The Legacy of Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The quest for women's suffrage began in earnest in 1869 when Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association, but it would be another 51 years -- 18 years after Elizabeth and 14 years after Susan died -- that women would at last secure the right to vote.

What were the main arguments against granting women's suffrage? That politics wasn't for women. It was a messy business and women just weren't suited for it. Men were doing them a favor by dealing with it for them, allowing women to tend to their own business... at home where they belonged.

Another argument was that women were too emotional and not rational. How could they possibly make a clear decision who to vote for? They shouldn't trouble their pretty little heads about such serious matters.

So here we are 88 years later, the twenty-third time that women will be voting for the office of president and vice-president. And for only the second time out of twenty-three chances, a woman is on the ticket.

Women should be celebrating this achievement, and instead a great number of women in the country are attacking -- not just disagreeing with philosophically -- but viciously attacking one of their own, on every level.

And others are at best indifferent because they are so mesmerized by the "feeling" they get from a man who talks a fancy game and promises them the world, saying all the things they want to hear. And they believe him, despite the fact that he has acted contrary in the past, has no record, or is hiding the record -- oh, and has often been caught in a web of lies, omissions, or distortions.

And besides, the campaign is just so ugly for so many women. They hate all that dirty politics stuff. So they'll just keep their heads in the sand and blame it on the cranky old man, and cast their votes for the guy who "seems" to be above it all.

Susan and Elizabeth are spinning in their graves.

I'm not saying that you can't go with a gut feeling, or that you can't feel passionate about someone. But it's got to be based on something when it's this important -- and when all the facts are there for all to see.

So women of America -- who are you going to prove right? The chauvinists who denied our right to vote because we were too emotional and irrational -- or our founding foremothers of feminism who knew that women could stand the heat of the debate, and had the wisdom to discern the pertinent details in order to make a sufficiently informed decision.

There's still time to wake up before making a grave mistake. Don't waste the chance to elect an official with a bold new way of getting the job done in Washington... oh, and she happens to be a woman.

Now that's a legacy worthy of what was fought so hard for. It's time.

 

Comments

[Virginia Harris]

I believe that my generation of women was the first to come of age with most of us believing that the world would be fair to us.

I am strengthened by the inspiration of countless suffragettes.

Can you even imagine being a woman and NOT being able to vote?

Thanks to the suffragettes, America has women voters and wide range of women candidates, and we are a better country for it! Women have voices and choices! Just like men.

But few people know ALL of the suffering that our suffragettes had to go through, and what life was REALLY like for women.

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