Celebrating 100 years of women’s votes

On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It granted all American women the right to vote by stating: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

So ended an 80-year battle that began in 1840 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton was barred from attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London. She immediately started planning for the first Women’s Convention in the United States. Her early efforts picked up speed and brought others into the fight. Women such as Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and Olympia Brown carried the banner high and never stopped fighting to sway the male politicians to give women the right to vote.

Even before Stanton declared war on the male-dominated political system, Abigail Adams, the wife of the first Vice President John Adams, had been asking her husband to “remember the ladies”. The Declaration of Independence that he helped draft in 1776, states that “all men are created equal.” Abigail wanted women to have more rights under the new American government. Her husband responded, “We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems.” He believed women influenced society without political power. According to this popular viewpoint, women were supposed to morally influence their husbands and raise virtuous sons. The United States Constitution did not guarantee the right of suffrage.

After the revolution, the laws of coverture, established during the colonial period, remained in place. These laws ruled that when women married, they lost their legal identity. Women could not own property, control their own money or sign legal documents. Instead, their husbands, fathers, and brothers were expected to manage these responsibilities. Men were supposed to represent their wives, mothers, and daughters in politics.

Every elected female in the United States since 1920 owes her position to those women that fought for women’s rights. Abigail Scott Duniway (1834 - 1915) was an American women’s rights advocate, newspaper editor and writer, whose efforts were instrumental in gaining voting rights for women, once said “The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price.”

These suffragettes paved the way for women to make a difference in our country by voting and to hold elected office. Now, 100 years later, Cass County has elected its first female County Judge Becky Wilbanks and District Attorney Courtney Shelton. Delores Simmons is currently the mayor of Bloomburg. In the early 2000s, Atlanta elected its first female, Mayor Kay Phillips.

Seeing a female’s name on a ballot isn’t new anymore. However, we still have so very far to go.