Long, hard fight to gain the vote
Women risked prison and accepted starvation in the pursuit of equality
On Aug. 18, 2020, many of us will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granting American women the right to vote. Through the courage and determination of women, referred to as Suffragists, the revolutionary principle that women should have the same right to vote that men have became law. ¶ It began in New York state in 1848 when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Convention on women’s rights, with about 300 in attendance, including some men. The resolution on women’s right to
vote caused dissension, but was ultimately included in their Declaration of Sentiments, which was signed by around 100 people attending the convention. It took 72 years of resolute effort to get from this first step to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment that granted women the right to vote in 1920.
The National Women’s Rights Convention, with both male and female leadership, was held in 1850 in Worcester, Mass. One of its primary goals was to secure women’s suffrage. The association’s annual conventions promoted this issue until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
In 1872 Susan B. Anthony, a leader in the women’s rights movement, along with 15 other women, attempted to register to vote in Rochester, N.Y. They were arrested, and Anthony was tried and found guilty. The judge declared that the Fourteenth Amendment “gives no right to a woman to vote, and the voting of Miss Anthony was in violation of the law.”
In response to the imposed fine of $100, Miss Anthony declared, “May it please your honor, I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women ... that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”
The nation was shocked in 1917 when Alice Paul and a group of Suffragists were arrested while demonstrating in front of the White House and imprisoned. Paul organized a starvation protest and the inmates were force-fed by their jailers. Other protesting women were given sentences of six days to six years. In a workhouse in Virginia, women were kicked and beaten. That women would go to these lengths for their beliefs drew considerable attention to their cause.
During this period there were daily demonstrations in front of the White House. Women carried signs, such as: “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” President Woodrow Wilson ignored their sentiments, but frequently waved to them or tipped his hat as he was driven through the open White House gates.
In 1919 Carrie Chapman Catt, as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, used her organizational skills to build chapters within states that would rally to obtain voting rights. Her fortitude and political savvy were major factors in pressuring President Wilson and getting Congress to pass, and states to ratify, the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920. She later founded the League of Women Voters.
Women continue fighting for advancement in the 21st century, focusing on such matters as equal pay, reproductive justice and other issues relating to the well-being of women and children. And it should not be long before the U.S. will have a woman sitting behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office of the White House, continuing to make history.