Today is the ninetieth anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It's been a mere 90 years, people -- folks are still alive who were born without the right to vote. One hundred and thirty-two years after the Constitution was adopted, it finally affirmatively guaranteed the right of people of any gender to vote. The U.S. followed New Zealand, which was the first nation to give women access to the voting booth back in 1893. Today, Saudi Arabia and Vatican City are the only two nations where women cannot vote.
The 19th amendment reads, simply:
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.
My god, it took people nearly a century of being jailed and beaten and pilloried for this. Many of the most fierce of them never lived to see it -- see Susan B. Anthony's fascinating New York Times obituary, from 1906, here. I find it noteworthy that neither "women" nor "men" are mentioned in the text of the amendment, which makes it especially well-written in my book, given its adaptability for folks who don't quite fit into either of those labels.
I will note that I'm pleased that my home state, Michigan, was among the very first states to ratify the amendment: Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin all affirmed it on June 10, 1919, less than two weeks after Congress officially proposed it. They were the first three to say yes. Mississippi was the last. (It rejected the amendment in 1920, and didn't formally ratify it until 1984; several other states played this late-to-the-game tactic, including North Carolina in 1971 and Georgia and Louisiana in 1970.)
This elegant, powerful amendment cued a vast expansion in rights and full citizenship in the U.S. Notably, in every election since 1980, women have voted at higher rates than men ... though it's crucial to remember that this was hardly the last hurdle: poor people and black people, including black women, continued to be de facto barred from the ballot box. And the Equal Rights Amendment, which simply bars states from making laws that discriminate against sex, has inexplicably failed again and again to pass.
Melissa Harris Lacewell, via Twitter, raises important reminders that lest we coast with self-congratulation on the 19th's anniversary, there is plainly a gender imbalance in political participation: women hold far fewer elected offices than men do, particularly in the U.S. House, Senate, Supreme Court, and Presidency.
While obviously women aren't some singular voting bloc or "special interest group" that agrees on the same set of issues, I believe in the power of more women (and dare I say, more women who are not white, or straight, or able-bodied?) serving at every level of elected office, from school boards and county commissions to the very top. In a society where gender substantively influences the kind of life you live, it can't help but matter. I abhor the policies and tactics of Sarah Palin, for example, but I will honor the fact that her being on the Republican ticket for vice president leads many who couldn't otherwise imagine running for office -- or voting for a woman -- to evolve. (It's important to recognize that many women shy away from voting for women; yes, females can practice sexism.) I would love if the U.S. could be a world leader on this front, but we lag: Rwanda is actually the nation with the highest rate of female parliamentarians in the world, at 56%. That didn't happen by accident -- they took affirmative steps to make it so.
Which leads me to pointing out that The White House Project is a nonpartisan not-for-profit that does great work nationally in transforming, concretely, who we see as leaders in this lovely flawed nation of ours ... and today's a great day to pitch into their work by donating, participating in their leadership circles, inviting the smartest women you know to run for office, taking your niece with you to vote this fall, and keeping yourself in touch with what's happening next.
It's also a great day to honor the suffragists who made this happen, and those who have since expanded the full rights of a democracy for all. Consider celebrating in these ways:
- Watch "Iron-Jawed Angels," the Golden Globe-winning film about the movement. Hilary Swank as Alice Paul and Angelica Houston as Carrie Chapman Catt.
- Explore the movement in the first person with The Concise History of Woman Suffrage, which collects writing by Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane Addams, Sojourner Truth, and others.
- Check out this oral history interview with Gladys Avery Tillett, from 1974, who fought for suffrage in North Carolina.
- Explore the life of Victoria Woodhull, who ran for president even before she had the right to vote.
- Visit the site in Seneca Falls--now a national park--of the First Women's Rights Convention in 1848, which cued the (long, long) fight for suffrage.
- Celebrate the men who fought alongside women for full citizenship for all -- including Frederick Douglass, who participated that first Seneca Falls convention for women's rights. He wrote that, "All that distinguishes man as an intelligent and accountable being, is equally true of woman; and if that government is only just which governs by the free consent of the governed, there can be no reason in the world for denying to woman the exercise of the elective franchise, or a hand in making and administering the laws of the land."
- Support your local League of Women Voters -- which, not coincidentally, celebrates its ninetieth anniversary this year.
- Get inspired by one of the fiercest of them all by watching the PBS documentary "Chisholm, '72: Unbought and Unbossed."
- Vote this fall. Thoughtfully.
- Back up the person who might be my favorite female politician: Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
- Rock out with School House Rock: "Sufferin' Til Suffrage." Like so:
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