Equal Rights

By Emily Baxter, aged 13

"This is an outrage!" Yelled Esme Davison across the grand hall of Oxford University, ceiling lined with wooden beams and walls, covered with old paintings.The measly janitor, George, stood before the red-headed, fierce, strong-minded head of the University's Student Council. "He found it appropriate to dress up as a woman, hiding at the back of lectures and classes! We may have had the vote for 100 years but it's only in the last 10 that we have broken through the glass ceiling and put men in their proper place", exclaimed Esme,"It's time everyone understands that men are made to work FOR women, not WITH them!"

Esme rose up from her chair, shrieking like an angry cat as it slid back on the vanished, wooden floor. She turned around marching off to the principal's office.

Her strong fist thumped hard and fast on the principal's door and without waiting, strutted in. "Lady Adams can't see you for at least an hour", stated Mr Price, the secretary. "Ok, I'll wait!"

Esme was agitated and couldn't sit still. Pacing back and forward, flicking through magazines, twiddling her thumbs.

While waiting she noticed an old door, partly open. Esme decided to have a sneaky look inside, she'd always been a noisy parker. The door creaked as she stepped inside. It was dusty and uncared for, a small bit of light entering the room from a small window on the back wall.

Esme slowly walked to the back where she found two big boxes stacked on one another. The top one was labelled 'Esme Davison' no notice was taken there she knew it was her. The bottom one however was labelled 'Emily Davison'. "Who's this?" She thought "Not many people spell their name like that..."

She opened the box to find an aged, crumpled photograph of a woman. Esme recognised this woman, it was the same photograph that sat on her gran's mantlepiece.

"Who is she?" Esme searched further to find sashes that read 'Votes for Woman' and a diary with the name Emily Davison on the front. Esme's eyes were immediately drawn to the last entry, 3rd June 1913. It read, "Tomorrow we go to Epsom and show the King, just how much women's rights mean to us! All people should be equal, no one should be told they're weak or inferior- Deeds not Words."

A cough. Esme turned around to see Lady Adams. "Why didn't she get a degree, she clearly came to Oxford?" Asked Esme.

"In those days women didn't have the right to get degrees, no matter how clever. Is this how we see our future? Maybe you should rethink your dissertation... Oh and she was your great-grandmother." Lady Adams turned, and walked away.

Esme sat in the library, needing time to think.

She began to write- "Everyone is equal, we must fight for equality for all. Man, woman, black, white, gay, straight, Muslim or Christian. Deeds not words...