If you're a citizen of the United States, I hope you took the opportunity to vote today. After all, it was less than one hundred years ago that women received full voting rights in this country.
"Women's suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels during the late 19th century and early 20th century, culminating in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided: '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.'"
In my own state of Colorado, women received the right to
vote at the state level in 1893. Previously, women had
already won the right to vote in the territories of Wyoming (1869) and Utah
(1870) through legislative action. In
order for Colorado women to receive the right to vote, they needed the support
of the current eligible voters in the state (all male). In other words, “Colorado suffragists had to
convince a majority of men in the state that they should share political power
with women.” Women and Social Movements in the United States And they did! Colorado was the very first state to allow
women the right to vote through popular referendum.
When I tell my students that women in our country did not receive the right to vote until much later than men did, they can't believe it!
You can read my grandmother's diary entries about the 1916 Presidential election here.
You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post here.
I'd have voted but we didn't have an election in Illinois! Our legislature is still in veto session, meaning they are considering overriding the governor's vetoes. Gay marriage passed (yay!) but pension reform is not yet resolved (alas).
ReplyDeleteI fully intended to participate in Barbara Brackman's "Grandmother's Choice" suffrage quilt-along, but it got away from me. A suffrage quilt hovers at the top of my want-to-make quilts. I'll use the green/white/violet color scheme (for Give Women the Vote).
I've seldom missed a chance to vote since I came of age, but, in the state of Illinois, the politicians don't listen to what the people who put them into office say. Too much corruption in all levels of politics.
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