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And what was it that triggered off the movement . An interesting question. The traditional date we look at is 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention for womens rights. In truth, it started a little bit earlier than that with women who were interested in the Abolitionist Movement that were excluded from inventions in london and elsewhere deciding that they also thought it was important for women to talk about their own rights. And in fact, the question of the right to vote in 1848 was probably of the many items on the agenda was the most controversial. It was a very close vote. People were women at the convention were more focused on other aspects of womens rights at the time but that really is the date that we highlight as the start of the womens movement. What is happening in other countries at this time . To start i would say it is important to note that women in new jersey voted from 1776 until about 1807. Women in at least part of the United States had a right to vote. It was taken away as the constitution was revised. In point of fact, the first country to give women the right to vote to was new zealand and that was in 1893. Much earlier than in the United States. Although 1890 is the first date in giving women the right to vote. The u. S. Was not the earliest of the countries to give women the right to vote but it was also not particularly late. In addition to new zealand, finland was early in 1906. At the other end, you have some countries that are surprisingly late. Switzerland for example did not give women the right to vote until 1971. What are some of the tactics that the women are using over the decades to get the 19th amendment passed and ratified . There are a myriad of tactics used. Probably the most important to mention though is the use of the exclusion, segregation of africanamerican women from the Suffrage Movement and ignoring the aspect of american of africanamericans womens rights to vote. That was important to Convincing Congress to pass the 19th amendment. But what it did mean was that when the 19th amendment to the past, it only enfranchised a portion of women. Not all women. If we speak about the 100 years, we have to take a realistic look at what the 19th amendment did and did not do. One of the tactics was to use racism as a tactic in terms of getting the right to vote. There were other tactics also that were important. One of the interesting things from my perspective is that women were some of the first groups to lobby effectively and efficiently congress in a way that we think about lobbying today. So that the National Womens party kept a very extensive card catalog of every member of congress that recorded who they were, what their interests were, when they were visited. They were visited regularly by a constituent. They would be lobbied extensively. Whenever a vote came up, they would go to the card catalog and revisit every congressperson that was important to the vote. And then the last tactic that is worth talking about is the use of making sure that you publicize the importance of women getting the vote. And that really happened in a series of suffrage parades, ticketing picketing the white house. These sorts of tactics that we see social media used for today 1913 suffrage parade. It occurred around the inauguration of the Woodrow Wilson. It occurred the day before as woodrow was arriving in washington, d. C. In point of fact, it was such a large suffrage parade and also there was a lot of violence by bystanders. That overshadowed Woodrow Wilsons inauguration. The interaction between the women marching and the parade goers is what makes headlines. Does it help their cause . Certainly alice paul, the head of the National Womens party, she thought it did. What it certainly does is raise in the consciousness of all citizens the fact that this is a concern an issue of women. Certainly the violence that occurred in the parade made people think about women and the protections they needed. In this sense that violence could happen to a set of women walking peacefully through the streets. That really raised consciousness in an important way. You mentioned picketing outside of the white house. The arrest of these women, they were held in prison, and some decide to do a hunger strike. And then they are force fed. What do you think the impact of learning about that was on the american conscious . It certainly brought the public to a position of opposition against not only the local leaders who had arrested women but also put pressure on Woodrow Wilson in terms of supporting the right to vote. The necklace im wearing today is actually a commemoration of that. When women came out of prison, they were given something with a piece of the jail door on it. To remind them. Who came up with the idea of the pin . The National Womens party. That was their way of commemorating it as the women came out. What were the expectations once the 19th amendment was passed and ratified, what were the expectations of these female voters . There were a lot of debates. The first question was what they even bother to register and turn out to vote . Certainly, there were people that argued they would be uninformed voters and they would not be interested in politics. That they would simply follow their husbands in terms of voting. On the other hand, in 1920 others noted a real interest in women voting so the st. Paul newspaper for example in 1920 wrote a whole article about how women were going to register to vote and how important that was. The second question was how they would vote. What would they do when they walked into the voting booth. There was an expectation or one was that they would follow the progressive movement. There were prominent women activists, jane addams, lauren kelly, they were part of that movement. They supported a lot of progressive causes. Political parties were hoping to incorporate women and women would vote the same way their husbands did. Early on, they organized womens divisions and try to bring women into the party. And what was the outcome . It is hard to say because we do not know what women did in the voting booth. We had the secret ballot. There have been some political scientists who have tried to estimate what the womens vote was based on a statistical analysis. Mostly they have uncovered is really not much different from men in the early elections. Women were not the progressive voters that many politicians thought they would be but they did vote with a regular party. When could women go from being voters to participating in politics . And then running for office themselves . I would argue women were participating in politics from the very beginning but not necessarily in the electoral politics that we think of. Women ran for office really early. Elizabeth caddy staton ran for office. She only got 12 votes. The first woman to run for president was victoria woodhall four years later in 1870 two. Women candidates were there from the very beginning. What you do see is that the number of women in Clinical Office rose very slowly after the 19th amendment. If we look at just where women served in state legislatures or where they served in congress, even as late as the 1940s, you only have 1. 5 of state legislatures and 1. 5 of congress being women. What that averages out to is in your local state legislature, it there would be three women on average in the state legislature and that is both houses. It is really not until 1970 that you see the first jump in women serving in political office. In the 1970s you see women entering state legislatures in bigger numbers for the first time and it is not until 1990 that you see the first real job in women entering into congress. Sadly, even with those numbers come youre talking about not that large of a percent. If you look worldwide, the u. S. Really does not look very good in terms of womens representation at the national or local level. We rank 78th in terms of womens representation. What do you think the legacy of the 19th amendment is for different ethnic groups . Who were the leaders for womens rights in those different groups . One legacy of the 19th amendment for africanamerican women and for latino women was that they still had to fight for the right to vote. And so, in some senses, you see white women saying we are done. We have the vote. Now, we will focus on other issues. But for africanamerican women, that was not true. And so to the 19 30s, 1940s, 1950s, africanamerican women are still fighting for the right to vote. In many had been active in the Suffrage Movement. I was talking with a colleague before i came here about local women in pennsylvania. One of the interesting things is we focus on those we know the best but there were a lot of women all over the country fighting for the right to vote. In pittsburgh, there was Daisy Elizabeth Adams Lampkin who in 1950 formed the equal and continue to fight for the right to vote for the 1920s, 19 30s, and 1940s. All the way for the civil rights movement. All around the country there are stories like that of women who have not been recognized in our history books because they have either been not part of the traditional story we tell or who were fighting at the local level. One of the things i hope is this 100th anniversary will allow us to celebrate them and take into those who were a part of the movement wherever they lived. There are many opportunities as the celebration occurs for groups to explore their own history and to see those women who may not have been written into the history books but were nonetheless really important in the right to vote. What do you think the Lasting Legacy of the 19th amendment is . There are a lot. I certainly think we need to recognize that much of our Politics Today feeds back to the way the Suffrage Movement worked and the battles that were fought then. And i do think, for example, the importance of race continually in our politics and the way it plays out in the current womens movement, looks back to that legacy of what happened in the Suffrage Movement. I also think that is the one i would stick with. Thinking back on your research of these women, what do you think their reaction would be to the amount of women that ran and won in the 2018 election cycle, having a female speaker of the house for the second time, and right now as we talk, four women running for president . On the one hand, i think they would say this is what we fought so hard for. But also with a word of caution. 100 years is a long time the battle of suffrage was 70 years. And to know that even at this point, women are still underrepresented in those venues. That would be a note of caution. Thank you. My pleasure. You are watching American History tv, covering history cspanstyle with event coverage, archival films, lectures in college classrooms, visits to museums. All weekend, every weekend on cspan three. A visit to the Smithsonians National portrait gallery. Historian gives American History tv a guided tour of an exhibit marking the centennial of the 19th amendment. Using images of early suffrage leaders, she shows how the movement intersected with the abolitionists and temperance movements. This is the first of a twopart program. Buckham to the National Portrait gallery at the smithsonian welcome to the National Portrait gallery at this missoni and. Smithsonian. For this

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