The Courage of Women

This blog isn’t about politics. I don’t use my blog in that way because whatever we believe, we all have the same emotions: joy, depression, pride, shame, winner and loser. This blog is a reminder about our history and how our ancestors fought for our rights. It’s about taking action. I was talking to a friend recently who was in her forties and didn’t know what a “suffragette” was. If you don’t know, let me tell you how women earned the right to vote.

In May, 1869, two American women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, formed an organization called “the Suffragettes.” The word comes from the Latin which means “a voting table” or “the right to vote.” Women were not allowed the right to make a difference in their lives at that time. As an offside, when women won their fight, women of color were decades behind.

In 1901, a little more than a hundred years ago, three hundred “suffragettes” assembled to protest the ban on women’s right to vote. They took to the streets where they disrupted civic meetings, smashed windows and set buildings on fire to get attention for their cause. The police attacked and sexually assaulted them, beat them, arrested them for civil disobedience, imprisoned and tortured them. When they went on a hunger strike to continue their protests, they were force fed under the guise of keeping them alive. Female wardens held the women down as doctors pushed over twenty inches of tubing down their throats and poured in a pint of milk and eggs. The women suffered physical and mental anguish and some of them never got over it.

To add to their suffering, when they got out of jail, their husbands wouldn’t let them back in the house. All of this is dramatically depicted in the Carey Mulligan movie, “Suffragette,” shot in 2015. Please watch it so you can learn about what went on and what it means to us to cast a ballot.

Did you know that the mother in the Peter Pan film, Mary Darling, was a suffragette? She sang a song called “Sister Suffragette.” One of the lyrics is:

Our daughters will adore us

And sing in grateful chorus.

“Well done, Sister Suffragette.”

Mrs. Darling told her family that one of her fellow protestors chained herself to the wheel of the Prime Minister’s carriage and she was arrested. She told it in a lighthearted way with laughter and buoyancy since it’s a children’s story but there was northing lighthearted about the reality.

In 1920, Congress ratified the 19^th amendment to the Constitution, allowing women the right to vote. Many of the women who made this possible didn’t live to see it, so they did it for you and for me. Each time I vote, I’m standing on these courageous women’s shoulders. Considering what they endured and the sacrifices they made, it would be shameful not to do what they fought for – the right to vote.

If you’re thinking of sitting this one out, I ask women to make their ancestor’s sacrifices mean something. I ask men to support the women in their lives to vote and to cast their own ballots. A simple black dot on a ballot allows your voice to be heard. You can have a say in your healthcare, social security, a woman’s right to have dominion over her body, taxes and gun control. When my mother was in her nineties, she stood in line with a walker to cast her vote for Barak Obama. She was born before women were allowed to vote so it meant the world to her.

Let this blog be a kick in the butt. I’m pleading with women to honor those who came before us. I’m pleading with men to support the women in their lives to have a voice.

“Deeds, not Words,” was the motto of the Suffragettes. This is reminiscent of Michelle Obama’s talk at the Democratic National Convention when she said, “Do something.” If you don’t like the idea of texting or making calls or writing postcards for your candidate, there are still some things you can do. You can have discussions with friends and encourage them to vote. Donating a few dollars to your candidate makes an impact. Let’s keep in mind that unlike the women who fought for us, we have our own money and we can do with it as we please.

If you donated ten dollars, that money adds up in the long run. For my part, I’m making donations, talking to friends, discussing the suffragettes on the radio and writing blogs to help people understand how we got here and what’s at stake. What are you doing?

If you aren’t registered to vote, you can do it online at:

https://www.lavote.gov/home/voting-elections/voter-education/what-to-do-before-an-election/register-to-vote

Or go to “register to vote” and they’ll walk you through it. Registration ends fifteen days before election day, November 5^th so do it now. The privilege of being an American is hardly something to take for granted or complain about. It takes a short time to become familiar with who’s running and what they believe. Politics may not make sense to you, you may not agree with what’s going on, but if you’ve lived in other countries like I have, you’ll be proud to call yourself a citizen of the United States.

I leave you with this. If you want to support your candidate, vote. If you want to change things, vote. If you want to have a say in your life, vote. If you don’t give a hoot, vote anyway to honor the women who fought and died for your freedoms. It’s the least we can do.