One Hundred Years of Attitude

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One hundred years ago it was April, 1910. Things were different for women. We had different roles, different wardrobes; our bodies were thought of less as strong, magnificent homes for our incredibly vibrant spirits and more as property and worthwhile based on our ability to birth healthy offspring.

The suffrage movement gained a victory in Washington in November of 1910, causing male voters to enfranchise women in and allow them the opportunity to vote.

The newness, of women's right to vote and the fight behind it, is poignantly evident in the following paragraph written by Missouri Hanna, a politically active journalist in 1910:

“It is argued that, given the ballot, women will cease to care for the home, leave the meals uncooked, the children uncared for, the buttons strewn while she rushes off to vote. As it only takes about two minutes to perform the function of voting none of the above calamities are likely to happen. We venture to guess that the enfranchised woman can cook and serve a delicious dinner, sew on the buttons, and kiss away the children’s tears with the same degree of success and womanliness that she can stand and hang to a strap in the crowded street car while her brother man sits comfortably, reads his paper contentedly and puffs tobacco smoke in her face, serenely oblivious of her presence.”

(http://www.snocoheritage.org/wlp_46_Suffrage.html)

As we look around us at the wonderful successes we have achieved as women; most of us looking at college and higher education for girls as a given with the proper resources, let us not forget our foremothers and the One Hundred Years Of Attitude that have shaped our development, our maturity, and our journey to find our freedom.

Aimee Boyle is a mother, voter and freelance writer in CT.

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