Americans Celebrate 100 years of Women's Suffrage

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Today officially marks the 100th anniversary of American women having the legal right to vote across the entirety of the United States.  Congress had drafted and passed a proposed Amendment to the Constitution in the late spring of 1919 and sent it to the states where three-quarters (36 of 48) would be required to ratify it for inclusion into the Constitution.  The 36th state, Tennessee, voted in favor of the proposed Amendment one hundred years ago today.

Several western states were already allowing women to vote well before the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.  Women had been voting in Wyoming since 1869 while it was still a Territory, and they continued to vote even after Wyoming became a state.  Montana had even elected the first female member of Congress (Jeanette Rankin in 1916) before ratification of the 19th Amendment.  But it was the 19th Amendment - officially passed by the states one hundred years ago today - that extended voting rights for most women nationwide.   (Native American women were banned from voting until 1924, and many women of color were stymied in their attempts to vote by Jim Crow laws for decades.)

When this day began a century ago, 35 states had ratified the 19th Amendment and one more was needed to complete the process.  At that point the list of possible converts to the cause appeared to be limited to one - Tennessee - which was scheduled to vote that day.  As the vote proceeded, the outcome came down to the decision of just one member of the legislature.

Harry T. Burn, age 24, the youngest member of the Tennessee Legislature, was serving his first term.  The young Mr. Burn, who was unmarried, had vacillated on the issue and was reportedly unsure of how he would vote up until the actual vote was underway.   At some point during the vote, he reached into his pocket where he discovered a note from his mother, a school teacher, encouraging her son to vote in favor of ratification - and the smart son decided that he should listen to his mother!

It has taken almost a full century for women to begin making serious inroads into the American political process.  As of this fall four will have appeared on national ballots (three Democrats and one Republican), and the current Congress has 26 female Senators and 101 female Representatives - including the first woman Speaker of the House.  Nine women are currently serving as governors in the United States, and the US Territories of Guam and Puerto Rico also have female governors (although the governor of Puerto Rico lost her primary election this week and will be leaving office).  Also, the highest ranking political official in the Distict of Columbia is its mayor - a position currently held by a female.

Politics in the United States is still predominantly a man's affair, but voting trends and growing numbers of female office holders indicate that change is afoot - and at this particularly sordid time in our political history, more women participating in the system can only be a good thing!

Use that vote, ladies - show us our better selves!