Voting on the Shoulders of Strong Women

"Are you planning to vote?" my mother asks.
"Vote?  When?" I answer.
"Next Tuesday.  Nov. 2nd.  Election Day," she continues until she sees a glimmer of recognition on my face.
"Oh, right.  I forgot all about it," I lamely reply. "Who's running?'
She hands me a sample ballot.
I could use the excuse, "I've been out of the country," to plead my unpatriotic response, but we do get CNN in Moscow plus every online newspaper in the world at our fingertips.
I glance over the names on the ballot, recognize only one, then skim the indecipherable amendments to the Arkansas constitution at the bottom. 
"Maybe I just won't vote this time," I hear myself mutter.
"Just won't vote??!!" "What are you saying?" my socially aware, do-the-right-thing conscience asks its lazy, apathetic, poor-excuse-for-a-citizen alter ego.
I slap myself around a couple of times and say, "Whew!  That was close. Thanks."  
I stuff the sample ballot in my purse and head home to google a few names.


It's only been three short years since I watched the Ken Burns' documentary, "Not for Ourselves Alone," about Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and vowed I would vote in every election for the rest of my life.  And now, look at me.  Please forgive me Susan and Elizabeth.  
                                   

                                       Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
                                            Courtesy of the Library of Congress


The video ended up on my Netflix queue as an afterthought, something that looked interesting as I was clicking through the PBS offerings.  I had vaguely heard of the two women  in connection with women's rights.  Wasn't Susan B. Anthony on a coin a few years back? Any knowledge beyond that, however, was dismally deficient, which could only mean that I was absent, or absent-minded, for the minute or so in American History class when their names might have been mentioned. But within the first three minutes of the video, I was mesmerized.   

"In the middle of the 19th century," a woman's voice narrated, "women were, by custom, barred from the pulpit and the professions, prevented from attending college, and those who dared speak in public were thought indecent.  By law, married women were prohibited from owning or inheriting property.  In fact, wives were the property of their husbands, entitled by law to her earnings and her body."

The idea of women voting - unthinkable!  Yet, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, among a handful of other women, not only dared think it, but acted.  And they acted for over 50 years. . .  

     Beginning with the First Women's Rights Convention in 1848, where  Elizabeth and anti-slavery activist,  Lucretia Mott, penned the "Declaration of Sentiments," a modified version of Mr. Jefferson's famous words:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. . ."

   to Susan's famous quote, "Failure is impossible!" during her final speech in 1906, 

                                                 these friends persevered.

Writing, speaking, making public appearances throughout the United States and abroad, organizing, publishing a newspaper -The Revolution, strategizing, fund-raising, leading, and constantly problem solving "how?" and "what next?" Susan personally appeared before Congress every year from 1869-1906 to advocate for women's suffrage.  The pair, along with their fellow reformers, were often harassed, laughed at, shouted down, called names, and in Susan's case, even arrested, as she attempted to vote under the umbrella of the 14th Amendment.  It states that, "all persons born and naturalized in the United States...are citizens of the United States," and as citizens are entitled to the "privileges"  of citizens of the United States. Susan interpreted privileges to include voting. The court did not agree, in the case of women.   

Elizabeth died in 1902; Susan in 1906.  Neither lived to see Congress pass and states ratify the 19th Amendment:


"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."

Twenty-eight words sum up 72 years of struggle, "the only non-violent revolution in our country's history."*  What else would you expect emanating from such intelligent and thoughtful women, dedicated to equality for all women, no matter how long and excruciatingly frustrating the process?

On November 2, 1920, 8 million women voted for the first time.  On November 2, 2010, I will follow in their footsteps.     

Please join me!

                                                    Courtesy of the Library of Congress

*"Women In History"http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/anth-sus.htm
Susan B. Anthony House (http://susanbanthonyhouse.org/her-story/biography.php#camp)
The Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership http://www.rochester.edu/SBA/suffrage_sba_ecs.html