The Fight for The Vote: The Women’s Suffrage Movement

(A two part series).

72 years. That’s the amount of time between the

first U.S. women’s rights movement and the day women finally got the right to vote.

Alice Paul being taken to Prison for “Obstructing Traffic”

72 years of picketing, planning, speaking, protesting and even serving prison sentences. All to have a say in who will run the government of their country.

Was the vote really worth that much pain and toil? These days, with how many Americans choose not to vote, I’m not sure they think so!

Voting seems to be something citizens could take or leave. Perhaps if the weather is just right and nothing gets in their way, they just might show up to the polls. But if there is even the smallest hint of rain, forget about it!

How upset the women who participated in the suffrage movement must be. There was nothing so precious to them as the opportunity to vote, the right to choose the people that would define so many aspects of their lives.

A vote meant women could influence decisions such as who had custody over a child when a marriage failed, or whether or not a fire escape should be put in a workhouse to save lives. Their vote meant everything to them. These women knew that the female perspective was lacking in the world and that their vote would change that.

In 1917 many suffragists sought to peacefully protest the neglect President Woodrow Wilson had shown to the women of his country by not supporting them in their right to vote.

After picketing in front of the White House, Alice Paul, the creator and president of The National Woman's party, and 96 other suffragists were arrested and jailed for “obstructing traffic.” This minor offense cost them seven months in jail. They lived in horrible conditions with poor sanitation and infested food. In response to this inhumane treatment, the women went on a hunger strike that led to their being force-fed.

Alice Paul described what this was like:

“Yesterday was a bad day for me in feeding. I was vomiting continuously during the process. The tube has developed an irritation somewhere that is painful. Never was there a sentence like ours for such an offense as ours, even in England. No woman ever got it over there even for tearing down buildings. And during all that agitation we were busy saying that never would such things happen in the United States. The men told us they would not endure such frightfulness.” (Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom - quoting from a scrap of paper which Rose Winslow wrote while imprisoned with Alice Paul - page 190).

When asked about the forced feeding, Paul told an interviewer from American Heritage, "It was shocking that a government of men could look with such extreme contempt on a movement that was asking nothing except such a simple little thing as the right to vote.”

It is fascinating isn’t it? Something that we think so little about now was once so important to the men of this country that they would brutally beat and torture a woman for wanting it. A vote had so much

power that they would do anything to keep it from a woman’s hands.

Our vote carries the same weight today as it did during the suffrage movement. Our vote can have the same impact. Don’t you want a say in your opportunities and your children's opportunities?

This is our vote. Our future. Our choice. Our opportunity. Our America.

But if we don’t show up, we forfeit the opportunity to make a difference.

Show gratitude to the women who so graciously sacrificed so much so that you and I could vote for our future. Don’t take their suffering for granted. Our world is very different today because of these women. Value the vote. Your vote.

“Kaiser Wilson” protest banner, courtesy of the Library of Congress