Mary Poppins is a Disney film based on the childrens series that entails the life of the Banks Family as they they hire this magical and mysterious nanny called Mary Poppins in 1910 England . The mom Mrs. Banks who has a minor role is a suffragist and is part of Emeline Pankhurst movement.
Mary Poppins is a childrens movie so it is very fanstastical and entertaining . It has little depiction of the suffrage movement though the mom is a suffragist . The movie paints the mom as incompetent and childish and cant take care of her kids , for this reason they must hire the nanny. They also show her too busy with the suffrage movement to be able to take care of her kids. This potrayal of her is sexist because it shows that women are the ones that are suppose to take care of the kids and are insubordinate to men. Its shows that women should be treated like children by portraying them as childlike . It portays that suffragist are too busy to deal with kids and taking care of them .
In Iron Jawed Angels , we see the differences between men and women and the stratification of class. In the film , the Senator wife is seen at home taking care of two children while her husband works . Even though she is seen as being privelaged the husband treats her harsh as her only job is to take care of the kids like in Mary Poppins . The senator gets angered by the involvement of his wife into Alice Paul’s organization and the protest. This shows that class has no barriers when it comes to sexism , the difference between senator’s wife and those factory workers. She initially doesn’t join the suffragist because she is afraid that her husband would be mad . The husband takes the children away when he finds out that she is on the picket lines , again like Mary Poppins that perpetuates the sexist belief that they were unfit to take care of the children.The priavalage of having money and power is offset for being a woman .
The film Mary Poppins shows a fantastical version of the suffragist in the way the mom is singing and dancing and Iron jawed Angels show the realistic portayal of women such as Alice Paul fighting for their rights.
In conclusion, the films show how the suffragist participate in the system of patriarchy. The NAWSA gave in the system by not wanting to push more harshly like Alice Paul because they were “reluctant to use such power” and didn’t want to protest a wartime president . In the films , Like in Mary Poppins and Iron jawed Angels the women gave into the system by being “good wives” by taking care of their kids even though there were privalged . (Johnson,Allan Patriachy)
