Thursday, August 18, 2016
96 Years of Voting Rights
72
years after the convention at Seneca Falls and 96 years ago from today, the
Nineteenth Amendment became a part of the US Constitution due to the tireless
demonstrating, writing, lobbying and general hell-raising by suffragettes.
Suffrage
efforts were often focused on state and local government, with many states granting women suffrage well before the
Nineteenth Amendment. This was not the case in Massachusetts, which
overwhelmingly voted against women’s suffrage; first in the State House of
Representatives in 1869 and then again in a 1895 statewide, non-binding
referendum. Women were able to vote in the referendum, though they only made up
24,000 out of 600,000 eligible voters. Predictably, 96% of Massachusetts women
voted in favor of female suffrage while only 32% of men did the same. However,
there was a longstanding tradition of Massachusetts women being able to vote on
issues related to schools and there are records of women voting on issues of
bonds and taxes as well.
By
1919, women could vote for president in 27 states, making up 61% of the electoral college. Congressmen from
these states became supporters of a constitutional amendment for national women’s
suffrage, although many in the general public were still opposed. Many saw
suffragettes as bitter, ugly women who renounced domestic work
and wanted to subordinate men. On May 21, 1919, a
proposed Nineteenth Amendment, strongly supported by President Wilson, passed
the US House of Representatives. A few weeks later, it was passed in the
Senate. Within a few days, state legislatures began ratifying the amendment. Massachusetts
was the eighth state to approve the amendment, ratifying it on June 25, 1919. Tennessee was the last state to pass the amendment,
narrowly approving the amendment during a special session right before the
ratification period was to expire.
In November of that year, more than 8 million women across the
US voted in elections for the first time. It took 64 years for the remaining 12
states to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment with Mississippi was the last to do
so in 1984. Though ratification was not necessary, it was an important symbolic
gesture stating that the states supported the women’s suffrage movement.
However,
terming it the “women’s” movement can be fairly misleading, as it was
predominantly concerned with the voting rights of white women. Female
suffragettes were divided over granting voting rights to black men. While many
supported the measures, a large number, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton, thought that white women’s
civil rights were more important and should come first. This attitude continued
into the 20th century, with the most prominent women’s suffrage organization,
the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA), explicitly
excluding black women from its membership to gain the support of southern
women.
Even
after the passage of the 19th amendment, many women of color were barred from
voting. People born in India, China or Japan did not
gain the possibility of citizenship or the right to vote until the 1940s. The
last state laws prohibiting Native Americans from voting were not
overturned until 1948. Literacy tests and poll taxes in the south
kept many black people from voting until well into the 1960s. Many “language minorities”, including Hispanic,
Asian and indigenous communities, were unable to vote until the 1975 extension
of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which mandated that election materials must be
available in multiple languages.
Even
though the barriers to voting remained insurmountable for many women, the Nineteenth
Amendment was a major victory. Not only did it grant a fundamental civil right
to women, it brought about the first wave of feminist consciousness in
America and has since influenced feminist activism. Female participation in
politics has been steadily growing and in 2012, 60% of voters were women. In this
election cycle, the votes of women will be key: studies have shown that
when women run for office, more
women turn out to vote. This shows the power that women have, not
only as voters but also as leaders. Today, we celebrate 96 years of making
history-- here’s to many, many more!
---
Sarah, MWPC Intern
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
What Eric and Donald Trump Get Wrong About Sexual Harassment
The
issue of workplace sexual harassment has made its way to the forefront of
election issues with the slew of recent allegations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. In an interview with NBC,
Trump gave his (predictably sexist) take: “some of the women that are
complaining, I know how much [Ailes has] helped them…[N]ow, all of a sudden,
they're saying all these horrible things about him.”
What
Trump fails to recognize is that victims of abuse are often forced to maintain
good relationships with
their abusers, especially when the abuser is in a position of power. The
accusations of the alleged victims are not “sudden”; rather, most of them no
longer work at Fox (with many arguing they were fired in retaliation for refusing further sexual advances).
Because they no longer need to choose between career advancement and personal
safety, they are better able to speak out about their experiences.
Unfortunately,
larger societal stigma still lingers. Public reactions to incidents of sexual
harassment and assault are often mixed, with many people believing that the
victim somehow is to blame. Harassers, on the other hand, usually walk away
with little consequence and no incentive to change their behavior. This is
epitomized in Eric Trump’s remarks on his
father’s comment: “There is no question that obviously [sexual harassment]
should be addressed, and it should be addressed strongly,” he said. Then he
added that his sister, Ivanka, “is a strong, you know, powerful woman,” and “I
don’t think she would allow herself to be subjected to [sexual harassment].”
The corollary of Eric Trump’s statement is that it is the victim’s, not the
harasser’s, responsibility to stop sexual harassment.
Ivanka
Trump, who responded to a question about her father’s comments on Tuesday by
denouncing harassment of any kind as “inexcusable,” is no doubt a strong and
powerful woman. Unfortunately, that does not make her impervious to
inappropriate behavior. In her 2009 book, The
Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, she describes her “recurring nightmare[s]” after
being cat-called by workers at her father’s construction sites. She faced a
“no-win situation,” she wrote. “If I ignored the inappropriate remarks, I might
come across as weak. If I responded too harshly, I’d be a tightly wound witch.”
Eric Trump’s logic (or lack thereof) was
echoed by Donald Trump. He remarked that if Ivanka were sexually harassed in
the workplace, “I would like to think she would find another career or find
another company.” In other words, a victim of harassment must sacrifice his or
her career in order to find the workplace safety that is guaranteed by Title
VII of the 1964 Equal Rights Act.
Besides
the fact that Trump Sr.’s plan further places a burden on victims, it is simply
not an option for most women, especially those in low-wage jobs. In a study of
1,200 low-income workers in the Greater Boston area, 26 percent of women and 22
percent of men reported experiencing sexual harassment. Even this likely
undercounts the number of incidents; 60 percent of workers who
experienced harassment said they never reported it. However, many said that
they chose to stay at their jobs and/or not report harassment for financial
reasons.
Trump’s
approach to workplace harassment is predictably Trump-esque. Rather than having
a comprehensive policy plan, he “says what he thinks” and
then moves on without really addressing the issue at hand. It is precisely this
lack of discussion that results in workplaces where harassment is the
disappointing norm.
-- Sarah, MWPC Intern
-- Sarah, MWPC Intern
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