By Jackie Bocanegra/reporter
A TCU history professor told NE students gathered in Center Corner that suffrage is two syllables, and although it does not mean suffering, a lot of people suffered during this time of suffrage.
Rebecca Sharpless spoke to students March 6 about why women suffragists worked so hard for women’s right to the ballot.
Sharpless, who earned her doctorate in American studies and women’s studies at Emory University, explained the impact the suffrage movement has had on our society.
“Your vote is your voice,” she said. “What is it about the vote that white men want to keep to themselves?”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller and Susan B. Anthony are just a few women who worked toward getting women’s equal rights and voting rights.
“Don’t give me my privileges because I am a woman. Give me them because they are my rights,” said Sharpless, quoting Stanton.
Sharpless describes these women as fearless leaders who fought against men that didn’t believe women or African-Americans had equal rights.
“It took not one but three amendments to get to where we are today, to all have equal freedom to vote, to education [and] to equal rights,” she said.
The 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments all led to more freedoms: the end of slavery, equal rights to all no matter their race and sex, and women’s right to vote. Sharpless told students that next year on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, that we must vote to appreciate all those who fought for those rights.
