On August 18th, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote.
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote. Prior to the amendment, nearly as many anti-suffrage groups sprang up throughout the country as did pro-suffrage groups. Many women at that time opposed suffrage for fear it would lead to detrimental social changes and cause the loss of status and privileges for their sex. One of the reasons given was “because in political activities there is strife, turmoil, contention and bitterness, producing conditions from which every normal woman naturally shrinks.” Certainly those norms have evolved. It took roughly 100 years of struggle for women to finally gain the right to vote.
Susan B. Anthony became one of the most visible leaders of the women’s suffrage movement and was a champion of temperance, abolition, the rights of labor and equal pay for equal work. Along with Elizabeth C. Stanton, they traveled around the country delivering speeches in favor of women’s suffrage. It is well documented that Susan B. Anthony made visits to Vancouver, in 1895 and 1905.
