By Mitch Perry Florida
PUBLISHED 3:18 PM ET Feb. 06, 2020
Spectrum Bay News 9 Political Reporter Mitch Perry is looking for deeper meaning in politics and government so our local stories have more of a connection in your daily life.
TAMPA, Fla. — The 2018 election was touted as the “Year of the Woman” as women ran for office and voted in record numbers, and there are projections that the 2020 election might be an even bigger year for female participation.
- This year marks 100th anniversary of ratification of 19th amendment giving women the right to vote
- Women continue to vote at higher rates than men
- The event’s sponsor, the Athena Society, is working to have Florida pass Equal Rights Amendment
But the conversation at Tampa’s Centre Club on Thursday wasn’t about 2020 – it was about 1920, when women in the U.S. finally won the right to vote after a decades-long quest- and how closely linked it was to the battle to end slavery.
“I wanted to get a sense of who these women were and what they were up against,” said journalist Elaine Weiss, speaking about her book, The Women’s Hour: The Great Fight To Win the Vote. “The woman’s suffrage movement emerged from the abolition movement – the women that we think of as the foremothers – (Elizabeth) Stanton, (Susan B.) Anthony, Lucy Stone, actually begin their careers as abolition workers. They traveled the nation trying to convince Americans that slavery is evil and it should be abolished. And they cut their political teeth as abolitionist workers…they risked their lives to do it.”
“I think so often when we talk about the suffragist movement, it’s looked at as a white women’s movement,” added Gwen Reese, a St. Petersburg based civil rights activist and historian. “And we also don’t talk about the numbers of black women who actually numbered in the millions, after they formed their black women clubs because they were not included in the suffragist organizations, and those women, even though they faced racism, from within the suffragist movement, they never stopped working for women to get the right to vote. “
Weiss said that the abolition and the suffragette movement occurred at the same time, and it ultimately led these two disenfranchised classes – women and blacks – to be pitted against each other.
African-Americans won the right to vote when the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870. Women won the right to vote in 1920.
Weiss said that it was “heartbreaking” for Frederick Douglas, a leader of the abolitionist movement, whenhe had to explain to his colleagues in the women rights’ movement that it was “not the woman’s hour…the woman’s hour must wait.”
Weiss’ book is being made into a miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg adn Hillary Clinton.
Moderating the discussion was Lynn Yeakel, the director of the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership at Drexel University’s College of Medicine.
Moving back to contemporary times, it was noted during the discussion that women vote at higher rates than men. The Pew Research Center has found that women have turned out to vote at slightly higher rates than men going on for twenty years.
Thursday’s event was sponsored by the Athena Society, the Tampa Bay area organization formed in the 1970s to promote equality and opportunity for all women. The group is activitely pushing for the Florida Legislature to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Recently, the Virginia Legislature became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, the mininum of states required to be added to the U.S. Constitution.
An attorney in the U.S. Justice Department recently opined, however, that since the two deadlines lapsed decades ago, it’s now too late for additional states to be added to the ratification list.