It’s an election year. The political ads have been airing for months and I must admit I’m tiring of seeing them, but I’m also awed by the historical nature of this year’s choices.
I’m not about to discuss my political preferences with you on this blog; that’s not my style. What I am pointing out is the extraordinary diversity in our choices this year. We’ve seen a female candidate run a hard-fought campaign. We’ve seen the first African-American campaign for president and win his party’s nomination (I know, I know…it’s not official yet…). We’re also seeing the oldest candidate for the office of president run a viable campaign. Let’s face it, this is a record-breaking year.
But, what I really want to focus on is our part in this process…the women of the USA. Did you realize that it was only in 1920 that we were granted the right to vote? That’s right, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified on August 18, 1920 and certified by then Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby on August 26, 1920.
Now, I realize these events happened close to 100 years ago, but in the scheme of things women’s right to vote is still a new concept. It amazes me to realize my mother was 5 years old when the 19th Amendment was ratified. Not some ancient ancestress…my mother! Wow.
And do you have any concept what it took for us to receive this right? What the suffragettes went through so that you and I would be allowed to go to the polls and place our vote alongside our husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons? I challenge you to read Alice Paul‘s story. You’ll be amazed and appalled. Ultimately, this woman (who lived until 1977…just two years before my twins were born) owed her freedom from the insane asylum to which the authorities wished to commit her to one doctor who was courageous enough to stand up and testify that, “Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.”
So, no matter what your political beliefs, exercise the right to vote which so many women in the early 1900s suffered to secure for you.
