And a question was thrown to us : In the scene were Alice Paul (Swank) was thinking about the new name for their organization, Ben Wiseman (Dempsey) was taking care of his son, what does it signify? How does it play with the current society?
In the past years women were the victims of discrimination, in a number of different things. They also have built their stereotypes of being just simply a woman, lady, sex object or a mother. Women have no rights to join in any political discourse but only to finish their simple jobs at home. But when Alice Paul rises and got the guts, everything slowly changed and progressed.
In the scene when Alice Paul is awake, thinking of the name of their organization while Ben Wiseman was taking care of his child proves only that everything was slowly progressing and changing the stereotypes of women to not being only a mother type but also have rights equal to men. The scene surely goes to show that men taking care of his child (a woman as a mother should do) and women indulging herself in a political discussion (a man should do) signifies that they are both capable of doing those different acts and thus they are equal. Ben Wiseman taking care of his child and letting him go to sleep is an act that does not really suit for a man to do because he is ought to engage himself in politics and not of only taking care of his son. While Alice Paul thinking of a new name in her organization does not also fits to her role. This situation or scene shows a revision of both roles in the society, that a man can do woman’s work while a woman can do man’s work.
In our current society simply replicate also the message of the scene. As we can see and experience now, we had the two women presidents in the country, the former pres. Cory Aquino (the first woman president in Asia) and former pres. Gloria Arroyo. We also have women senators and congresswomen. This implies that in these days a woman can rule a country and can join in a political discourse.
