When we take a closer look at the history of the American woman suffrage movement we can see something...
We can see a movement of female organizers, leaders, politicians, journalists, visionaries, rabble rousers, and warriors. We can see an active, controversial, passionate movement of the best and the brightest women in America, from all backgrounds, who, as we say today, boldly went where no women had ever gone before.
When I remember the ladies,
That's where I find,
What is in her heart,
Is also in mine.
Heads or Tails?
To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 1:50:27 til the end.
Do you have an hour to spare? Would you like to make a contribution? How about a pledge?
"This war could not have been fought by America if it had not been for the services of women."
Some of the most important work done by women was in the ammunition factories.
It was very dangerous to work with explosive chemicals because it meant that one explosion in a factory could trigger many other ones.
In munitions plants, acid fumes from high explosives damaged workers’ lungs. In addition, it also turned their skin bright yellow. Thousands of women worked long hours filling shells with explosives. Accidental explosions were always a risk. Little effort was made to ease the change from working in the home to the work place. Few employers provided childcare for working mothers or even set aside toilets for female workers.
"You're being released."
After a heated debate, the House of Representatives created a committee to deal with women's suffrage in September 1917. Massachusetts Representative Joseph Walsh opposed the creation of the committee, thinking the House was yielding to "the nagging of iron-jawed angels." He referred to the Silent Sentinels as "bewildered, deluded creatures with short skirts and short hair."
"I know the magic it will work in their thoughts and spirits."
"Alice Paul brought back to the fight that note of immediacy which
had gone with the passing of Miss Anthony’s leadership. She
called a halt on further pleading, wheedling, proving, praying.
It was as if she had bidden women stand erect, with confidence in
themselves and in their own judgments, and compelled them to be
self-respecting enough to dare to put their freedom first, and so
determine for themselves the day when they should be free. Those
who had a taste of begging under the old regime and who abandoned
it for demanding, know how fine and strong a thing it is to
realize that you must take what is yours and not waste your
energy proving that you are or will some day be worthy of a gift
of power from your masters. On that glad day of discovery you
have first freed yourself to fight for freedom. Alice Paul gave to
thousands of women the essence of freedom."
Doris Stevens, from Jailed for Freedom
"Independence is happiness." - Susan B. Anthony
As we create a movement to change society, we change ourselves, and in changing ourselves, we make social change more possible.
"Be assured the voices of the radicals who agitate and disrupt have no influence here today."
Alice Paul had no doubt about the impact of the pickets on Wilson's decision, describing it thusly: "If a creditor stands before a man's house all day long, demanding payment of his bill, the man must either remove the creditor or pay the bill." The arrests and imprisonments having failed to remove the "creditors," the time had come for the President to pay the bill.
There is still debate over whether the militants were most responsible for Wilson's conversion and the winning of suffrage or whether it was the slow and sober efforts of the NAWSA moderates under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt. Whatever the political effect of the militant agitation, it had a tremendous effect on the women involved.
"Have I said that the passage of this amendment is a vitally necessary war measure? And do you need further proof?"
1918
NWP lights and guards a "Watchfire for Freedom," to be maintained until the Suffrage Amendment passes.
Representative Rankin opens debate on a suffrage amendment in the House. The amendment passes. The amendment fails to win the required two thirds majority in the Senate.
Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma adopt woman suffrage.
President Woodrow Wilson states his support for a federal woman suffrage amendment.
President Wilson addresses the Senate about adopting woman suffrage at the end of
World War I.
First Lady Edith Wilson assumed presidential powers for eighteen months after Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke. Edith Wilson assumed more power than any first lady before or since. She grabbed the reigns of power and decided what received priority. Her role evolved dramatically from hostess to advisor to acting president.
"Congress doesn't make it a law. Thirty six states have to agree then they put it into the Constitution."
The Congress proposed the Nineteenth Amendment on June 4, 1919, and the following states ratified the amendment.
Wisconsin (June 10, 1919)
Illinois (June 10, 1919, reaffirmed on June 17, 1919)
Michigan (June 10, 1919)
Kansas (June 16, 1919)
New York (June 16, 1919)
Ohio (June 16, 1919)
Pennsylvania (June 24, 1919)
Massachusetts (June 25, 1919)
Texas (June 28, 1919)
Iowa (July 2, 1919)
Missouri (July 3, 1919)
Arkansas (July 28, 1919)
Montana (August 2, 1919)
Nebraska (August 2, 1919)
Minnesota (September 8, 1919)
New Hampshire (September 10, 1919)
Utah (October 2, 1919)
California (November 1, 1919)
Maine (November 5, 1919)
North Dakota (December 1, 1919)
South Dakota (December 4, 1919)
Colorado (December 15, 1919)
Kentucky (January 6, 1920)
Rhode Island (January 6, 1920)
Oregon (January 13, 1920)
Indiana (January 16, 1920)
Wyoming (January 27, 1920)
Nevada (February 7, 1920)
New Jersey (February 9, 1920)
Idaho (February 11, 1920)
Arizona (February 12, 1920)
New Mexico (February 21, 1920)
Oklahoma (February 28, 1920)
West Virginia (March 10, 1920, confirmed on September 21, 1920)
Washington (March 22, 1920)
Collective identities give movement participants a sense of "we-ness" that encourages and sustains movement participation.
"We need one more state."
By the summer of 1920, 35 states had ratified the measure, bringing it one vote short of the required 36. In Tennessee, it had sailed through the Senate but stalled in the House of Representatives, prompting thousands of pro- and anti-suffrage activists to descend upon Nashville.
After weeks of intense lobbying and debate within the Tennessee legislature, a motion to table the amendment was defeated with a 48-48 tie. The speaker called the measure to a ratification vote. To the dismay of the many suffragists who had packed into the capitol with their yellow roses, sashes and signs, it seemed certain that the final roll call would maintain the deadlock.
"Telegram Sir, it's from your mother."
Harry Burn—who until that time had fallen squarely in the anti-suffrage camp—received a note from his mother, Phoebe Ensminger Burn, known to her family and friends as Miss Febb. In it, she had written, "Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet." She ended the missive with a rousing endorsement of the great suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, imploring her son to "be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification."
Movements make time for storytelling, song, ritual and prayer.
"Mr. Burn?"
If A Lassie Works For Wages anonymous poem in support of suffrage
If a lassie works for wages
Toiling all the day,
And her work the laddie's equals
Give her equal pay.
If a body pays the taxes,
Surely you'll agree
That a body earns the franchise,
Wheter he or she!
If a lassie wants the ballot
To help to run the town
And a lassie win the ballot
Need a laddie frown?
Many a laddie has the ballot
Not so bright as I;
And many a laddie votes his ballot
Overcome with rye!
"Aye!"
Still sporting his red boutonniere but clutching his mother’s letter, Burn said "aye" so quickly that it took his fellow legislators a few moments to register his unexpected response. With that single syllable he extended the vote to the women of America and ended half a century of tireless campaigning by generations of suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and, of course, Mrs. Catt. ("To get the word ‘male’ in effect out of the Constitution cost the women of this country 52 years of pause less campaign," Catt wrote in her 1923 book, "Woman Suffrage and Politics.") He also invoked the fury of his red rose-carrying peers while presumably avoiding that of his mother—which may very well have been the more daunting of the two.
Minutes after Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, essentially ending American women’s decades-long quest for the right to vote, a young man with a red rose pinned to his lapel fled to the attic of the state capitol and camped out there until the maddening crowds downstairs dispersed. Some say he crept onto a third-floor ledge to escape an angry mob of anti-suffragist lawmakers threatening to rough him up.
The next day, Burn defended his last-minute reversal in a speech to the assembly. For the first time, he publicly expressed his personal support of universal suffrage, declaring, "I believe we had a moral and legal right to ratify." But he also made no secret of Miss Febb’s influence—and her crucial role in the story of women’s rights in the United States. "I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow," he explained, "and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification."
On August 18, 1920, Tennessee passed the proposed 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by a one-vote margin, becoming the 36th state to ratify the measure and clearing the way for its official adoption eight days later. Incredibly, women’s suffrage in the United States ultimately hinged on an 11th-hour change of heart by a young state legislator with a very powerful mother.
Movements evolve by learning from the movements of the past, and developing room for the creation of new ideas/forms of movements for the future.
"I feel so happy doing my bit for decency. For our war, which is after all, real and fundamental." A final thought on women’s suffrage spoken by Ruza/ Rose Winslow.
After the 19th Amendment was ratified, most suffragists left activism and returned to their traditional lives with their families. Lucy Burns, for example, retired from the public arena, devoting herself to the Catholic Church and to raising an orphaned niece. There were many, however, who didn’t rest. Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters, which focused on educating women so that they could effectively exercise their new right. The League is still active and describes itself as a "nonpartisan political organization [that] encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy".
Alice Paul and the NWP took a different path, focusing on a new constitutional amendment requiring equal rights for women. Alice Paul wrote both versions of the Equal Rights Amendment that have been submitted to Congress. The second version of the ERA states, simply, that:
This version of the ERA was adopted by Congress in 1972 but fell three states short of ratification, due to the increasingly conservative turn taken by the United States after 1970.
VOTES FOR WOMEN AMEN!
Next Up One Hour, One Contribution, One Pledge, One Stone
RESOURCES:
http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment
http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll33/item/1102
http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/history/woman-suffrage-timeline
http://www.ndi.org/files/2075_citpart_building_010102.pdf
http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/assets/files/eZines/movement_building_not_marketing.pdf
http://www.diemer.ca/Docs/Diemer-WhatDoWeDoNow.htm
http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/suffrage.htm
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