Remember the radicals who won women the right to vote

In less than 40 days, all eligible women will have the opportunity to celebrate the 100 years of voting by showing up at the polls.

By voting, all women will be honoring Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Frances Harper, Ida Wells, Alice Paul (my personal favorite) and those nameless women who fought for this right.

It is also time to remember that the only women who were pursuing this goal were the Liberal Progressive Radical Women. The conservative women were anti-suffragists. Many were daughters and wives of business and political men who were doing just fine with a system that gave them this privilege.

Others were happy with the racial order of things, and didn’t want anything to disrupt it. (sound familiar?) The Christian anti-suffragists believed voting was against God’s will. The “antis” as they were called, believed the vote would lead to a loss of the femininity tied to motherhood and the value of a domestic life. From 1890– 1920 there was a magazine, The Remonstrance, devoted to promoting anti suffragists ideas and refuting suffragists claims.

Fortunately for all of us it was the liberal progressive radical women who prevailed. They were willing to be scorned and beaten. They were jailed and participated in hunger strikes. These women endured clubbing and torture so that all women could vote. We are the grand daughters, biologically or symbolically, of these women.

Today, both conservative and liberal women have a seat at the political table. We join political parties and openly support our candidates. More women are running for office, and more are getting elected.

But we must never forget that it was the liberal progressive radical women were the ones brought about this change. And each of us stand on the shoulders of liberal progressive radical women.

Karen Badynee-Kwolek Commerce Township