Special to the Aroostook Republican
August 26 is Women’s Equality Day, recognized by Americans since 1971, when New York Rep. Bella Abzug introduced legislation to recognize the anniversary date of the 19th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, reads: “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. The Congress shall have the power by appropriate legislation to enforce the provisions of this article.”
The road to ratification began in 1848 when five women in upstate New York met socially, and decided to hold, five days later, a convention “to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.” Of the five women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt, all but Stanton were Quakers, all five being familiar with the temperance and antislavery movements of the time.
These brave women were leaders of the Women’s Rights Movement which fought a long 72-year battle before women finally won the right to vote. A well-organized, well-funded anti-suffrage opposition argued that most women really didn’t want to vote, and probably weren’t qualified anyway.
The First Women’s Rights Convention was held at the Weslyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls, NY, July 19-20, 1848. It was publicized only by a small notice in the local newspaper. Stanton drafted the “Declaration of Sentiments” that would define the meeting. She also drafted resolutions, arguing for equality of women in all areas; one of the resolutions asserted the right of women to vote.
About 300 people attended the meeting, including 40 men. Among them was Frederick Douglass, a former slave and then current editor of a Rochester newspaper. All of the resolutions passed unanimously except woman suffrage. But Frederick Douglas swayed the group into passing it as well. One hundred men and women signed the Seneca Falls Declaration.
Meanwhile the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were ratified. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, guaranteed equal protection of the laws to “male inhabitants … being twenty one years of age, and citizens of the United States…” but not to women. The 15th Amendment ensuring the right of black men to vote was ratified in 1870. Women still could not vote.
In 1878, for the first time, a Women’s Suffrage Amendment was introduced in Congress. Many women’s rights groups were born during this period. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1874 and in 1903 The Women’s Trade Union League of New York formed to unionize working women.
Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party began using more radical methods, picketing and staging marches and demonstrations. In 1913 she led a march of 8,000 on President Wilson’s inauguration day; two hundred were injured when violence broke out. Susan B. Anthony attempted to vote in 1872 and was arrested.
During World War I, a Women’s War Council, financed through a federal grant, was established by the War Department to organize the resources of professional women. Because it was necessary for women to take factory jobs to support the war effort, the U.S. Government recognized the need for a cohesive group to coordinate identification of women’s available skills and experience. Out of this effort, the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs was founded in 1919.
After the war, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, headed by Carrie Chapman Catt, reminded the President and Congress that women’s war work should be rewarded with recognition of their political equality. During their convention in 1920, Carrie Chapman Catt founded The League of Women Voters.
By June 1919 both the House and Senate had endorsed the 19th Amendment, and sent it to the states for ratification. Thirty-six states were needed to ratify it and on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution became law. Women could vote in the fall elections, including in the Presidential election. Only one woman signer of the Seneca Falls Declaration was alive; Charlotte Woodward had lived long enough to cast her vote.
“Equal rights” for women did not automatically come with “voting rights” for women. Though women achieved the right to vote in 1920, The National Women’s Party, and Alice Paul, its leader and founder, considered an Equal Rights Amendment to be the next necessary step after the 19th Amendment in guaranteeing “equal justice under the law” to all citizens.
She wrote the short Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. It was introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. Today ratification is still three states short of the 38 required, and there is no Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution.
Even after President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963 ensuring “equal pay for equal work,” the Census Bureau reported in August 2008 that, on average, full-time working women earned 78 cents to every dollar earned by men.
Business and Professional Women Foundation recognizes that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law in January of 2009, ensures that victims of discrimination have fair access to the courts. But additional legislation is needed to close the persistent gap between men’s and women’s wages.
The Paycheck Fairness Act (H 12/S 182) would update and strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 in ways necessary to guarantee that women workers are not shortchanged solely because of their gender.
Today, 38 years after Bella Abzug introduced the legislation to recognize August 26 as Women’s Equality Day, another New York Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, has recently published a book, “Rumors of our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated.” Rep. Maloney uses recent research to show how far behind women still fall on gender equality in issues of health care, educational opportunities, and pay equity.
Women’s Equality Day notes a milestone in women’s rights, but serves as a reminder that the work begun in 1848 is not yet complete.
Geri L Martin of Caribou is BPW/ME past state president and current president of Fort Kent BPW chapter.
