On Wednesdays, We Wear White: The Women's Suffrage Movement and Why It Still Matters

Yes, I know I'm paraphrasing Mean Girls but bear with me. When we think of the color white, a few things come to mind: surrender, not to wear it after Labor Day, and snow. We don’t often think of white as the color of a powerful movement in women’s history: the movement towards voting rights for women. I think sometimes we take for granted that women can vote and participate in governments around the world. There is still a battle to be won for all women in all countries, but we do have it better here in the US than in some places. However, that doesn’t mean that we should forget those who fought so that we have the rights we have, rest on our laurels and accept the status quo, or stay silent when the rights and freedoms of any group are threatened. 

The suffrage movement has a complicated history. In the earliest history of the women’s suffrage movement, it had close ties to the abolitionist movement. In 1848, a gathering of women and men at Seneca Falls, NY, was held to discuss the social, religious, and civil condition and rights of women. Those gathered included prominent abolitionists like Frederick Douglass as well as pioneers in the women’s rights movement Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Cady Stanton wrote a Declaration of Sentiments. It was patterned after the Declaration of Independence and included a list of grievances regarding the rights of women. These included the right to vote as well as issues with property rights, divorce rights, education, double standards in social/moral codes of behaviors, etc. The inclusion of a resolution about the rights of women to vote was the only piece to not be approved unanimously by the convention. In fact, had it not been for the support of Frederick Douglass for its inclusion, it might not have been included at all.

The advent of the Civil War moved the women’s suffrage movement to the background. It is at the conclusion of the Civil War with the ratification of the 14^th and 15^th Amendments that the history of the suffrage movement becomes complicated. There were those within the movement that saw the ratification of the 15^th Amendment as the perfect opportunity to include the right of women to vote. Its exclusion led to some members of the suffrage movement to withdraw support for the 15^th Amendment, giving African-American males the right to vote. This difference led to two distinct factions within the movement.

    

Universal suffrage was not attained until the 19^th Amendment was ratified in 1920. However, the women’s movement did not end with suffrage; it morphed into the pursuit of additional rights for women, a pursuit that continues today. We see this in the discussion of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). This amendment has been ratified by 35 out of the 50 states, but still it does not have enough support to become a full-fledged amendment to the Constitution as this requires 38 states to ratify the amendment.

Some women question the need for the ERA given the current status of women in the US. The answer to this is simple. The rights that women currently enjoyed are not entirely guaranteed under the current iteration of the Constitution. In terms of equality, the only right guaranteed to women is the right to vote. Laws such as Title IX are not guaranteed and can be just as easily overturned as they were passed. This is why there is still a need for the passage of laws such as the Equal Pay Act, the Violence Against Women Act, etc. It’s why spousal rape had to be specifically outlawed, which wasn’t done until 1993. However, spousal rape is treated differently from non-spousal, with less severe penalties, shorter periods of time for reporting, or exclusion of incidents where violence was not used. 

This is why it is important for women to march. The freedoms that we enjoy are not guaranteed. Even if they were guaranteed, it doesn’t mean that the system wouldn’t still work against us. We’ve seen this happen to minority communities whose rights have been guaranteed by the 14^th Amendment. It’s why there are movements like Black Lives Matter and the Human Rights Campaign. We can’t ignore inter-sectionality within the women’s movement either. If we’re truly serious about equal rights for all, we need to listen to those who may not have it as good as we do and lend our voices of support to their causes when asked.