By Ryon Boswell
Stephanie Cole, the co-author of Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives, presented key topics in the history of women’s suffrage to SE students March 25.
These topics included events such as the passing of the 19th Amendment and the Sheppard-Towner Act.
Cole also discussed many variables that affected women’s journey for equality, both then and now. These issues included the battle for suffrage, the struggle for adequate positions in the job market and the continued problem with pay inequality.
These are issues Cole says stem from a societal norm that, until recently, has not treated women as citizens.
“It’s a horrible thing for women to be ambitious,” Cole said.
Women’s equality was an accident as “sexual equality” was only added to the Equal Rights Amendment to keep it from passing, Cole said. However, women were eventually given many of the rights allocated in the amendment.
The fight for women’s rights is not over, though, as pay inequality still persists today.
Cole, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, won the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book in Women’s History in Texas.
