All language subtitles for Butterfly.Effect.S02E02_English

- [Narrator] London, 2017.

For all underground
movements, this is the moment

to step into the light and
confront the government.

For too long, millions
of women have fought

to finally obtain
the right to vote.

Born in the 19th century,
the movement for the women's

right to vote was
immediately resisted.

Repression was brutal.

With its back to the wall,

confronted by the
obstinacy of government,

the movement gradually
became radicalized,

descending into violence
and then terrorism.

Today the situation
is a total stalemate.

Each side is entrenched
in its position.

The country is on the
verge of civil war.

But none of this ever happened.

At the beginning of
the 20th century,

voices will be raised
to fight injustice

and obtain the right
to vote for women.

Our history is no more than a
series of incredible events.

Every one of us can
influence its course.

The most infinitesimal
of our decisions

can influence the
future of humanity.

To know the past is
to foresee the future.

1897, London.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett
founds the National Union

of Women's Suffrage Societies.

November 18, 1910,
a demonstration for
the right to vote

for women is violently
suppressed by the police.

February 1918, Parliament passes

the Representation
of the People Act.

More than eight
million British women

have won the right to vote.

These three intimately
related events

are the key moments
in the struggle

for British women's
right to vote

and are part of the long
history of women's
emancipation.

Paris, it's a hot summer
day and the governor

of the Royal Prison
has no idea what to do.

Ever since morning
increasing numbers of rioters

have laid siege to his fortress.

It's July 14, 1789 and the
French Revolution is underway.

The Bastille is about to fall.

The wave of revolution
carries all in its path.

Before the end of the
summer, the major principles

of liberty have been
set out in a charter.

The Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of The Citizen.

All men are born free
and equal in rights.

With this sentence, the
revolutionaries swept away

the old regime and established
a new social order.

Here the word men means
humanity, men and women,

rich and poor, great and
small,
all obtain the same rights.

However, very quickly, women,
despite having paid in blood

for the revolution
are largely excluded

from this new world of equality.

This pushing aside of
women is far from being

an isolated case in the
long history of humanity.

When we study ancient
civilizations,

one permanent feature
stands out clearly.

Women appear to have very
often been considered

as inferior in rights to men.

In Sparta, they were given
a good sports education

so they would produce
strong children.

In early Rome, the
paterfamilias had the right

of life or death
over his family.

In almost all cases, wives
were legally dependent

on their husbands,
daughters on their fathers.

Occasionally they had the
right to own their own
property

and take part in public life.

Often a battery of laws
protected them from abuse,

but reduced their movements
and their liberties.

Almost systematically they
were considered as inseparable

from the home, the
family and children.

For thousands of years,
one half of humanity

ruled over the other.

With the coming of
the French Revolution,

a fresh wind blows
across the nation.

But rapidly stripped of
their political rights,

certain women took the stage.

Olympe De Gouges,
a woman of letters,

publishes a declaration
of the rights of the woman

and the female citizen
and makes a plea

for equality of rights
between all citizens

irrespective of sex,
color, or income.

However, these ideas
will disappear with her

in the world of revolution.

- [Announcer] Welcome to
the memory of humanity.

Here we can control
time, analyze and compare

billions of events
and alter them

to rewrite history endlessly.

All the events in our history,
however minute they might be

are memorized and
interconnected.

It only requires one to be
changed for all the others

to be shaken to the core.

In the Paleolithic Age,
the woman is associated

with the earth,
nurturing and fertile.

Today we can find numerous
statues from the period

that represent a goddess mother.

However it would appear
that with the development

of agriculture, the
relationship
of man with nature changed.

Nature is exploited,
controlled, dominated.

For the woman, the
symbol of nature,

this perhaps constitutes
a key moment.

She loses her aura
in favor of a world

that is more controlled,
obedient to man.

Slowly other more masculine
divinities appear.

For century after century,
in societies that are

in a great majority patriarchal,

the man has claimed the
public arena for himself,

leading the clan, hunting, war.

The woman has inherited
the private space.

The home has become both
her realm and her prison.

[Narrator] 1837,
London, heart and soul

of the British empire.

Queen Victoria has just
succeeded to the throne.

The Royal Navy rules the waves.

British industry is
in full revolution.

This is a Victorian era.

However, all is not perfect.

Those in power fully
intend to remain there.

To achieve this, the best
way is to limit the power

of the lower classes

by restricting their
access to elections.

Actually the British kingdom
is a constitutional monarchy,

Which means that although
the king or queen

is indeed the head of
state, real power lies

in the hands of a
government and a parliament.

Therefore, in principle all
citizens have the right to
vote

to elect their representatives.

However, this right
to vote, or suffrage,

is subject to conditions.

One must be a property owner,
that is a British subject,

and pays more than 10
pounds in tax per year.

Defacto, this excludes
the lower classes.

But that's not all.

To vote, you must also be a man.

Women are not
considered fit to vote.

So Victorian England is swept
by a wind of social protest.

Movements that mobilize
millions of people

are trying to impose
universal suffrage.

Little by little, the
government concedes ground.

More and more men obtain
the right to vote.

Women are not there yet.

In 1860, women have no more
rights than a criminal,

a child, or the mentally ill.

It is during this period
that the first suffragist

organizations appear campaigning

for the right to vote for women.

In 1869 women paying
taxes obtain the right

to take part in
municipal elections.

In 1894, this right is
extended to all married women.

1897 is a major turning point.

The various associations,
until then isolated,

joined together to form

the National Union of
Women's Suffrage Societies,

or NUWSS.

Its president, Millicent
Garrett Fawcett.

Its aim, to obtain, through
constitutional struggle,

the same civic rights as men.

The great battle is beginning.

[Announcer] Universal suffrage.

In the 19th century, Great
Britain actually only grants

the right to vote to a tiny
portion of the population,

wealthy men.

The Athenian democracy
applied the same restrictions

and only a tiny
minority of inhabitants

saw their opinions
taken into account.

In France, the French
Revolution advocated

equality for all,

yet from 1791
women were excluded

from elections up until 1944.

The first republic to clearly
set out the right to vote

for women is Pasquale Paoli's
Corsican Republic of 1755.

Based on universal suffrage,
it is often considered

to be the first democratic
constitution in modern
history.

But it will only
last some 15 years.

These advances will
disappear at the same time

as the island's independence
when it is annexed by

the kingdom of France.

Let's continue.

[Narrator] June 5,
1900, South Africa.

British colonial forces
march into Pretoria,

capital of the Transvaal.

The origin of this conflict,
the refusal by the government

of the Transvaal to grant
the right to vote to the many

British immigrants who are
flooding into its territory.

Thousands of miles from its
capital, the British army

has thus flouted the
sovereign rights of a state,

in order to impose the right
to vote for its own
nationals.

For British women, this
is a dazzling revelation.

Quite visibly, a law that
you consider to be unjust,

can be fought even by force.

There's a long road ahead.

Anti-suffragists put
forward the argument

that the majority of women
quite simply do not want

the right to vote.

Queen Victoria herself
is a fierce opponent.

They consider women too unstable

in their political opinions,
swayed by their emotions

and not by their reason.

The struggle bogs down.

The suffragists from the
National Union of Women's

Suffrage Societies, despite
some minor victories,

are unable to push
things forward.

In 1903 several of its
members quit the organization

in disappointment and found

the Women's Social and
Political Union, the WSPU.

The brains of the
organization,
Emmeline Pankhurst.

Her war cry, deeds not words,
her tactic, direct action.

A name is very quickly
found to distinguish them

from the suffragists,
the suffragettes.

Two organizations, two
strategies, one common aim,

the right to vote for women.

Things soon pick up pace.

In 1905, two members of
the WSPU movement shout

suffragette slogans.

The police arrive, the
suffragettes resist,

refuse to move on
and end up fighting

with the forces
of law and order.

The two activists
are thrown into jail.

The tone is set.

Women are no longer
weak and submissive.

Encouraged by this
publicity's success,

the WSPU intensifies
its actions.

Disturbing meetings,
protests, hounding ministers

who no longer dare
leave their homes.

In 1907, 3000 women march
across London in the rain.

It's the Mud March.

If women are not
considered to be citizens,

some decide they will no
longer pay their taxes.

Emmeline Pankhurst declares,
"We are here not because

we are law breakers, we
are here in our efforts

to become law makers."

The movement hardens, an
avalanche of arrests follow.

In 1909, prisoners start a
series of hunger strikes.

The government's
response is swift.

The suffragettes are
force-fed through a long tube

pushed down their throats.

On November 18, 1910,
300 members of the WSPU

take to the streets to protest.

The police react
with a heavy hand.

119 persons are arrested.

The protestors are beaten.

The police turn a blind
eye to the violence

and groping inflicted
on the women.

One badly beaten
dies of her injuries.

Then groups of
suffragettes start

smashing shop
windows with hammers.

They burn houses, churches.

Slowly the WSPU
loses public support.

The word terrorism
starts to be applied.

The following year
the police take over

the suffragettes headquarters.

Its leaders are in
jail, or in exile.

The movement becomes
increasingly underground.

The situation is
a total deadlock.

How could Parliament give way
in the face of violent acts?

How could the
Suffragettes retreat?

The violence reaches its
climax in 1913 during the

Epsom Derby horse race.

Activist Emily Wilding Davison
tries to attract attention.

In the middle of the
race, as the cameras turn,

she crosses the barrier
and stands in front

of the King's horse.

Galloping at full speed,
the jockey cannot avoid her.

The suffragette
will not survive.

[Announcer] Civil disobedience.

A term created in 1849, the
concept dates back however

to the ius resistandi, a Roman
law, the right of resistance.

When revolt opposes
violence with violence,

then civil disobedience
is more subtle.

In reality the power of
the state rests entirely

upon the cooperation
of its population.

If the people refuse to obey,
the state no longer has power.

Furthermore, for it
to work, it requires

a sufficiently large
portion of the population

to follow the movement.

One indispensable condition,
leaders must be ready

to take every risk
to set the example

and take the crowd with them.

Such was the case with
Gandhi, Martin Luther King

or Nelson Mandela.

Their action was more
effective than that

of any terrorist group.

Violence breeds violence.

[Narrator] 1914, World War I.

Faced with the German threat,
the nation closes ranks.

The suffragette
prisoners are pardoned.

For a while the
suffragist organizations

forget their demands.

In the factories,
women replace en masse

the 2 million men
gone to the front.

Suffragettes become
munitionettes.

Work, hitherto the domain of
men, is now given to women.

It is realized that they
do the job equally well,

for wages that are always
substantially lower.

Then the first
combatants return home.

They lived through the horror,

the total butchery
of trench warfare.

Now not one of them
fulfills the conditions

essential for the right to vote,

having resided on British
soil for the twelve months

prior to an election.

Impossible for the government
to forbid them from voting,

if a man is obliged to lay
down his life for his
country,

the least the country can do

is allow him to
express his opinion.

The system has to be revised.

For the suffragists, its a
now or never opportunity.

If it means changing the
laws, we may as well pose

the wider question of
electoral
reform to include women.

But despite the war,
opponents drag things out,

barring women from the debates.

The arrival of Lloyd
George, who was in favor

of votes for women, at
the head of government

tilts the balance.

On January 10, 1918,
reluctantly the proposition

for the right to vote for
women is added to the bill.

On February 6, 1918 the
Representation of the People
Act

is passed.

Millions of new voters are
entered on the electoral
roles,

including more than
8 million women.

This law, imperfect
because it excludes women

who don't own property
or are under 30,

is nevertheless very concrete.

10 years later the law will
be
extended to all other women.

British women have
finally become citizens.

[Announcer] A turning
point is a key event,

a crossroads in our history
where the world swings

one way or the other.

In many episodes of our
history it's very easy

to identify them.

For example, what would have
happened if Julius Caesar

had never been born?

But sometimes they are
impossible to determine.

No event seems to have been
the keystone in the struggle

for the right to vote for
women, no person appears

by herself to have swung the
balance one way or another.

And the reason is simple.

The underlying movement
was carried not by one,

but by an incredible
number of women

on all continents
and over centuries.

From Olympe de Gouges to
the unknown textile worker

in the north of England
who becomes a suffragette,

all contributed closely
or at a distance

to the long battle for
their emancipation.

Therefore, there is
not one turning point

but a multitude.

[Narrator] The United
Kingdom is the eighth country

in the world to have granted
women the right to vote.

The first was New
Zealand in 1893.

In France, the land
of the rights of man,

they did not obtain
that right til the end

of the second World War in 1944.

In Saudi Arabia, they
had to wait until 2015.

The right to vote is a
fundamental first step

but it doesn't mean that
legal equality is total.

They still have to
obtain the right to stand

in an election, the right
to dispose of their property

as they see fit, to
marry and divorce freely,

to work, to dispose of
their bodies, and much more.

The suffragette movement
was only the first wave

in a ground swell that will
resurface in the 60s and 70s

in particular with
the sexual revolution.

Then women campaign more
for their private rights

than their public.

Choose their sexuality,
choose to marry or not,

only have children
if they so wish.

It's the hour of liberty
on the contraceptive pill.

Since the 80s the debate
becomes one of feminism

in the age of the internet
and globalization.

After years of
struggle, feminism is
sometimes viewed today

as a rear-guard action,
no longer useful.

And yet even in the most open
and tolerant of democracies,

in our day still, the
status of women is generally

inferior to that of men.

One day perhaps, we
may be able to say

that this injustice
is ancient history.

But that is another story.

[Announcer] We
are all different.

Equality can only be
an objective, an ideal.

That which is to be sought
is above all, equity.

Equity takes into account
the respective needs of each,

whatever the sex, color
of skin, or wealth,

the aim is to grant all
an equivalent treatment

in terms of rights,

advantages, obligations
or possibilities.

Giving more to
those who have less,

equity between men and women
is still far from perfect.

In many countries
women still don't have

the right to
divorce or abortion.

In the majority of
countries they continue

to earn less than
men for equal work.

There's a long road ahead.

The battle is far from over.

But fortunately throughout
the world many people,

women and men, have taken
up the suffragist's torch

to ensure that one day

we will all have the
same opportunities.