Happy Anniversary to us.
88 years ago today the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment was certified and it became law. The Nineteenth Amendment states:
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.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The road to the Nineteenth Amendment started in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 at the first women’s rights meeting in the United States. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, with Lucretia Mott, called the 1848 gathering at Seneca Falls, founded with Susan B. Anthony the National Woman Suffrage Association. When women finally won the right to vote in 1920, Charlotte Woodward was the only participant in the 1848 Convention still alive to cast her vote at the age of 81.
Along the long hard road to suffrage women found some male sympathizers and supporters. In an editorial from the Hearst Newspapers, written by Arthur Brisbane, (not dated, but probably about 1917) Brisbane said:
Men can deceive each other much more easily than they can deceive women — the latter being providentially provided with the X-ray of intuitional perception.
Just as the suffragette movement had male supporters the PUMA movement, although predominately made up of women, has strong men within the movement….Texas Hill Country, Papau, Golddigger (all of Capital Hill Forum) and Will Bower, to name a few, and for them I am deeply grateful.
For those of you who don’t know much about the suffragette movement I highly recommend the HBO Movie Iron Jawed Angels. It will enlighten you, and possibly enrage you.
They had no vote, no political clout, no equal rights. But what they lacked under the law they made up for with brains, determination and courage. Oscar®-winner Hilary Swank leads an outstanding cast in the inspirational true story of two women who dared to make a stand for women’s rights, and ended up shaping the future of America. [snip] The women are thrown in jail, with an ensuing hunger strike making headline news. The women’s resistance to being force-fed earns them the nickname “The Iron Jawed Angels.” However, it is truly their wills that are made of iron, and their courage inspires a nation and changes it forever.
Just as the suffragettes fought for the right to vote, we fight today to have our vote actually count and mean something. We fight for changes in a system that showed incredible bias for the male candidate over the female candidate. We fight once again against the sexism that permeates the press and the country.
In the last 88 years women have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. Within the PUMA movement we have differing opinions on how to best achieve our goals and send our message. But there is one thing I think we all agree on – we will not be satisfied with 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. We will not be satisfied until that glass ceiling is obliterated.
It’s too bad there’s still de jure discrimination in this country: against gays.
Yes, I am way more concerned about homophobia and racism than I am about the condition of women. Maybe I’ve missed it, but one doesn’t often see women lynched or using separate drinking fountains or getting spread out on a fence and left to die. Nothing anywhere for anyone is easy. I don’t see either gays or blacks or legal hispanics whining and holding their breath and being petulant because the simple fact of sex, race, or sexual pref does not make one of them president.
Growing up, I believe, playing that ubiquitous dealt hand the best one can with some faith that the world will catch up and, in the odd moments, trying to expedite the catching up with seeing the world from opposing eyes.
Women have it so easy, eh?
URDER. Every day four women die in this country as a result of domestic violence, the euphemism for murders and assaults by husbands and boyfriends. That’s approximately 1,400 women a year, according to the FBI. The number of women who have been murdered by their intimate partners is greater than the number of soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.
BATTERING. Although only 572,000 reports of assault by intimates are officially reported to federal officials each year, the most conservative estimates indicate two to four million women of all races and classes are battered each year. At least 170,000 of those violent incidents are serious enough to require hospitalization, emergency room care or a doctor’s attention.
SEXUAL ASSAULT. Every year approximately 132,000 women report that they have been victims of rape or attempted rape, and more than half of them knew their attackers. It’s estimated that two to six times that many women are raped, but do not report it. Every year 1.2 million women are forcibly raped by their current or former male partners, some more than once.
THE TARGETS. Women are 10 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate. Young women, women who are separated, divorced or single, low- income women and African-American women are disproportionately victims of assault and rape.
Not to say there are not instances of discrimination, and not to diminish any violence against women (or anyone), but at least let’s remember that there are places in the world yet today that force women to hide under a hood in public and gays are executed.