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Well, Women did finally get the right to vote, and this picture shows an early example of someone exercising that right. Sometimes I am surprised that with how hard so many people had to fight to get the right to vote, how few people actually take the time to vote these days.Friday, February 5, 2010
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I read a history of the right to vote in the United States and how every time the electorate was expanded, there would be a fight in the legislatures about it. The side that wanted to expand the electorate, wanted to because they felt the added voters would vote their way. The people who were against the epansion also felt that the new voters would vote with other side. The funny thing is after each expansion the new electorate as a whole voted the way the old electorate did. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about a group fighting for a certain right, and then the next generation ignoring it. I'll tell you, I didn't march at Selma for this generation of fools to scoff at getting a decent education. Aaargh!
ReplyDeleteIt would be most interesting to see the changes in percentage of eligible female voters who actually cast ballots over the past 90 years. Of course, there were quite a lot of women who didn't want the right to vote, so the numbers might be surprising.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering why there are 4 men's hats, 3 kerosene lamps and two disembodied male hands included in the photo.
ReplyDeletePJM,
ReplyDeleteAHHHHH!!!! Please, please, please! Enough of the suffragettes!
Without the female vote (and don't tell my wife, I'll deny it) we'd have been spared Obama, the Sixties, FDR, and every other nefarious political tragedy of the last 80 years.
It's demonstrable. Not only has the women's vote been accountable for putting the Democrat over the top every year since then, but between 1865 and 1920, the year of the Nineteenth Amendment, we only had TWO Democrat presidents, and one of them, Grover Cleveland, was ostensibly a conservative.
As for the amendment itself, are you familiar with the story of the Mama's-boy who made it all possible?
"In May, 1919, the necessary two-thirds vote in favor of the women suffrage amendment was finally mustered in Congress, and the proposed amendment was sent to the states for ratification. By July 1920, with a number of primarily southern states adamantly opposed to the amendment, it all came down to Tennessee. It appeared that the amendment might fail by one vote in the Tennessee house, but twenty-four-year-old Harry Burns surprised observers by casting the deciding vote for ratification. At the time of his vote, Burns had in his pocket a letter he had received from his mother urging him, 'Don't forget to be a good boy" and "vote for suffrage." '
The amendment passed by his single vote."
Jon --
ReplyDeleteOh piffle.
In a democracy, EVERYONE needs to participate.
I'm wondering what those hats are doing there, too.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Jon, can you really blame the women for a national trend towards liberalism? It went hand in hand with the movement towards secularism. Furthermore, you've discounted all the conservative women who have consistently voted against liberal presidents and policies.
I enjoyed how the photos progressed so nicely from prim protesters to a jailed suffragette to this final picture of a woman practicing her newly-won right.
Jon in the late 19th century and early 20th century the Republican party was the liberal party. Do you really believe that the destruction of the slave state and reconstruction were done by 19th century conservatives? As for women voting, they vote conservative and liberal at about the same levels as men.
ReplyDeleteLady Anne:
ReplyDeleteYou are SO correct. Rights and civil liberties that previous generations fought for are taken for granted by many of us today. We are too removed from the immediacy of past struggles (unless it affected us personally).
My daughter (who is in college - and a conservative ) made a comment last night at dinner that I thought was very insightful. We were listening to the news, and they were talking about the public polls in which the President’s approval rating has dropped; and some people are upset about the economy and jobs; others about taxes; others about the war, and the national debt, and on and on.
She said - “WHEN are people in this country going to wake up and realize that WE are in control of our government? If we don’t like what’s going on, then let your congressional representatives know - and if they don’t listen or aren’t willing to compromise with others, then VOTE FOR THEM OUT - AND KEEP DOING IT.”
She’s right. And that applies to everyone, liberal, moderate, or conservative.
I think this photo was probably taken of the subject on a platform making a symbolic "first vote."
ReplyDeleteHence, the hats in the foreground, which were the men watching her.
They must have been scared - finally, someone with common sense!
Jon:
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, that is the most ridiculous and out-of-context comment I have ever encountered. First of all, we all know that women are, smarter, stronger, and far more insightful than men.
Secondly, women were not responsible for the sixties, nor are most of them liberal. It just appears that way because the liberal women’s groups are more vocal. Generalizations are never accurate.
Marie is correct - this is a Democracy - and every legal citizen has the right to make their voices heard - white, black, rich, poor, old young, male, female, whatever.
Most of the problems in this world were created by men - but then you need us women (with the exception of Pelosi, of course ) to step in and clean up your messes. We must scare you.
Dear Offended Ladies,
ReplyDeleteMy response?
"Don't forget to be a good boy, and vote for suffrage."
And THAT'S when all the trouble started!
ReplyDelete(ducks, looks both ways, exits stage left)
Jon:
ReplyDeleteOne mama's boy doesn't excuse ignorance and lack of civil rights for all Americans.