My heroines on stage

I was born at a time when, thanks to Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Stanton, Susan Anthony, Emily Davison and many other brave women, some balance between women and men had already been established.

It was difficult and unfair, but women fought for their rights and now live much better. The main questions are: how hard was it and how many women, for whom we have no idea that they existed today, gave their lives for ours today?

Because of a story, which I will tell you, I celebrate women's day. 20 - those years of the twentieth century, "luminous watches" - wristwatches decorated with radium - began to appear in America. Radium was considered an almost "magical" element that could heal, prolong life, give strength, rejuvenate, make women more beautiful, increase sexuality. In the factory where "luminous watches" were produced, women worked - known as "radium girls". They applied radium by dipping a brush (pencil) in a bottle with radium, then putting it on their tongue and only then applying it to the watch. For years, no one could suspect anything bad. The women were happy to be there, they got paid, they supported their families, that was more than enough for them. After some time, the radium spread throughout the body and began to destroy them. The women glowed in the dark because of the huge amount of destructive radium they carried in their bodies.

More than 50 women died. Five women came to court with the decision to fight: Grace Fryer, Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, Albina Maggia Larice and Quinta Maggia McDonald. It was hard for them to prove anything, five ordinary working class women came forward to sue a large company in New Jersey.

They didn't get a lawyer to represent them, they had nothing but each other. They are a story that was swept under the rug in the middle of the last century. Today they are known and they are our heroines.

Sara Simović, actress of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad