Once upon a time, August 26th, 1920, to be exact, American women earned the right to vote. And I and all women of today stand on their shoulders, enjoying the benefits of their long, painful efforts.
Here's what CNN says about this moment in history/herstory:
On August 26, 1920, the United States took a giant democratic leap when Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving millions of American women the right to vote for the first time in the nation's history.
. . .
Men dominated America's culture and power structure. Most women were not encouraged to attend college or to build a professional career, but rather they were urged to marry young, bear children and maintain the family home.
The very idea of allowing women the right to vote -- a drastic reform, with females making up roughly half the U.S. population -- was unthinkable to many American men, as well as many women.
Such strict social parameters contributed to the struggles of the American women's movement, which many trace to the 1848 Seneca Falls women's rights convention in upstate New York.
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"Their clashes [with police] and their cooperation [with one another] and the use of nonviolent civil disobedience like chaining themselves to the White House fence and embarrassing the president" did much to win women the right to vote, according to National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy.
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Eventually, [President Woodrow] Wilson publicly came out in support of a constitutional amendment, giving it increased national momentum. On June 4, 1919, Congress approved the amendment, sending it to the individual states.
The draft read: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex."
On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was approved by Tennessee, the 36th and final state needed for ratification. It became the law of the land eight days later.
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Now, at the beginning of a new century, NOW's Gandy believes more efforts are needed to further gender equality.
"Women don't even have equal treatment when it comes to filing a lawsuit for discrimination," Gandy said.
As an example, she said defendants who lose a racial discrimination suit could be ordered to pay a financial penalty that isn't limited by federal law. But in a sexual discrimination suit, "there's a cap on what you can recover, no matter how great your suffering or loss has been," Gandy said.
Gandy also said more must be done to even the so-called national income gender gap. On the average, American women who work full time year-around continue to be paid less than men with comparable jobs and schedules -- 73 cents for every dollar men earn in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
"That could not be explained by anything other than plain, old-fashioned sex discrimination," Gandy said.
In addition, Gandy complains that schools do not sufficiently emphasize the history of the women's rights movement.
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