Today is Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that gave women the right to vote—in theory. In 1973 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 to mark the conclusion of a massive, peaceful, civil rights movement by women that began in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights […]
right to vote
Celebrating a 70-year struggle to vote
It took seven decades of steady, often brutal, campaigning to get United States women the right to vote. The activism began in 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and friends shocked the local patriarchy by getting together in a church to tell their menfolk what they expected out of life. At that point, men should have […]
Casual shopping helped spur right to vote
Here’s a shocker: Shopping, that decidedly female pastime of perusing consumer goods with or without the intent to purchase, was actually a catalyst for the women’s rights movement. Erika Diane Rappaport writes in Shopping for Pleasure that “for many middle-class housewives in Victorian England, shopping was their first taste of real freedom, and the starting […]
FBI updates definition of rape
It took 82 years for the FBI to change its naive, chauvinistic definition of rape. That’s 10 years longer than the campaign to give women the right to vote. Once again, women’s rights advocates are credited with the change. Since 1929 the FBI has defined rape as “carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against […]
History books lie
“Women never did anything important. If they had it would be in the history books.” So claims the father-in-law of National Women’s History Museum founder Karen Staser. Can you imagine spending holidays with that guy? Still, he’s not alone. Most Americans grow up thinking men built the country single-handed, since women and their accomplishments are […]
Alice Paul Institute focuses on girls’ leadership
Alice Paul is my second favorite women’s rights hero after Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Still it is only today I learned about the Alice Paul Institute in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Founded in 1984 to commemorate the centennial of Paul’s 1885 birth and to further her legacy, the organization was operated by volunteers for more than […]
