Hey Ladies

[WilliamPitt]

Happy anniversary.

:toast:

Celebrating women's suffrage
By ALICE GERMOND | 8/18/10 4:31 AM EDT

In 1848, a group of fearless women gathered in Seneca Falls, N.Y., where they declared women’s fundamental equality with men, and set out to secure our voting rights. In August 1920, after nearly 70 years and several generations of work, the suffragists faced a final difficult battle in Tennessee.

They had already won passage of the 19th Amendment in Congress and secured ratification of that amendment by 35 states; Tennessee’s ratification, if they could succeed, would give them the crucial number required to add the amendment to the Constitution and guarantee American women the right to vote.

In the Tennessee House, the vote was close. In fact, it was tied, deadlocked. Then, on the third round of voting, the youngest state legislator changed his mind. He had just received a letter from his mother, urging him to do the right thing.

And so, on Aug. 18, 1920 — 90 years ago today — women won the right to vote and make our voices heard in government. In the nine decades since, women have made great strides in America. A higher percentage of us vote than men and a majority of us vote Democratic. Approximately three-fourths of the women in the U.S. Senate, House, and state legislatures are Democrats, as well. And, as we all know, the speaker of the House, third in line to the presidency, is Nancy Pelosi. Our college attendance is equal to men and we are now presidents of great universities, we have joined the work force in record numbers, and we work as doctors, soldiers, and plumbers as well as teachers, nurses and owners of our own small businesses — and so do our husbands and brothers.

More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41182.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you, my dear WilliamPitt!

I didn't know that today was that anniversary. And a pivotal day it was, too...

I suspect that if the Republicans of today had been in power back then, we would not have gotten the right to vote...

We must always make sure that the weak and powerless among us are not disenfranchised, ever.

Recommended.

[leftofcool]

2. Thank You, William. I feel blessed having had these early sisters

[catzies]

3. Yes, indeed. I salute our tireless, idefatigable foremothers today.

And I sing from Mary Poppins ('cause I've always loved that part where Mrs. Banks worked for Votes for Women!)

OUR DAUGHTERS' DAUGHTERS WILL ADORE US
AND THEY'LL SING IN GRATEFUL CHORUS,
"WELL DONE, SISTER SUFFRAGETTES!"

...and now, on to passing the ERA...

:)

[tammywammy]

4. That's a great article

And to those brave women that came before me:

[Warpy]

5. I approached this thread with trepidation, fearing being patronized

but thank you for the best wishes!

My mother's earliest childhood memory was of being half walked, half carried in a suffragette parade in New York City with my grandmother and great grandmother. She often said the proudest moment of my great grandmother's life was when she cast her first ballot.

Never forget where we came from and how hard we had to fight to get the simple right to vote for our government, even though the candidates we are offered are lesser people than we'd choose freely. Never forget we ended child labor with that vote, among other things.

Most of all, never forget your obligation to all those women who fought so hard for that simple right and vote whenever you're asked.

[mopinko]

41. that's why i live in chicago. so i can vote twice.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Thank you very much.

[Joanne98]

7. Thanks!

[JNelson6563]

8. An awesome thing to commemorate.

Thanks Will. :toast:

Julie

[leftynyc]

9. Thank you Mr. Pitt

It's a right I never take for granted. My grandma would haunt me from her grave.

[Demeter]

10. Thank you, dear Sir!

So kind of you to remember.

[dionysus]

11. hey, look who's back in town!

[JustAnotherGen]

12. Cool

My great great grandmother Hill went to jail for three weeks because she wanted to vote for my great great grandfather Hill in a Denver election. :rofl:

This is a great PSA for women who may not be in the know on today's significance!

[whathehell]

20. Yup....Ever see "Iron Jawed Angels"...Those women took a LOT..n/t

[JustAnotherGen]

53. Yep

And she was part of it. . . but I don't believe she was ever force fed. She was jailed - got out - and went right back to raising hell! :rofl:

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. K&R

[KarenS]

14. Thank you WilliamPitt for reminding us!!

It really hasn't been that long ago, has it??

I just saw a wonderful PBS documentary called "Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony" (It's available on Netflix to rent or on the PBS website to purchase.)
I rented it but now plan to buy a copy so that I can lend it to my daughters and grand-daughters.
This Granny thinks they should know about the struggle and the triumph.

AND,,,

Welcome back!!:hi:

[AsahinaKimi]

15. I will VOTE for that ..woot!

:toast: :beer:

[Matariki]

16. Fearless indeed. Many were jailed and beaten for their activism

Feminist Sonia Pressman Fuentes documents this history in her article on Alice Paul. She includes this re-telling of the story of Occoquan Workhouse's "Night of Terror," November 15, 1917:

Under orders from W. H. Whittaker, superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked. (source: Barbara Leaming, Katherine Hepburn (New York: Crown Publishers, 1995), 182.)

[femrap]

19. One story remains in my mind....

the suffragists attending horse races and walking out in a line to block the finish line....they so wanted to be taken seriously that they risked their lives against a thundering herd of race horses. All dressed in white.

And I still don't like being called a 'lady.' I am a woman. There's such a frilly connotation when I hear 'lady.' And don't get me started on being referred to as a girl.

[chill_wind]

17. K & R.

:toast:

[TayTay]

18. and to you as well

human freedom advances all so, happy anniversary my brother!

[Rhiannon12866]

21. K&R! Thanks for the reminder...

And a great article... These women who gave so much need to be remembered always, with gratitude... :toast:

[kgnu_fan]

22. Hello Will, I am glad you are back!!!! I was late on finding your "Hey" thread.

It was "closed" when I got back from my travel to say "welcome back!".

[tanyev]

23. Cheers for an awesome cackle of rads!!!!

:toast:

[MsPithy]

27. Nice Palin reference!

Palin would have been one of the women back in the day, who thought women just didn't have the mental capacity for voting, in her case she would have been right.

But, what really makes my head almost explode is her insultingly dismissive attitude toward feminists who did the hard, dangerous work of transforming a culture to accept the changing role of women. It is because of them she is able to publicly make an ass of herself, and she is too stupid to realize it.

[defendandprotect]

24. Cheers for that--!! We too little celebrate the women who fought to give us the vote --

.. but we still have a long way to go --

Did we take the battle in the 1970's for the ERA much less seriously than we should have?

Too confident? Or too many still confused about women's rights?

RCC and Mormon Church campaigned against the ERA with tax-exempt dollars --

shamful -- but they did it!

Democratic Platform, I trust, still has ERA in it?

[bigwillq]

25. K and R!

Congrats, Ladies! :) :toast: :bounce:

[SeattleGirl]

26. Thanks!

This woman NEVER sits it out on voting day!

And many, many thanks to those women (and men) who fought so hard to bring us this right!

[Luminous Animal]

28. I'd prefer, "Hey women"

[nofurylike]

34. +++ me too! thank you thank you thank you for posting that, LA! nt

[WilliamPitt]

36. My sincerest apologies

Too late to edit.

I apologize.

[lostnfound]

38. To each their own. I prefer 'hey ladies'.

:toast:
Cheers for the expansion of human rights wherever it occurs.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

29. Glad to see you back here!

:hi::toast:

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[eridani]

31. An excellent reminder how how long it takes to achieve milestones like that. n/t

[Hekate]

32. Thank you, Mr. Pitt. Our foremothers fought, bled, and died for our rights. ...

They went to prison. They were ridiculed, called "suffragettes" as though they were mascots and not grown women who had put their own suffrage on the back burner for a couple of generations because working to free the slaves was that important to them.

I never take my vote for granted.

Suffragists, I salute your memory. :patriot:

Hekate

[proud patriot]

33. Thanks Will

:-)

[AlabamaLibrul]

35. K&R

And ladies, my voting booth's open all day....

:smoke:

[BlancheSplanchnik]

42. well here's a little benefaction for your ballot box.

[midnight]

37. I wish I had asked my Grandmother about her right to vote. She grew up

in NOLA. Her mother ran the store they owned. Now many of her great granddaughters and great great granddaughters are nurses trying desperately to bring equality to the access of affordable health care.

[uncommon]

39. k&r

:grouphug:

[jotsy]

40. Nice find! Had no idea.

I appreciate that Sir Pitt, tyvm.

[ensho]

43. and happily that's my birthday

those women really faught for us; were injured, killed, imprisoned, force fed, raped and every other foul thing some men could think to do to stop women from voting.

I cannot thank these brave foremothers enough.

[madmax]

44. +10 If they had not... nt

[bonnieS]

45. I kept looking for

any mention of how Obama screwed us on abortion rights in all the congratulations to him for all he has done for women. Did not find it--then saw who she works for.

Until women own their bodies, it's a nice extra that we get to vote.

Meanwhile, if you want to continue to work for women's rights, and not look at it as all in the past, or, even worse, all in Obama's "capable hands," go to www.now.org/join and actually join!

[Matt Shapiro]

52. To understand this responders justified criticism,

you have to click the link at the bottom of the original post. What starts out as a celebration of the anniversary of women's suffrage ends up as a puff piece for the Democratic Party and President Obama. While there is truth in many of the claims, it is totally one-sided. The administration's effective assault on choice in the health care bill and its implementation and the President's opposition to gay marriage are conveniently omitted. Pitt should have chosen a less deceptive piece to quote, or just written one himself.

[colsohlibgal]

46. Just Amazing

Amazing that is, that we could not vote before 90 years ago, like we weren't smart enough or something. Just as amazing as the notion that black people for so long had to have separate bathrooms, hotels, etc, let alone being able to vote.

[xxqqqzme]

47. Thank you.

My grandmother was born in 1906, so she was 14 when the 19th was ratified. She died in 2005. She always voted. She had to be a 'wild child' in her day because pictures show her hair bobbed wearing dropped waist knee length dresses with, what must have been. very sexy high heel shoes. She was fiercely pro-choice but always voted rethuglican. One of my earliest memories is being all dressed up, by her, in gloves and my patent leather mary janes and going w/ her, equally decked out in gloves, hat and wool suit, while she voted. This particular polling place, which I believe was in the basement of the courthouse (they lived downtown), had a miniature replica of the adult voting machine and little kids got to 'vote' for president on it. I 'voted' for IKE because that is how my grandmother was voting.

[Duval]

48. You really are one of "The Best", wrp! ;)

[kestrel91316]

49. My mom was the first female born in our family with the right to vote.

Scary. Hasn't been all that long, and there are those who advocate for a return to "one household, one vote".

[sellitman]

50. And Republican women have been voting against their own best interests since.

Go figure?
:crazy:

[csziggy]

51. In honor of the day I am going to early vote in our primaries!

Thank you, WilliamPitt - and it is great to have you back!