Less Than 100 Years Ago by Lauren

Less Than 100 Years Ago by Lauren - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

If someone told me I had to choose between not having basic human rights or instead having all those rights yet being subjected to force feedings and torture to achieve them, I’m not sure I could make the decision. But this was exactly the choice the suffragettes faced in the United States (and abroad) in order to secure their right to vote as women.

It has been less than 100 years since the United States was a country that prohibited more than half of its population from voting or participating in democracy. Such injustices that reduced women to simply the property of their fathers, brothers, or husbands enrage me. And yet I don’t know if I could endure what the suffragettes did in order to make it change. For this reason I would be very grateful for the chance to have dinner with any of them. Be it Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, or one of the lesser-known women, to be able to witness someone who had such courage and conviction would change my life and inspire me even further.

The inhumane treatment the suffragettes were subjected to while in prison seems like something that shouldn’t have or couldn’t have happened in the United States in the 1920’s. But it is a reminder that there are still struggles for basic human rights going on both in the United States and all around the world today. Perhaps in a hundred years we’ll look back on the oppression that many people endure today and wonder how it could have ever happened. Honoring the women that fought for their basic human rights will help to address current social injustices. Meeting one of the suffragettes would be an awe-inspiring experience that would further motivate me to continue to fight for social justice and human rights.