By Dr. Carmen Schaye, NWPC Vice President of Diversity
In August, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary since the passage of Women’s Suffrage. Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. It is as good a time as any to reflect on the progress that has been made in the hundred years that followed.
Women’s rights activists began building upon the 19th Amendment immediately. In 1923, Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman presented the “Equal Rights Amendment” to Congress. It was designed to legally recognize the equality of the sexes under the United States Constitution.
Today, almost one hundred years later, and with the ERA still awaiting federal ratification, its progress serves as an apt metaphor for the progress of equal rights in this country as a whole.
In 1916, Jeanette Rankin began her term as the first-ever woman elected to Congress. By 1991, some eighty-five years after Rankin’s election, just 2% of Congress was female. In that 85 year period, there was a four-year stretch where no congresswomen served at all (1973 to 1977). For a long time, women weren’t supported or motivated to enter politics. That changed in 1992, with the highly divisive confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in the face of credible sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill. That year saw a significant spike in women standing for office. A record number of them were elected, leading to 1992 being dubbed “The Year of the Woman.”
This exact pattern was repeated in 2018 with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh in the face of similar accusations. Combined with the election of Donald Trump, who faced his own highly credible accusations of sexual assault, women acquired an unprecedented representative gain in Congress. In 2018, the percentage of women serving in Congress jumped to an unprecedented 21%. Just as in 1992, women were galvanized to run for office and today more political power is in female hands than at any previous point in US history.
While celebrating the progress that has been made in congressional representation, let’s not lose sight of what’s happening at the top. On June 23, 2017, President Trump signed the Mexico City policy, better known as the Global Gag Rule. Under this policy, the United States government blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion, and/or expand abortion services. He signed the policy surrounded by his entirely white, male, cabinet. The Yale Political Journal would describe this as “poor optics.” One could read the photo of Trump, posing with a group of older, white men and proudly displaying signed anti-abortion legislation as a clear, smug, reminder to women about who’s in charge, not just of the country, but of their bodies too.
This “reminder” is more than simply symbolic. There are legislative efforts to reign in and reverse the move toward gender equality. This year, Supreme Medical Services vs Gee will be recognized in the Supreme Court. This will bring opportunity for the conservative majority to gut the precedent set by Roe vs Wade, on women’s reproductive rights. Despite all the discussion surrounding “representation,” it is power that talks and women continue to be excluded from its upper corridors.
This progress is neither safe nor irreversible. We stand on the brink of a crucial period in the gender politics of the United States. The Supreme Court is set to re-examine the role of the states in setting abortion legislation and it’s entirely possible that the Roe v Wade precedent may be overturned or seriously undermined. This is happening despite there being more women in office than ever. If this battle is to be won, the emerging generation of women must be kept indignant, motivated and engaged, to avoid the same fate. How can women do this? By becoming engaged in women’s issues, by reaching across party lines to find solutions and most of all, and by electing candidates who champion our cause. If anything can be learned from the fate of the Equal Rights Amendment, it’s that victory in this struggle is far from being “a given.” Let us begin the new year, celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage, by encouraging women to vote and become active in their own emancipation. © Dr. Carmen Schaye
