1912

• women's rights had remained stagnant since victorian era
• women were disenfranchised
• patriarchal society - women seen as property of fathers and husbands with no political or legal rights
• women seen as inferior to husbands or male counterparts - role as a woman did not surpass partiarchal expectations of them - to have children and be housewives
• london society for women's suffrage 1867 created to campaign for women's rights
• marginal gains in women's rights made when in 1882 married women's property act meant women were allowed to have their own legal identity and keep property
• during 1910s, women's suffrage movement had gained momentum and begun to bring attention to it - women however still inferior
• link to play

  sheila presented as disenfranchised at beginning of play - her infantile language and short dialogue representing how women were oppressed and silenced politically and socially in 1912 - eva's animalistic treatment can't be disregarded just as being down to classism, status as a lower-class woman made her more susceptible to abuse