Yesterday, in the midst of all the election hubbub, I found myself going to Wikipedia to refresh my memory of the history of women’s suffrage. We gained the right to be full, deciding citizens of this nation in 1920, not even 100 years ago. Later in the evening, one of my Facebook friends shared this photo, and the reality of it hit me with enough force that I nearly cried. We are so blessed to be alive here and now. Throughout history and across other parts of the world even today, a woman’s fate is tied into the fortune and good will of the men in her life. Here and now, we can choose our own fates.
A few fun facts:
Did you know women began running for public office long before they had the right to vote?
In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. She received 24 votes (out of more than 12,000).
In 1872, Victoria Woodhull ran for president of the United States under the Equal Rights Party.
In 1884, Belva Lockwood also ran for president under the Equal Rights Party. She was the first woman admitted to practice law before the US Supreme Court.
In 1887, we had our first woman mayor — Susanna Salter, mayor of Argonia, Kansas.
In 1894, three women pushed the envelope in Colorado, being elected to that state’s house of reps. (Clara Cressingham, Carrie C. Holly, and Frances Klock)
In 1896 Martha Hughes Cannon became a state senator in Utah.
In 1917, we got ourselves a woman at the national level. Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, was elected to the US House of Reps.
In 1920, we passed the 19th amendment to the constitution, giving women the right to vote.
In 2012 I got to cast my ballot along with millions of intelligent, thinking women! I won’t even try to count the number of women who were on the ballot at every level of government, from congress to governors to city officials. We haven’t found our first female president yet, but does anyone now doubt that it will happen?