Maud Fitzherbert's Fall Of Giants: Suffragette

The Many Wars of World War I The early 1900s were a time of struggles, the suffragette movement was accelerating, the lower classes clashed with the upper classes when they were thrown into the heat of war and forced into to fight alongside each other. Of course, there was also the war itself. Over the course of World War I many things changed. Many people's attitudes converted, many steps taken in the direction of progress. But many people traversed the changes, for changes are alarming. However through misfortune and arduous work, the ‘rebels’ would prevail.

Women in the 1900s were starting to become more and more distraught with their circumstances. The suffragette movement had become something greater than a spark, it was a huge fire

Men also looked down upon women, treating them as if they were lesser beings. So, women set out to get the vote and be able to change their circumstances.

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Before World War I the number of women who were activists was low, and when they were activists their politics were considered radical. This is beautifully illustrated in Ken Follet’s book Fall of Giants. Maud Fitzherbert is a rich aristocrat with a taste for politics. When her brother Earl ‘Fitz’ Fitzherbert throws a party and invites many of his high political connections, he worries that she will barraide them with her ‘radical politics’ “Fitz prayed that she would talk about art all evening and keep off women’s rights” (Follet 115). Everytime Fitz talks about Maud he is exasperated, always worrying she will push her agenda onto his aristocrat friends. Meanwhile Maud and a rich German named Walter Von Ulrich have fallen in love. Walter is a

During this time Ethel is liberated from Mannie’s sweatshop and roped into Maud’s mission as they start a newspaper together so they can get the woman's word out into the world. They prominently ask for better treatment of soldiers wives and children while projecting a larger message of women's rights. Ethel earns a steady and fair wage while working under Maud, as well as ‘finding her voice’ (949) as Maud remarks. Both women find themselves in a powerful and noteable position. Before the war Maud and Walter want to go on a walk, but Ethel has to chaperone them. This is not just because Maud is with a man but because it is thought that a woman should not go anywhere alone. This changes when during the war rules relax, people aren’t focused on what women are doing, be that for better or worse, so Maud can wander around town alone: “She was alone. Chaperoning rules had relaxed since the beginning of the war. It was no longer scandalous for a single woman to go out unescorted in the daytime”