A blog post by bestselling author Rosie Clarke, on the publication day of Dark Secrets on Dressmakers’ Alley
British women today take so much freedom for granted. We might not get equal pay yet and there are still some things that are taboo or frowned on for us, but mostly we have the right to live, work, learn, play, and love as we please. We owe a lot of this to those brave women at the beginning of the twentieth century who were called Suffragettes. Back then, women had far fewer rights regarding property, divorce, being able to work and to choose the husband they wanted. It was the women who stood up for those things and were prepared to face abuse, ridicule, prison and even force-feeding when they campaigned by refusing to eat that brought about change.
In the Dressmaker’s Alley series, Winnie is a supporter of the Women’s Movement and so when she is in trouble, she calls on their help. When writing about this crucial period in the early part of the twentieth century it would be impossible not to include the Suffragette movement in some way, because those important changes that made it possible for young women to vote, get a divorce, go to work, and live an independent life were made then. More changes and new laws have come as the years passed but without those women they may not have happened. As a woman who has always believed in freedom and justice, I salute them and hope I would have been brave enough to be one of them had I lived then.
Freedom of speech, freedom for women to play in sports that were always the prerogative of men, fairness when it comes to who should have the children and equal division of assets after an unfortunate divorce. Justice and fair play for all is the British way and our women have played a large part in making this so.
In Dressmaker’s Alley the movement is only a part of Winnie’s life, as it was of all the mothers, wives and daughters who lived then. They had their homes to care for, their husbands and children, but because of them women have at this moment in time the freedom to make what they will of their lives. It is a precious freedom that we must all guard and protect.