By Kris Porter

August 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. Although I am a strong advocate for voting, I really didn’t know much about the history of women’s fight for this constitutional amendment, so I did some research.

I did some research not just for my own interest, but because I’ve heard people say they aren’t going to vote because they don’t like either candidate. This always rubs me the wrong way.

Here is why I think you should vote, especially if you are a woman.

It took 73 years for women to win the right to vote. Need more? OK.

Originally, New Jersey was the only state of the original 13 colonies to allow women to vote, but rescinded it in 1807.

Then in 1848, a group of women held the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. They drafted a Declaration of Sentiments modeled after the Declaration of Independence seeking rights such as the right to own land, earn wages, go to college, be able to have custody of their children in a divorce, participate in public church affairs, and vote. There were 68 women who signed the declaration and 32 men, but several withdrew because of public scrutiny.

Progress was made over the next 65 years. Some states in the west opened voting to women, but in most of the country, it was still a dream.

By March 1913, a group of suffragists were getting impatient and led a group of 5,000 to 10,000 women in a protest in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. In his opinion, it was a state issue and not a federal one, therefore no federal amendment to the constitution was needed.

Protests continued at the White House. World War I began in 1914, and the U.S. entered the war on April 6, 1917. People considered the idea of protesting to be unpatriotic, but a group of women continued their daily protests in front of the White House anyway.

They were harassed, arrested, jailed, and on Nov. 14, 1917, beaten. It was called the “Night of Terror.” On that night, 33 women, who had been arrested for picketing at the White House and jailed were beaten by the guards at the Occoquan Workhouse.

In an account published by Doris Stevens, Mary Nolan, 73, and the oldest of the prisoners, said, “The two men handling her (suffragist Dorothy Day and future founder of the Catholic Worker Movement) were twisting her arms above her head. Then suddenly they lifted her up and banged her down over the arm of an iron bench - twice.”

Another suffragist, Dora Lewis, “lost consciousness after her head was smashed into an iron bed.”

These women truly suffered for what they believed in.

Public sentiment began to change in favor of the suffragists, and the war ended a year later on Nov. 11, 1918.

Nearly two years later on Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment that made it possible for women to have the right to vote. This also meant that there were enough states supporting women’s right to vote and it could finally become a federal law. On Aug. 26, 1920, the ratification creating the 19th Amendment was certified and all women in America could vote.

My maternal grandmother was 20 years old, and my paternal grandmother was 25 on that day. My mother is gone, but my father is still alive, and I asked him what voting meant to his mother. She was gone before I could really know her.

He told me she cherished it, and voted in every election. She even went on to get involved in local political matters. I’m so proud of all of the women who have broken barriers for future generations. I appreciate their sacrifices, as well as the courage of the men who stepped forward and agreed women are equal.