USA TODAY Women of the Century marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment
August 15, 2020 8:50 AM Subscribe
State By State: USA TODAY Network’s Women of the Century marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment "We set the parameters. Since we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of women being granted the right to vote in the United States, we would limit the women to those who lived between 1920 and today. ... To spotlight as many women as possible, we aimed to have every list be unique. For instance, if a woman hailed from one state but made her mark in another, we would have to decide which state could claim her."
This is awesome, and there are a lot of interesting stories here.
I have mixed feelings about framing this as the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage though. Native American Women had to fight state by state for the legal right to vote and the last state only granted them the right to vote in 1962, and the legal right to vote that suffragists fought for didn't mean the real ability to vote in many places until sometime after the passage of the 1965 voting rights act. Even now voter suppression is all too common. The 19th amendment was important, and it was a hard fought victory, but I think it's important to acknowledge that it didn't change things for every woman who fought for it.
Anyway that's not to say that this isn't a wonderful listing of incredible women, including a number of amazing BIPOC women. I wanted to note that there will be a live event for this on the 18th at 5pm. The 18th was when the final necessary state ratified the amendment.
posted by Chrysopoeia at 4:06 PM on August 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
I have mixed feelings about framing this as the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage though. Native American Women had to fight state by state for the legal right to vote and the last state only granted them the right to vote in 1962, and the legal right to vote that suffragists fought for didn't mean the real ability to vote in many places until sometime after the passage of the 1965 voting rights act. Even now voter suppression is all too common. The 19th amendment was important, and it was a hard fought victory, but I think it's important to acknowledge that it didn't change things for every woman who fought for it.
Anyway that's not to say that this isn't a wonderful listing of incredible women, including a number of amazing BIPOC women. I wanted to note that there will be a live event for this on the 18th at 5pm. The 18th was when the final necessary state ratified the amendment.
posted by Chrysopoeia at 4:06 PM on August 15, 2020 [2 favorites]
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posted by pjsky at 2:54 PM on August 15, 2020