Sufferin' until Suffrage

In case you couldn't tell by the plethora of yard signs or TV ads, we're in an election year, folks. Many states have keys races and measures on the ballot this year that will deeply impact your lives and your future. This fall, the Feminist Majority Foundation will return to college campuses with our Get Out HER Vote Campaign, to encourage young women to register to vote, to become informed on the issues, and pledge to cast your vote (along with all your friends) on November 2!

For many of us (now full fledged politicos) our first introduction to politics was from the catchy tunes of School House Rock. (Yes, I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill...) To celebrate the recent 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment and to pay homage to our SHR mentors, turn back the clock and remember the time when we were "sufferin' until suffrage" and pledge to vote this Fall.

"Then the 19th Amendment struck down that restrictive rule. (Oh yeah!)
And now we pull down on the lever,
Cast our ballots and we endeavor
To improve our country, state, county, town, and school."

Vote on, sisters!

The Lessons of Women's Equality Day

Cross-posted at Jewesses With Attitude

Thirty-nine years ago today, legendary Congresswoman Bella Abzug led Congress in designating August 26th "Women's Equality Day."

Exactly one year prior, Abzug had spoken at the "Women Strike for Equality" march, a gathering of 10,000 women in New York organized by Betty Friedan and a coalition of feminist activists, including the National Organization for Women (NOW), the YWCA, the National Coalition of American Nuns, Feminists in the Arts, and Women Strike for Peace. Protesters took to the streets of Manhattan to both celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and demand further rights for women. The diversity and size of the gathering guaranteed an extensive and varied list of demands, but three major issues were on everyone's mind: legal and safe abortion, access to free childcare centers in every community, and equal opportunities for women in jobs and education. In addition to the protest in New York, gatherings took place around the country (in fact, FMF President Ellie Smeal became active in NOW that day as an attendee of a day-long conference in Pittsburgh).

So when Bella Abzug introduced the Women's Equality Day resolution to Congress in 1971, she was not just thinking about the remarkable achievements of the suffragists who worked tirelessly for eighty years in support of women's suffrage before finally passing the 19th Amendment. Looming in her mind, and reflected in the resolution's text, were the battles that had not yet been won. Today, celebrate Women's Equality Day by honoring the amazing achievements of the suffragists who brought us voting rights, the second wave feminists who took to the streets back in 1970, and the activists today who continue to fight for a more just world. Think about the world today, and consider just a few of the problems we are facing--government officials who want to take away our access to abortion services, violent attacks on transgender people, discrimination against and mistreatment of disabled people around the world, and xenophobic calls for the end of freedom of religion. Today is the perfect day to do something about these issues and respect the courage our foremothers by taking action ourselves.

For a great link roundup on Women's Equality Day and Women Strike for Equality, check out Leah's post.

Women's Suffrage: A privilege, not a drag

This year's rapidly approaching Women's Equality Day, August 26th, provides an interesting means of reflection. Looking back over ninety of the most eventful years of human history, it is incredible to see what women have accomplished. Women in science, politics, literature, journalism, business, and a multitude of other professions have without question changed the world, and advanced human understanding to an incredible amount. When one considers all that has happened as result of women, it is hard to believe that just ninety years ago, women did not even have the right to vote.

The fight for suffrage is a famous one, yet many do not know the degree to which women were terrorized, tortured, and endangered as result of their conviction, their collective quest for political voice. Suffragists (as 'suffragette' was originally used as a derogatory term) were horrendously beaten by police and hostile observers of their peaceful protests and White House pickets. In prison, suffragists were even more badly abused. Hunger strikes were dealt with by force-feeding, like in the case of Alice Paul, while other women like Lucy Burns and Dora Lewis were also brutally mistreated by prison guards. Conditions in prison were awful for the suffragists. In one case, women at the Occoquan Workhouse spent several weeks using only water that came from an open pail, and eating food infested with worms.

What would these women think now, seeing their daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters forsaking the precious right that they spent so long fighting for? Voting is a privilege and a responsibility, and the fact that so many women do not take advantage of it is most distressing. It goes without saying that the fight that suffragists fought ninety years ago was an incredibly difficult one. Nevertheless, they fought it anyway, because they could see how valuable, and necessary it was for their growing, changing country.

Modern women need to continue to value their right to vote as much as female suffragists did when they first were granted it. We tend to forget that suffrage isn't something that we were just given. It was something we fought very long and very hard to win.

Thank You Thursday 08/19/2010

Today we'd like to thank....

• the suffragists who worked hard to get the 19th Amendment ratified on August 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote


• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for filing a lawsuit against the high school that removed a girl from the yearbook for wearing a tuxedo in her senior portrait (They removed her name, photo, etc-- she was not mentioned anywhere in the yearbook at all!)


• French pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma for developing the emergency contraceptive EllaOne


• Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving Ella, giving women in the U.S. another way to prevent unwanted pregnancy

THANK YOU!!!