Did You Know There’s A Country Where Women Still Can’t Vote?
Outrageous.
Last week saw the release of Suffragette, the Carey Mulligan led movie about Emmeline Pankhurst and her team of devoted women's rights activists.
The film ended up hitting the headlines for more than just its superstar cast - the UK premiere was brought to a standstill by feminist action group Sisters Uncut, who staged a lie-in on the red carpet to protest against cuts made to domestic violence services. Helena Bonham Carter called it the “perfect” response to the film.
One thing the movie definitely did was get us all talking about women and voting again – it turns out there’s just one country in the world where women still don’t have the power to vote. Any guesses?
It’s the Vatican City. The tiny walled state in Italy is ruled over by the Bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the Pope, and currently only has about thirty female citizens.
We still reckon that those thirty women should be able to make their voices heard when it comes to politics. Pope Francis recently called for climate change action, and seems to have a more accepting view of gay marriage than his predecessors, so it seems only fair that similar progress is made for women's rights.
This has already been a huge year for female voting rights, as the women of Saudi Arabia were allowed to register to vote for the first time ever back in August.
However, this is one small step for Saudi women. We can't forget that they're still not allowed to drive, or even travel to school without a male guardian, so there’s no question that there's still a long way to go.