Pardee Students Publish Op-Ed on Women’s Suffrage
Three students from the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University – Aarthi Gopalan (’23), Sydney Pickering (’22), and Charles J. Ray (’21) – published an op-ed in BU Today on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment and the #MeToo movement.
The op-ed, titled “POV: What the Battle for Women’s Suffrage Tells Us about #MeToo 100 Years Later,” discusses the inclusionary and exclusionary characteristics of the early 20th century women’s suffrage movement to shed light on the present-day #MeToo movement. While last century’s women’s suffrage movement was notorious for actively excluding native, Black, and Asian-American women, the authors argue that #MeToo must revolutionize the feminism of the suffragettes into an all-encompassing movement.
An excerpt:
The #MeToo movement is not feminist if it is not intersectional. Acknowledging that modern American rape culture is a derivative of heteropatriarchy and white supremacy is a first step towards inclusive, profound change. The suffragettes, through their persistence, were successful for white women. #MeToo should be similarly tenacious in mobilizing for nonwhite assault survivors.
The full op-ed can be read here.
This op-ed was produced as part of a team assignment in IR539, “History, Policy and Statecraft,” during Summer I 2020 taught by Profesor Jayita Sarkar. The course teaches students to analyze the present in light of the past, and write short analytical pieces to promote public awareness.