Today, Sunday, August 26th, marks the 87th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Before 1920, women were not full citizens of the USA - and both my grandmothers were born before 1920.

The movement formally began in 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. This convention was not just about the right to vote, but about the right to be educated, to practice professions, and to own property. As late as the 1960's, a married woman could not have credit in her own name. The university I attended did not admit women until 1970 - why waste a technical education on someone who would only become a mother? Justice Sandra Day O'Connor graduated with honors (3rd of 102) in the same class at Stanford Law School as William Rehnquist, yet could not find private employment as an attorney upon graduation. She was, however, offered a job as a legal secretary. Only the public sector would hire a woman.

In 1915, writer Alice Duer Miller wrote this to counter condescending arguments about why women shouldn't vote:

Why We Don't Want Men to Vote
- Because man's place is in the army.
- Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
- Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
- Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
- Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government.