Midterm Election Day, US
Happy election day!
Can you believe it? The midterm elections are finally here. For those of us in the US, we won’t be forced to listen to the endless amounts of dark political ads screaming from our TVs, computers, phones, tablets, etc…at least for a little while.
As a gender-equality feminist, I am proud to exercise my civic duty to vote and am in awe of this democratic provision that is both a privilege and a right that was hard-won by women. It was our ancestress’ who made the radical choice to fight for a woman’s right to vote. They were jailed, beaten and tortured for fighting for the right for our—YOUR—voice(s) to be heard and counted.
In our modern era, some “radical” thoughts or even movements live and die in a couple—or even a single—news cycle. But our strong women of history fought their war for decades. The movement started in the mid-nineteenth century and many of the founders of the women’s movement didn’t live long enough to cast their votes at the polls.
“Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution,” reads a page on the National Archives website. These women were dedicated and fearless and even though some of them didn’t make it to August 18, 1920, when the 19th amendment was ratified, finally giving women the right to vote, we—the women of the twenty-first century—can cast our ballots without fear today.
So, ladies, raise your beautiful, strong voices and be heard on this day of democratic elections in the United States of America. Together we are strong. Together we will conquer. I am woman, hear me roar!
Sources:
Also, check out this book, a captivating first-hand account of the National Woman’s Party.
Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote
by Doris Stevens
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