I salute you Susan B. Anthony. I salute you and all your fellow suffragettes. 90 years ago today, the 19th Amendment was passed, allowing all women to vote in the United States of America.
I don’t consider myself a feminist. At least not in the traditional or cliched vision of it. I am all in favor of shaving and wearing a bra. I do believe in Gloria Steinem. I believe in equality more than superiority. Race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, hair cut. We should all be afforded the same rights. And while we most decidedly and definitely are not (I’m talking to you California), 90 years ago a big step was made.
For the first time, women were acknowledged as having a right to be involved in this country. While the USA is still inherently a patriarchal society, whether we’d like to admit it or not, I am thrilled to be able to have my voice heard.
It may have taken 90 years, but it is because of Women’s Suffrage that the political landscape has widened.
Take a look at women in this country in recent years. Madeline Albright. Hilary Clinton. Sarah Palin. Now before you jump down my throat or out a window in distress about including Sarah Palin in that list, let me explain. These women have made headway for women in politics. Madeline Albright was (and is) brilliant. The latter two changed the United States presidential political process. No, they didn’t win, but they got closer than any woman has before.
The sad thing about this, that I must add, is that so many other countries have been led by women. Israel. Great Britain. Germany. It bothers me that Americans will hail this country as progressive and open and a superpower – but how can we socially be so far behind so many countries?
So while I am thrilled to have the right to vote, I can only hope that at some point in the not so distant future, our country will fully and completely enter the 21st century.
But to all the women I know, the suffragettes of 90 years ago still make me proud to be a woman.
Notes of Cheerful Calamity 