Women Won the Right to Vote But When Will They Be Equal?

August 2020 marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote in the United States of America. So women won the right to vote but when will they be equal? Here it is well into the 21st century already. Don’t you think it’s about time?! And when we are finally equal, let’s also remember that age doesn’t matter! That’s another change that is well overdue in our society.

The demand for women’s suffrage began to gain strength in the 1840’s. It was a long, hard battle to finally get the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920. And that squeaked by with just one vote in the last state needed for ratification. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify, giving women the right to vote nationally.

Up until then, Wikipedia reports in “Women’s suffrage in the United States” that:

“the legal right of women to vote, was established over the course of more than half a century, first in various states and localities, sometimes on a limited basis, and then nationally in 1920.”

I must say that is ridiculously slow and it was unnecessarily difficult. It wasn’t just men that were against it, either. Women at first generally felt it was extreme and then some women continued to fight against it. Anti-suffrage organizations were created by women all over the USA to counter the suffrage movement.

And then there was prejudice of white suffragists against women of color which divided the movement and slowed its progress. Although there were also women such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who became devoted abolitionists. They understood that freedom for either women or Blacks would be a victory for both.

Hopefully, we can get past race and class differences  and become a country united — not only for women from all walks of life united in demanding equal rights but also for all Americans to be treated fairly and equally.

I’d like to end with a poem of freedom for all, inked by Frances E.W. Harper. The Detroit Free Press article, “Hidden Histories” by Jessica Bliss and Jasmine Vaughn-Hall, describes Harper this way:

“…an orphan and young poet, Harper was inspired to take up the abolitionist cause when her home state of Maryland passed a fugitive slave law, allowing even free Blacks such as Harper to be arrested and sold into slavery.

“She formed alliances with strong figures in the suffrage movement, including Anthony, and began giving anti-slavery speeches throughout the northern USA. Through her powerful prose and poetry, she elevated issues of racism, feminism and class.”

Let me make the songs for the people,

   Songs for the old and young;

Songs to stir like a battle-cry

   Wherever they are sung.

Not for the clashing of sabres,

   For carnage nor for strife;

But songs to thrill the hearts of men

   With more abundant life.

Let me make the songs for the weary,

   Amid life’s fever and fret,

Till hearts shall relax their tension,

   And careworn brows forget.

Let me sing for little children,

   Before their footsteps stray,

Sweet anthems of love and duty,

   To float o’er life’s highway.

I would sing for the poor and aged,

   When shadows dim their sight;

Of the bright and restful mansions,

   Where there shall be no night.

Our world, so worn and weary,

   Needs music, pure and strong,

To hush the jangle and discords

   Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.

Music to soothe all its sorrow,

   Till war and crime shall cease;

And the hearts of men grown tender

   Girdle the world with peace.

The Equal Rights Amendment is so long over due.  How long does it take for a country to treat everyone equally? Is 100 years long enough to wait? I think it’s high time for white men to make room for everyone else in seats of power and in sharing abundance. There’s enough for everyone. I’m glad to see women, people of color and other repressed peoples in our society elected to lead us toward equal rights for all, recognizing that we are all one.

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