Women's right to vote
22 August 2024
We are not going back, starting at 13:50
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. 19th Amendment to the Constitution
As discussed by historian Heather Cox Richardson, on August 18, 1920, 104 years ago, the Tennessee legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by a vote of 50 to 49. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify and the last one necessary to make the amendment the law of the land. It took over 50 years (from 1869 to 1920) to make this happen.
Excerpts from her essay on the history of this amendment follow:
The deciding vote came from Harry T. Burn, who supported suffrage but was under pressure to vote no. His mother had urged him to vote yes despite the pressure. “I believe in full suffrage as a right,” he said. “I believe we had a moral and legal right to ratify. I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow, and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”
. . .
Like the momentum for the Fifteenth Amendment, the push for rights for women had taken root during the Civil War as women backed the United States armies with their money, buying bonds and paying taxes; with their loved ones, sending sons and husbands and fathers to the war front; with their labor, working in factories and fields and taking over from men in the nursing and teaching professions; and even with their lives, spying and fighting for the Union. In the aftermath of the war, as the divided nation was rebuilt, many of them expected they would have a say in how it was reconstructed.
But to their dismay, the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly tied the right to vote to “male” citizens, inserting the word “male” into the Constitution for the first time.
Boston abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, the author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” was outraged. The laws of the era gave control of her property and her children to her abusive husband, and while far from a rabble-rouser, she wanted the right to adjust those laws so they were fair. In this moment, it seemed the right the Founders had articulated in the Declaration of Independence—the right to consent to the government under which one lived—was to be denied to the very women who had helped preserve the country, while white male Confederates and now Black men both enjoyed that right. Complete essay
Today, the Republican Party is trying to reverse the political gains of women and girls:
Banning medical and surgical abortions, even to save the life of women or girls, or for rape and incest.
Restricting the use of therapies that might damage an embryo or fetus, even in women or girls who are NOT pregnant.
Banning or restricting IVF or similar reproductive technologies.
Banning contraceptive use, particularly hormonal birth control, the morning after pill and IUDs.
Using public schools to indoctrinate children about the “dangers” of abortions and using public dollars to fund anti-abortion centers.
Limiting governmental and scientific information that interferes with Republican policies.
Promoting the primary role of women and girls as “baby incubators” and restricting education, employment and other activities that interfere with that role.
All Americans should be concerned about the anti-female policies of the Republican Party. We need to support Vice President Harris and the Democratic Party, starting now, through the election and afterward. We cannot go back.
Let’s get to work.
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