This year marks the 100th anniversary that a bill was passed, granting women the right to vote in California. To commemorate this historical achievement, a lecture was held on March 1 in the Fireside Room at Bakersfield College, to jump-start Women’s History Month declared on the BC campus this month.
There was a packed house in attendance to hear speakers, BC history professor Ann Wiederrecht, and Cliona Murphy, professor of modern western European history at Cal State Bakersfield.
Wiederrecht’s lecture was titled “Women Win the Vote.” She began with an introduction of the women in history who led the fight to insure women gain suffrage in California. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton made great efforts to fight and persuade the political arena that became an agenda not achieved over night.
Wiederrecht continued her speech with a narrative four-phase timeline from the late 1800s to the passing of the women’s suffrage bill of California in 1911. Her 45-minute presentation concluded as an informative historic look into one of the major political accomplishments to develop in California’s history.
Murphy’s presentation of “Contradictions and Conflicts,” an account of the women’s fight for the vote in Great Britain and Ireland, immediately followed Wiederrecht’s lecture. Her speech and visual presentation gave a look into the women’s suffrage movement of Great Britain and Ireland.
Murphy began her college educational background at the National University of Ireland where she received her master’s. She later gained her doctorate in history at the University of New York, Binghamton. She has several publications that include, “The Women’s Suffrage Movement and Irish Society in the early Twentieth Century.”
Some students commented on the 100-year anniversary of women winning the vote in California. “We deserve it, to be equal and deserve to receive equal educational opportunities as men,” said Maria Canargo, a BC student.
She believes that the event should be given more public recognition.
Other students seem to agree with Canargo’s statement.
“We need to voice our opinions,” said Kathryn Keathing.” These days many women are heads of the households and we need to be heard.”