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August 27, 2009
Exclusive: In Praise of the 19th Amendment – But the Global Struggle for Equality is Not Over
“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 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
Yesterday, we recognized one of the great milestones in democracy – the 89th anniversary of the 19th Amendment – the Constitutional Amendment giving women the right to vote.
Suffrage – the right to vote – is one of the cornerstones to freedom and a symbol of recognition that all people are equal and deserve to be treated as such. It is a landmark in world affairs; with sporadic and isolated few exceptions – women property owners in New England during the 17th and early 18th centuries, for example – women throughout history were not able to vote, attend school, own property or obtain credit. In essence, women had been relegated to a secondary role in society, regardless of the contributions to their communities. It is a sobering notion and staggering in its enormity when one considers people emerged from the primordial stew how many millennia ago, and yet only in the last 100 or so years gained legal equality? Organized society has been around for thousands of years yet few women have led them – notable exceptions usually the result of a king without male heirs.
Many of our fellow citizens do not realize today is the anniversary of the 19th Amendment or that women did not enjoy the same rights as men, or that sharing in some of the opportunities as their male counterparts was not possible until this critical piece of legislation was passed, or for that matter the sheer enormity of a task it is to get a bill, any bill passed through Congress or a state house. As such it is a privilege to share some of the details of this overlooked, yet critically important chapter in American history. The following article will briefly discuss the courageous efforts of a handful of determined women and men, the opportunities we enjoy today as a result of their 19th and 20th century sacrifices, and an introductory look at the significant challenges women face in the 21st century – here and abroad, including honor killing, human trafficking, workplace inequality and subjugation.
“Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana
I’d wager most school aged children are not aware it was not too long ago that African-Americans were considered three-fifths of a white man in terms of the Constitution and our fledgling democracy. As horrific as that sounds, what is as worrisome, most citizens, especially women do not realize the road to equality (it is still a journey and not a destination) has taken over 100 years or that women were not even considered worth three-fifths as much as a man, let alone equal until 89 years ago when, on August 26, 1920 women were granted the right to vote in the United States, and thus the first major step in obtaining other rights of property, access to higher education, the right to participate in competitive sports, obtaining credit, enjoying safety (think spousal abuse no longer as a protected event) and career opportunity. While none of those were automatic, some still a work in progress, the 19th Amendment was the first domino to fall.
So how do you explain or teach children today the significance of the 19th Amendment, especially when many text books give barely a paragraph to this epic time in our history? This is one time we cannot be blamed for taking our rights for granted when history is poorly taught or resides against the backdrop of a high technology world and thus has become more difficult to embrace, or ultimately been relegated to the notion of “quaint” compared to the importance placed upon classes in the sciences – as if it was a zero sum game! With women’s professional sports teams starting to thrive, female role models emerging at a greater rate, it is sometimes hard to fathom that less than a century ago women were not considered equal to men, nor were they afforded the same legal protections. With the exception of women’s studies courses, students today are barely or rarely taught about the epic struggle for basic human rights that some very courageous women and men were engaged in. Even some of the best history books of the era – ones edited by such notables as Dr. Sheehan of Columbia University – overlooked, ignored or barely mentioned the suffrage movement.
You’ve come a long way baby….from Seneca Falls to Washington D.C.
In July, 1848 Seneca Falls, NY became the birthplace of women’s rights. Much like we think of Birmingham and Atlanta as the birthplace of the black rights movement, this tiny place in NY helped launch a movement that would take over 70 years for fulfillment. Their “I have a dream” statement was called “The Declaration of Sentiments” – a list of rights of which women were deprived. In a sense, it was a statement of grievances and the suffragists’ version of the Declaration of Independence. With its passing, the first strategic and unified act of the suffrage movement was launched. Of note, a not insignificant number of supporters were men. As an aside, I’d wager most of us, when we think about some of our most important mentors or supporters, they probably were men. And one of the landmines in any movement undertaken by those without certain rights is to vilify the ones already possessing them. Life is rarely a zero sum game.
While the names Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, even John Adams and Thomas Payne are well known to almost every American, the sad reality few students let alone our contemporaries could name any of the leaders in the suffrage movement – the first real woman’s movement in U.S. history, with the exception perhaps of Susan B. Anthony – and that only because of the coin bearing her likeness. A pity! The women of the suffrage movement are worth learning about. Elizabeth Cady Stanton – a middle class housewife and Lucretia Coffin Mott who initiated the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls. Other founders included the noted feminists of their day – Lucy Stone, Abby Kelley Foster, Ernestine Rose, and Susan Belva Anthony and Alice Paul. Carrie Chapman Catt became one of the luminaries; she founded the League of Women Voters – an organization that exists today. The movement had early support from Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Ward Howe and Clara Barton – all well known and highly respected members of society.
Powerful supporters were not enough for a process that started in earnest during 1848 and carried on throughout the remainder of the 19th century into the 20th. Often, suffragists worked closely with abolitionists – a polarizing topic, given pre-Civil War sentiments. Then there were the women’s groups organized to oppose women’s rights – a phenomenon that persists today for reasons that beg incredulity. Violence was often initiated against suffragists and their meetings were frequently accompanied by hoodlums trying to disrupt the events. Some of the women were beaten by street gangs that were often used to intimidate. Then consider the unjust arrests, fines, incarcerations and even force feeding through tubes inserted in their mouths – clearly, women who fought for a cause must be crazy and require incarceration or institutionalization, right? And we think water boarding is torture? Try a garden hose down your throat every day with gruel pushed through it into your stomach. Given the times, the suffragists’ efforts are especially extraordinary. Then, of course, there were the vagaries of politics. But slowly and surely a number of states supported the suffrage movement. Finally, even President Wilson who was initially against universal suffrage became a supporter of the movement. Seventy two years after the Seneca Falls convention, and hundreds of marches, conventions, petitions, victories and defeats, the 19th Amendment became the law of the land, and with it, women earned the right to vote. Perhaps best summing up the issue of the day, consider President Wilson’s speech to the Senate. His insightful words are remarkable for the times and stand the test of time, serving as a cautionary tale for this generation:
This is a peoples' war and the peoples' thinking constitutes its atmosphere and morale, not the predilections of the drawing room or the political considerations of the caucus. If we be indeed democrats and wish to lead the world to democracy, we can ask other peoples to accept in proof of our sincerity and our ability to lead them whither they wish to be led nothing less persuasive and convincing than our actions. …Verification must be forthcoming when verification is asked for. ... It is asked for by the anxious, expectant, suffering peoples with whom we are dealing and who are willing to put their destinies in some measure in our hands… Through many, many channels I have been made aware what the plain, struggling, workaday folk are thinking upon whom the chief terror and suffering of this tragic war falls. They are looking to the great, powerful, famous Democracy of the West to lead them to the new day for which they have so long waited; and they think, in their logical simplicity, that democracy means that women shall play their part in affairs alongside men and upon an equal footing with them. If we reject measures like this, in ignorance or defiance of what a new age has brought forth… they will cease to believe in us; they will cease to follow or to trust us. … the strange revelations of this war having made many things new and plain, to governments as well as to peoples.
Are we alone to ask and take the utmost that our women can give, -- service and sacrifice of every kind, -- and still say we do not see what title that gives them to stand by our sides in the guidance of the affairs of their nation and ours? We have made partners of the women in this war; shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right? This war could not have been fought, either by the other nations engaged or by America, if it had not been for the services of the women, -- services rendered in every sphere, -- not merely in the fields of effort in which we have been accustomed to see them work, but wherever men have worked and upon the very skirts and edges of the battle itself. We shall not only be distrusted but shall deserve to be distrusted if we do not enfranchise …
The women of America are too noble and too intelligent and too devoted to be slackers whether you give or withhold this thing that is mere justice; but I know the magic it will work in their thoughts and spirits if you give it them. …
We shall need them (women) in our vision of affairs, as we have never needed them before, the sympathy and insight and clear moral instinct of the women of the world. The problems of that time will strike to the roots of many things that we have not hitherto questioned, and I for one believe that our safety in those questioning days, as well as our comprehension of matters that touch society to the quick, will depend upon the direct and authoritative participation of women in our counsels. We shall need their moral sense to preserve what is right and fine and worthy in our system of life as well as to discover just what it is that ought to be purified and reformed. Without their counsellings we shall be only half wise. – President Woodrow Wilson Address to the Senate on the 19th Amendment
While the United States was not the first nation where women could vote – that distinction belongs to New Zealand, as an up and coming world power in the aftermath of World War I – our influence upon other countries would be no less manifest in our universal suffrage as it was in our growing military might.
But we should take a long pause and recognize there is something almost unseemly about the notion of granting something that should be inalienable, inherent and, put simply, included in our first breath – regardless of gender, race, religion, socio-economic status – equal protections under the law. Yet before the 19th Amendment, and so well-documented in the movie Iron Jawed Angels as well as other books on the suffrage movement, women were literally adult children under the stewardship of their husbands. Consider for a moment the fact that one of the leading suffragists and leader in the National American Women’s Suffrage Association had to have a prenuptial agreement granting her two months a year to devote to the effort. In other words, she needed a legal “permission slip” from her husband allowing her to pursue personal interests.
Think about the concept of being “allowed” to do something as an adult in the United States. The very notion probably caused you to bristle. And the thought that someone can grant you permission…”allow you” to dress as you want, go out at night with friends without a chaperone, run for office, as well as vote your conscience (not your spouse’s, boss’s or parents’ sensibilities), earn money and spend it as you solely choose to do….well, it is an outrage. Yet that is precisely what most U.S. women experienced prior to the 19th Amendment, and what many women around the world still experience.
With the exception of the Susan B. Anthony dollar, there have been few reminders, tributes or mentions in the classroom of the significant contributions to the United States made by women.
“We have met the enemy and she is us.” – Pogo
A Long Way to Go…..
Why is it among eligible voters, less than two-thirds of women vote? To be sure that is as good or better than what men typically do, but hardly inspiring. Women are often the deciding vote. But that is largely in federal elections. How many women are on the ballot? Count heads in Congress or your state house….should there not be close to 50:50 representation? Or at least better than the numbers we have right now? Decisions are made by people who show up. Even years are the elections and odd years are the campaign starts. Let’s go girls! Start signing up.
Gender equality is within reach. That does not mean women becoming men or taking jobs without the proper qualifications. This is NOT a battle of or between the sexes. It is a problem that needs solving, pure and simple. Women have come a long way since 1848, certainly in the U.S. But there is room to grow and progress to be made.
Fortunately there are men willing to stand up for women; but that is not enough. Women must stand up for themselves in these societies and women worldwide should support the efforts for universal equality.
In the U.S.
Gender bias is alive and well in the U.S. Consider the disparity in healthcare between men and women, especially in terms of cardiovascular disease. There remains an insidious perception that women with chest pain are probably anxious and should just give up coffee, go shopping and chill out. I kid you not! I recently attended a lecture on cardiac disease at a major university hospital. When asked about chest pains and palpitations in a female patient, the speaker suggested a regimen of relaxation. He then continued discussing those symptoms in the context of a male patient; resulting in a thorough cardiovascular workup. Yet numerous studies denounce this mindset and go on to describe the disproportionate gap in outcomes between women and men, especially in terms of cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment. As an aside, as a practicing physician, take my Rx…ladies if you have a concern about your medical care – don’t be shy!
Politically we have a long way to go. We are one of the world’s leading democracies and we have yet to elect a woman head of state? Even Ireland managed to do that! England, Israel and India have managed to do what we remain unable to accomplish.
In terms of professional equality, women do not enjoy equal protections under the law in the work place – studies continue to demonstrate pay and promotion inequality. Just look at the universities and other businesses and examine the number of women VP, deans, chairs, directors compared to men and compared to the number of rank and file faculty who are women. Most departments have near parity in women with a few male dominated exceptions (orthopedics, neurosurgery) but proportionately few female department chairs. Are there no qualified women among the large number of faculty or employees? While women have achieved parity in professional school admissions, the percent of women occupying leadership positions remains disproportionately male dominated. If we are good enough to carry the water, we should be good enough to drink it. National studies still show women persist in being paid less than men doing the same work. As one high profile labor attorney confided in me, most equal protection laws, such as FMLA (family medical leave act) are nothing more than throwing a bone to appease women. On the surface they look protective, but in truth these laws offer few real protections, but afford the employer a variety of loopholes.
Women worldwide face a two tiered challenge –professional equality and basic human rights.
“Democracy means that women shall play their part in affairs alongside men and upon an equal footing with them.” –President Woodrow Wilson
Too bad the United Nations or many of the countries represented in that perennially ineffectual body politic have failed to understand this critical notion. While most nations do in fact claim “universal” voting rights de jure, de facto the ability of women to vote is far less assured. Just ask women in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia……Even when nations brag about or claim women can vote, and have “universal” suffrage – the reality is often far different from the regulatory issues.
In India – a nation that in fact did elect a woman as the head of state, there are still differences in job opportunities based upon gender. In many countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East, but also Asia, boys are far better educated than girls who often are placed in arranged marriages by the time they are 12 or 13.
While the UN yammers on decrying Israel as the source of all Palestinian ills, they should take a good hard look at the honor killings that occur from the hands of Palestinian males. So pervasive and institutionalized that exact numbers are not even publicly disclosed. Crimes against women in Gaza and the West Bank range from mental abuse to outright violence, even burning or death. And they are occurring as you read this – without outcry, or global concern. Apparently it will continue to be treated as “an internal problem” of their state.
Women of the World
The most visible act of submission is the veil. Do Muslim women wear full body covering because they want to or because they must? Wanting to is one thing, having to is quite another. We’ll address this in greater detail at a later time. But let it suffice that women do not enjoy equality in the Middle East or Africa. Genital mutilation – is that voluntary? Can a child consent to being torn up by a glass bottle? It’s barbaric. Then there are the honor killings and public beatings – all because the husband, father or eldest brother/patriarch has a grievance that the women somehow dishonored the family – these are not the makings of equal legal protections or gender equality.
In the Muslim world there remain forced marriages, unequal treatment in terms of divorce, property rights, child custody, freedom of movement without chaperones and limitations in education even driving. Now to be clear, there are Muslim nations where women enjoy far greater freedoms, such as Turkey. Then there is Palestine and Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan, and…..well, you get the point.
In 2005, nearly two years after the U.S. marched into Iraq, they debated the need to provide equal protections for women in their new constitution. Should women be accorded the same rights as men in Iraq? We know that question doesn’t even arise in many nations – women are property, without vote or voice in many nations.
Every reader, especially every woman reader, should be outraged that any such debate exists – in the year 2009 to even question whether gender diminishes or enhances the value of a human being is tantamount to saying color or religion should have the same effect. If Iraqis said dark skinned Muslims could not vote but light skinned ones could, there would be a global outcry. The potential dismissal of women’s rights in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia is met with a shrug as if the very issue is more inconvenience than a statement of what we as a people, a world should value.
In 2009 Afghanistan, women can vote – assuming they can overcome a few barriers. For example, the threat of having their finger amputated (voters have an indelible ink on their finger to avoid voter fraud) if they are caught with voting dye. Then of course there is the problem of needing female poll workers – women cannot be tended to or searched by men. There has been an enormous shortage of women workers and thus Afghani women will not be allowed to go to vote even though they are technically allowed to vote. Add to this the cultural norms where the women in some regions are likely to turn their voter cards over to husbands either by coercion or inculcated belief that he knows better – since women don’t have their faces photographed, how do you control voter fraud on cards without images?
Other Threats and Challenges
Women are still sold into slavery – within the United States as well as the expected places…Russia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America. The US Government estimates approximately 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the US each year, mostly from S. America, Russia and Southeast Asia. Sex trafficking being a highly lucrative enterprise as well as forced household labor. From a security perspective, we often at FSM decry the open and relatively poorly defended U.S. borders. It would thus not shock anyone that Mexico and Canada are how many of these women are trafficked into the U.S.
Once again, the UN is behind the curve on this international problem. Too often nations treat this as an immigration crime and the women as illegals, instead of as victims of violence crimes. More on human trafficking in a future article.
“Bad behavior should not be culturally protected” –Mary Robinson
I asked the former president of Ireland at a conference hosted by my alma mater Columbia University if the cultural norms of a community should be respected or honored if they include beating or burning women or subjecting them to honor killings? Her initial answer was succinct – “no.”
In spite of overwhelming evidence that women around the world do not enjoy equal protections under law, the UN continues to tiptoe around profoundly important issues under the concept that they can’t interfere with cultural practices or a nations norms. So while women are routinely treated as captives, slaves, baby machines or mere objects – suffering from public beatings or genital mutilation, being sold into slavery or subject to honor killings – the UN does nothing more than appoint another high commissioner or come out with yet another report, and the requisite hand ringing or talk therapy exhorting the Western world to do something. Hmm, wasn’t that the job of the UN to promote, dare I say even enforce the notion of human rights across nations? Freedom denied is a human rights violation. Alas, the UN uses their best defense – misdirection – and focuses global attention on Israel or the US or Iraq and Iran, instead of trying to assist women and children who continue to suffer from disparities that should not exist. That these degradations are allowed, or as objectionable, that these cruelties continue to find a safe haven in the sensibilities of their societies, should be the leading call to action in the UN. Women abuse and inequality is a global problem that knows no regionality.
Can any one of us celebrate equality when every one of us does not experience it? Global security rests upon equality. Impoverished societies pose a global threat as the void in services is often filled by groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. We saw it in Afghanistan after we helped them defeat the Soviets – and the Taliban filled the void. Charles Dickens in his perennially beloved tale A Christmas Carol warned the reader to beware of ignorance. Education is a key to eradicating ignorance and poverty – but both genders must enjoy the right to fully human expression. It is in our national interest to address these issues. The life we save ultimately may be ours or our loved one in uniform. What else but ignorance would inform a woman’s sensibilities to allow her child to strap on bombs and kill people in the process of self destruction? And yet women in Palestine are encouraged to support their children becoming “martyrs” …allowing them to be trained to kill innocents, or allowing their children to attend hate based schools.
Unlike the UN, the U.S. is not a body apathetic. But we are subject to a short attention span and, a majority that is increasingly driving towards isolation. On a day like today when women in the U.S. enjoy a range of freedoms, our global sisters in far off lands can no longer even dream of, and where only a handful of courageous women take a stand – we have to ask ourselves how long will this be tolerated? How long can we continue to allow the dramatic gap in human rights based solely on gender?
Conclusion
FSM should be praised for taking a moment to honor the 19th Amendment and the remarkable people who worked against great odds to make it a reality, and a starting point for global equality. The journey is still young but the destination is reachable. Most newspapers will relegate this pivotal event to the “on this date” column, and in the process demonstrate why women have a long way to go before our issues are treated with the same respect and concern as those of other sectors of the population. FSM understands the need to celebrate key milestones in U.S. history. And we must remind those who follow that our history informs our present and future.
The world remains a dangerous place for women – whether living in countries where they remain subjugated, or face cultural norms allowing honor killings and abuse, or reside in impoverished conditions setting the stage for human trafficking. But it isn’t just a foreign problem. Domestic violence remains a profound problem within the U.S. as do other disparities – economic, health outcomes, and leadership opportunities. But we enjoy a wide range of political and legal protections unheard of in most other nations; against this backdrop we have greater security to promote further gains towards equality and security. Our sisters worldwide do not.
So we should be grateful for the gains we enjoy and mindful of those societies who have yet to see the day when their daughters can live in full equality with their sons.
Is Women’s Equality Day a proclamation, celebration or statement of anticipation? The future is in our hands. Let’s not let the sacrifices of remarkable women, remarkable people go unrecognized. Most importantly let’s not let their vision of true equality for all women, all people to go unrealized.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Robin McFee is a physician and medical toxicologist. An expert in WMD preparedness, she is a consultant to government agencies, corporations and the media. Dr. McFee is a member of the Global Terrorism, Political Instability and International Crime Council of ASIS International. She has authored numerous articles on terrorism, health care and preparedness, and coauthored two books: Toxico-Terrorism by McGraw Hill and The Handbook of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Agents, published by Informa/CRC Press.
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