86 years ago today, the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution gave women the formal right to vote.
I don’t have much to say about Women’s Equality Day that isn’t obvious, but here are some links about the history that I thought were interesting.
- A page of historic documents related to the 19th amendment.
- Some 1919 and 1920 New York Times articles about the amendment.
- Something kinda neat – lyrics to three songs sung by suffragettes. And a .pdf link to a song sung at meetings of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs in the 1890s, as well.
- A webpage about the Susan B. Anthony trial of 1873 (Anthony was arrested for voting!).
- A collection of links to photos of the women’s suffrage movement.
- Who were the first women to vote in the USA?
- It can be hard to imagine what the arguments against suffrage were. So, anti-suffrage arguments: here, here and here.
- Ms. Musings also provides a lot of Women’s Equality Day links – hers are mostly current-events rather than historical.
Of course, there’s still a lot of equality yet to win – here in the US, and even more so worldwide. But let’s permit ourselves a day to bask in past victories. And as Vanessa at Feministing writes, ” take the day yourself to silently thank the ladies who fought so hard in the suffrage movement and loudly thank our ladies who are out there today still fighting for women’s rights!”
Actually, just basking in past victories runs contrary to the purpose of Women’s Equality Day, something Bush has forgotten in his last two proclamations, bleh. We’ll see how he does this year.
http://www.nwhp.org/events/equality-day/history-of-equality-day.html
“At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.”
The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York.
The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. Workplaces, libraries, organizations, and public facilities now participate with Women’s Equality Day programs, displays, video showings, or other activities.”
Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971
Designating August 26 of each year as Women’s Equality Day
WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and
WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and
WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and
WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.“
Yeah, you’re right, it was a dumb thing for me to say. To be honest, I was just casting about for a “conclusion-sounding” sentence to end the post with, rather than thinking carefully. I’ve since edited the post to swipe a conclusion sentence from Feministing.
Here’s an honest question – what results have been produced by female suffrage? Do women vote differently from men on certain issues?
Women do vote, on average, differently from men in some elections. However, it’s obviously not a huge, huge effect.
But, even if they didn’t sometimes vote differently from men, gaining the vote is important. It is not just the outcome of an election that matters to me. The fact that I do get input commensurate with that of other people also matters to me.
We would not have women politicians if women had not shown citizenship participation by voting.
well, here’s an obvious one:
my immediate family are all hardcore liberals (be it genetic or indoctrinated, either way, we are)
without women’s suffrage, our family would have a total of 3 votes (myself, my uncle, and my grandfather)
we have 9 votes amongst us. those other six are because women have the right to vote.
now, the numbers don’t work out quite the same way for every other family, or every other political ideology, but I for one, love being able to say “my older sister is a human being and her opinions count too, dammit”
what’s kinda sad is that the third song on the list (oh dear, what can the matter be) I actually already knew all the lyrics by heart since I was a kid.
fuckin’ told you my family are hard core, old school liberals.
Well, if women hadn’t voted at all in 1996, and men had voted exactly the same, then Bob Dole might have won the presidential race that year. From a Feminist Majority webpage:
*Now* there’s not as much a difference as you would think. Sort of. Single women could easily swing this next election, and that’s a fact. It’s my personal opinion that you will see more married women jumping the Rep. ship and voting for Kerry than you would think, too.
But at the time, the women’s vote made a huge difference. One of the big issues that had a sexual divide was prohibition of alcohol. Women’s suffrage led quite directly to Prohibition.
Anyway, it’s a hard thing to measure. Just the threat of the women’s suffrage has influenced the way politicians think. I find it hard to believe that it’s a coincidence that widow pensions, contraception, widespread public schooling, etc. would have come around without women’s suffrage. The Republicans would have gone ahead and banned birth control and abortion to please the religious right if women didn’t have the vote.
You can’t measure these things. Imagine how different the balance of power between men and women would be if men could think, well, they aren’t even trusted with the vote!
Women’s suffrage led quite directly to Prohibition.
Huh? Prohibition was the 18th amendment; it was enacted two years before women’s suffrage.
And as long as I’m nitpicking, Amp, 1920 was 84 years ago, not 86.
Point taken–still, many states had women’s suffrage before the Constitutional amendment, and since the suffrage states were mostly sparsely populated states they had, as sparsely populated states still do, political power out of proportion to their population. And my point still stands that the mere threat of the female vote has caused a lot of progressive legislation.
Hey, don’t forget the Schoolhouse Rock song, “Sufferin’ ’til Sufferage”.
“Oh, we were sufferin’ until sufferage.
Not a woman here could vote no matter what age.
‘Til the 19th amendment struck down that restrictive rule.”
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