100 years ago, I could not vote.
100 years ago, I could not be writing this piece celebrating my ability to vote.
100 years ago, I could not even wear pants while doing so.
On January 16th, 1920, Indiana ratified the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote and legally participate in their representative democracy for the first time. The advocacy efforts of suffragists such as Robert Dale Owens, founder of the New Harmony utopian society, and organizations such as the Women’s Franchise League of Indiana, among countless other pioneering women and men, helped shape history. Although the amendment was nationally ratified on August 26th, 1920, and it wasn’t until September of 1921 that Hoosier women were able to vote at the state level, January 16th, marks the suffrage centennial in Indiana and is certainly a day worth commemorating.
However, not all women achieved the same voting status at once. Women of color were not fully franchised until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Variances in voting and voter ID laws between different states result in many women today who are still ineligible to vote. It is critically important not to whitewash the history of the suffrage movement in the United States. Black and brown women were usually pushed to the margins of marches, their voices suppressed at speeches and rallies. Their stories and struggles are still not the ones focused on today, a century later when the common viewpoint of the woman’s suffrage movement remains one centered around the organized involvement of white, upper and middle class women. The ways in which we record and recall events, even through a medium as seemingly simple as this personal narrative, influences the ways in which we shape our future. I write this recognizing that although this is a date and occurrence to celebrate, it is more so one to commemorate. We should take pride in past womens’ accomplishments while also acknowledging the frequent prejudices of movement members and the effects of institutionalized racism, cultural sexism, and participation inequality on voting rights today.
So how can we come together and discuss these points of pride, privilege, and progress? This Thursday, the Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) program will be hosting a special event honoring the work of Hoosier suffragists, educating students on the significance of this date in history, and opening up conversations on where we (as women, as students, as voters, and as a society) need to move forward. There is still work to be done. Not all women are able to vote, both here and across the globe. Barriers exist throughout every election cycle restricting who gets to go to the polls. I am excited to help bring this event to folks and increase all of our understanding of the suffrage centennial. PACE seeks to foster “conversation cafes” –brief, informal discussions open to anyone– and hear how students and community members think and feel on this commemorative centennial. Join us this Thursday, January 16th, from 12:30-3:00 pm in the lounge and atrium of the Hamilton-Lugar School. In addition to a welcoming space for free speech and open conversation, we will have cookies, special edition stickers, bookmarks, and informative handouts on the significance of this day. I hope to talk with many of you (yes, readers, you!) and hear your perspective on women’s role in our democracy, past, present, and future.
There’s one question I have yet to answer: why commemorate at all? For me, Thursday’s event is an opportunity to learn about Indiana’s history within the movement, to join others in this process, and to brainstorm further areas of involvement. I take my right to vote for granted, so much so that I rarely think about the privilege I hold and the fierce struggle women before me took on. It’s been 100 years. Continue the goals set by your great-great grandmothers more than a century ago and exercise your right to vote!
Josephine McCormick
Student Ambassador, Political and Civic Engagement (PACE)
Nonprofit Management and Leadership BSPA, O’Neill School
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