譯/李京倫
A century after they won the right to vote, British women celebrated their gains on the 6th of February but took a gimlet-eyed view of their status in modern-day Britain.
In recent months alone, there have been revelations of sexual harassment in the hallowed chambers of Parliament; a scandal at the Presidents Club, where hostesses were reportedly harassed and assaulted at a men-only charity dinner; the disclosure of gender pay gaps at the BBC; and the resignation of a Labour politician who accused the party of sexism after some members heckled her by singing a song about stalking.
在贏得投票權一世紀之後，英國女性2月6日慶祝她們取得的成就，卻也嚴格審視她們在當前英國的地位。
單單最近幾個月，受到尊崇的國會上下兩院幾度被揭發性騷擾案；「總裁俱樂部」也發生醜聞，據報導女服務生在僅限男性參加的慈善晚宴上遭到性騷擾和性侵；英國廣播公司（BBC）被揭發薪資有性別差距；以及在野黨工黨幾名成員對黨內一名女性政治人物唱了一首與跟蹤騷擾有關的歌，讓她難堪，她控訴工黨歧視女性，憤而辭職。
The anniversary seemed all the more meaningful because it was taking place in the midst of the #MeToo movement in Britain. Julianne Hughes-Jennett, a lawyer emerging that day from an exhibit on the suffragist movement at the Museum of London, tried to take the long view.
"One hundred years in the context of history is a drop in the ocean," she said.
這次的女性投票權周年紀念日似乎格外有意義，因為正值英國「#我也是（性騷擾受害者）」運動方興未艾之際。茱莉安．休斯—傑尼特是一名律師，當天在倫敦博物館一場關於爭取女性投票權運動的展覽中站出來發言，從長遠的角度看這件事。
她說：「100年在歷史長河之中只是滄海一粟。」
Not all women won the right to vote when the Representation of the People Act passed on Feb. 6, 1918. It conferred eligibility only on female property owners age 30 and older, the culmination of years of campaigning and militancy by leaders such as Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst. It took a decade more before Britain extended the vote to all women 21 and over.
Since then, much legislation has been passed to advance women's equality. Hughes-Jennett, wearing the suffragists' white, green and purple ribbon on her jacket lapel, pointed to the Equal Pay Act in 1970. "But it still takes a while for culture to catch up with the law," she said.
當1918年2月6日「人民代表法」獲得通過時，並不是所有女性都贏得投票權。此法只賦予30歲以上擁有財產的女性投票權，而這已是米莉森特．法賽特和艾米琳．潘克赫斯特等領袖倡導並激烈奮戰多年的結果。直到10年後，英國才將投票權擴及21歲以上的所有女性。
此後，許多促進性別平等的法律獲得通過。休斯—傑尼特在夾克翻領上別著爭取女性投票權人士的白、綠、紫三色緞帶，並談起1970年的「公平薪資法」，她說，「不過，社會文化仍需相當時日才能跟上這個法律」。
Greta Brandler, 102, who was 2 when the first voting act was passed, reminded listeners on a BBC television program how much more needed to be done. "Men are control freaks," she told the broadcaster, without a trace of irony. "Look at what we've got in Parliament — 7-year-old boys squabbling and fighting."
Brandler said, "Women have moved closer to the glass ceiling, but a woman has to be twice as good to be equal to a man."
The irony of the BBC's coverage was not lost on some British viewers, who criticized the broadcaster on Twitter for covering the centenary even, they said, as it denied some of its female employees the same salaries as their male counterparts.
葛瑞塔．布蘭德勒現年102歲，當英國第一個賦予女性投票權的法律通過時她才2歲，她在接受BBC電視節目訪問時提醒觀眾，促進女權方面需要做的事還多得很。她對BBC這麼說，「男人都是控制狂」，不帶一絲嘲諷意味，「看看我們的國會，活像一堆7歲男孩在吵嘴打架」。
布蘭德勒說：「女人已經離玻璃天花板更近了，卻必須比男人好一倍才能獲得跟男人同等的待遇。」
一些英國觀眾並不是沒有覺察到BBC這次訪問的諷刺性，他們在推特上批評BBC，報導女性取得投票權100周年，卻不讓自身一些女員工與男員工同工同酬。
說文解字看新聞
文/李京倫
女性投票權（women's suffrage）是女性依法在全國和地方選舉中投票的權利。在古老的希臘、羅馬共和國和18世紀末歐洲出現的極少數民主政體中，女性都沒有投票權。女性投票權直到19世紀才成為議題，在英、美兩國爭取女性投票權的運動尤其熱烈，不過，這兩國並不是最早賦予女性在全國選舉中的投票權的國家，比紐西蘭（1893）、澳洲（1902）、芬蘭（1906）和挪威（1913）都晚。美國是1920年。
英國爭取女性投票權的運動頗具代表性。本文提到的「全國婦女投票聯盟」是由多個爭取女性投票權的（suffragist）協會合併而成，讓這個社會運動更具一致性（coherence）。不過，一部分社運人士不滿於政府缺乏作為，在潘克赫斯特的領導下採取較為激烈（militant）的抗爭方式，行動日益暴力，入獄後仍以絕食來抗議，suffragettes就是特指這一群手段較激烈的人。
第一次世界大戰爆發後，英國爭取女性投票權的組織將精力轉向支援戰爭，這些組織的高效率打動了社會大眾，讓他們全心支持女性投票權，最後，當時三大政黨絕大多數國會議員都認知有授予投票權（enfranchisement）給婦女的必要性。
