100 years ago today, the US approved the 19th Amendment, protecting women's right to vote.
But the battle for equality is FAR from over
After 100 years, the same issues that women were grappling with back then — voting rights, inequality, racism and sexism — are very much behind the social upheaval we’re seeing now, says Kim Churches, CEO of the AAUW, in this op-ed for Know Your Value.
Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. When the words “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged … on account of sex” were added to the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920, it seemed that, at long last, women got what they deserved.
But looking back through a century-long lens, this clearly was just another step on a rocky path to equal rights and women’s empowerment — a journey that continues today. After 100 years, the same issues that women were grappling with back then — voting rights, inequality, racism and sexism — are very much behind the social upheaval we’re seeing now.
The 19th Amendment is often thought of as the one that gave women the right to vote, but the fact is that it did not deliver on that promise. Though scores of Black activists (formerly enslaved Sojourner Truth, journalist Ida B. Wells and educator Mary Church Terrell, to name a few) all played critical but largely unacknowledged roles in the fight for women’s suffrage, the amendment was far from inclusive. Native Americans and Chinese immigrants were not granted voting rights. Black women were subjected to Jim Crow laws and not fully enfranchised until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed a full 45 years later.
https://www.nbcnews.com/know-your-value/feature/women-got-right-vote-100-years-ago-battle-equality-far-ncna1236937
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