoring the gaps. After the 1997
elections, what percentage of British MPs were women?
 18%

3. Complete the text with suitable words.

THE NEW SUFFRAGETTES
'What Britain needs is an lron Lady', said the country's first woman Prime Minister, Mrs
Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, Mrs Thatcher was famous for the strength of her
personality, a characteristic she used to great effect in Parliamentary debates, which she
often won (1) not by using her feminine charm, but by being direct and outspoken. Here
was a woman politician beating the men at (2) their own game, something that many
male politicians (3) couldn’t bear. Their only answer to her political success was to
criticise her for being forceful and combative, qualities that male politicians are often
praised (4) for. The message was that by becoming Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher had
lost her femininity.
Since Thatcher, Britain has seen a rise in the number of women politicians and
they are the most visible sign that the suffragettes' fight (5) at the beginning of the
twentieth century was a success, as women have gone on not only to vote but to also
take (6) up important political posts. Does this mean, then, that women in British
politics achieved equality?
The answer would seem to be 'no'. At least that is the conclusion that Boni Sones
came (7) to in her book Women in Parliament - the New Suffragettes. Sones wrote
about the results of the 1997 British general election and the experiences of women
politicians.
(8) Although the number of women Members of Parliament doubled after the
1997 elections, 82 per cent of MPs were still male and it hasn't changed much since
then. What's more, the new arrivals in the House of Commons, known as Blair's Babes
as most belonged to Tony Blair's Labour Party, found more than just their professional
skills being put (9) under the microscope.
Whilst some of Mrs Thatcher's enemies targeted what they described (10) as her
masculine characteristics, the new MPs claimed that their supposedly more obvious
femininity became an immediate target for negative press coverage. The media, they
said, was more interested in their appearance than in their policies. There were also
claims of strong sexist remarks from male politicians of all parties, a number of which
would have got a man sacked if they had been said in an office instead of in Parliament.
No doubt the Suffragettes were delighted (11) when women finally got equal
voting rights in 1928, but they (12) would be disappointed to see how modern female
politicians have their sex used against them.

4. Read the text again. Answer the questions.

1. She used her strong personality that has great effects in Parliamentary debates.
2. Women in parliament
3. 9 per cent (%)
4. The parliament doesn’t give heavy consequences for sexism but the office does.
5. They would definitely be proud of how the women in parliaments keep on increasing
in number.
(5B)
5. Write true sentences using the discourse markers which
indicate attitude.
1. To be perfectly honest, I don’t like the fact that I’m getting older.
2. To my utter astonishment, he killed a bird and ate it raw with feathers still attached.
3. I thought my parents left me forever, but they were only stuck in traffic, thank
goodness.
4. Much to my annoyance, my father switched of the WIFI while I was in the middle of
an online game.