This week we celebrated Women’s Equality Day on Aug. 26, and the valiant women who won the right to vote at this centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment. These women also sought to gain liberties such as divorce and owning property, that we take for granted.
As in any history, their story leaves out many details. Nationally, women of color wanted to work for the right to vote, but were discriminated against because of systemic racism. Then the system of racism was so profound that it would be hard to imagine anyone entirely using today’s criteria for right action. We celebrate brilliant Black suffragists as Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper who persevered. We can examine Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Carrie Chapman Catt, and other white suffragists for being heroes, not saints.
Today, there is still much to be accomplished. We still have not elected a female president, and hear inappropriate statements about any female candidates. #MeToo is still around. But we can feel hopeful this season, as talented women surround us, seeking leadership with integrity, running for office in any party. So, take the most important action in any democracy, which women worked so hard to achieve: voting.
