SUFFRAGIST NOWADAYS

Despite of the fact that all the events we have mentioned in our posts had occurred several years ago, we can even find that the Suffragist are present nowadays in our lives:

1.   Today’s Google Doodle is suffragist Alice Paul

“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.” — Alice Paul

On January 11th, 2016 anyone who entered in Google saw this particular Doodle. And some of you could think: Who is she and why Google want to remember her? 

She is Alice Paul, a New Jersey-born feminist, suffragist and political strategist and it would be her 131st birthday.

Google wanted to honor this powerful women because she dedicated her life to fighting for the equality of women. In addition, she authored the very first version of the Equal Rights Amendment, a document which guaranteed the equal rights for women. 

As her as an example, we can see that the job, the effort and the sacrifice of the Suffragist were not a waste of time. Suffragist have changed the history and the point of view of the society. 

     2. Feminism

Suffragist started to fight for the equality between women and men, but nowadays, we find that this principal aspect has evolved into the “feminism”.

Feminism consists of defining, establishing, and achieving equal political, economic, personal, and social rights for women, but also for men.

Nevertheless, feminism has followed two different ways: positive and negative.

On the one hand, there are women who just want to get the equality between women and men and to be accepted by the society, but on the other hand, there are women more radical that exceed the limits until let men in a low place.

Let's move on now to some important people who are fighting for the gender equality:

EMMA WATSON

 

All we know this woman by her interpretation of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.

However, she has become a very influential person in the society nowadays owing to her speech in front of the United Nations introducing a new initiative for gender equality: feminism is not only a fight for women but also for men to join in.

As a consequence, she started the #HeForShe movement in order to invite men and boys to build on the work of the women’s movement as equal partners, crafting and implementing a shared vision of gender equality that will benefit all of humanity.Thanks to this, she was appointed as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador of UN Women.

Moreover, HeForShe helps the UN Women’s work across its strategic pillars.

1)    ACCELERATING WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

2)    ADVANCING WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION & LEADERSHIP

3)    SUPPORTING WOMEN’S ROLE IN PEACE & SECURITY

4)    ELIMINATING GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Some important actors have shown their support to this movement as we can see in these photos:

Matthew Lewis

 Ben Barnes

Origin of the HeForShe symbol

           

The HeForShe logo unites traditional icons of gender to create a new symbol for the shared humanity. Its dynamic shape and strong contrast remind us what’s possible when unique individuals stand together for the benefit of all.

More projects

Moreover, Emma has established her own feminist book club called “Our Shared Shelf”, addressed to anyone who wants to join it. (http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/179584-our-shared-shelf)

She was inspired by many books and essays about equality that she took for her work in the UN Women and she found inspiring facts that she would to share with everybody.

Every month, it is recommended a book to read and then, people can discuss and propose questions for others to express their feelings and opinions.

This initiative started with the lecture of the book My life on the Road written by Gloria Steinem— writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world— in which she reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality. 

This type of projects contribute to people understand the importance of the gender equality and the fact of having the same opportunity in our society without discriminating anyone as well.

ELLEN DEGENERES

One of the biggest feminist figure nowadays is the famous Ellen DeGeneres, an American comedian, television hostess, actress, writer, producer and mainly a women’s right activist.

 But she has been not only a women defensor, but also an outspoken LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). She try to show people the power of the individual, that  everyone can get wherever if they fight hard for it. And because of who she is, she shows the world she is a strong feminist who will get their dreams.

For the last 12-year, Ellen has used her public platform and her program (The Ellen DeGeneres Show) to highlight inequality and to create space to discuss about this thematic. In addition, in her programme she always speak about the power of women and about differences between women and men.

One of the most Ellen’s remarkable example is the famous “Pen for her” (a product lanced by Big): in one of the shows, Ellen explain the strange new line of Big. They lanced a kind of pen just for ladies, what made Ellen to be surprise because “we have always used pen for men !”

With this example, Ellen want to show the reality nowadays, and that even now, people try to put a wall between women and men. And It's for that she use an ironic voice to present the product to the public:

This is totally real. They're pens just for ladies. I know what you're thinking. It's about damn time. Where have our pens been? Can you believe this? We've been using man pens all these years. Blech.They come in both lady colors, pink and purple, and they're just like regular pens, except they're pink so they cost twice as much. That is absolutely true as well.

As we can see, suffragist were and are everywhere and still nowadays are remembered. Thanks to the work of the women today, no matter from the country they come from (USA, UK,...), our society is getting more aware of this important topic: gender equality.

REFERENCES:

http://feministing.com/2012/10/15/ellen-degeneres-endorses-bic-for-her-pens/

http://forwomen.org/ellen-degeneres-2015-feminist-celebrity-nominee/

http://www.upworthy.com/boom-roasted-heres-why-you-dont-ask-a-feminist-to-hawk-your-sexist-product

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/g4201/famous-feminists-throughout-history/?

http://www.heforshe.org/en

(http://www.heforshe.org/~/media/heforshe/files/our%20mission/heforshe_overview_brief.pdf) 

(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15451058-my-life-on-the-road)

THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTION

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman"

The planning:

 Lucretia and James Mott visited central and western New York in the summer of 1848 for a number of reasons, including visiting the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation and former slaves living in the province of Ontario, Canada. They also visited Lucretia's sister Martha Coffin Wright in Auburn, NY, where Mott also preached to prisoners at the Auburn State Penitentiary. Lucretia Mott's skill and fame as an orator drew crowds wherever she went.

News report with different reactions:

Local newspapers printed reports of the convention, some positive, others not.

•           The National Reformer reported that the convention "forms an era in the progress of the age; it being the first convention of the kind ever held—Social, Civil and political.
•            The Oneida Whig did not approve of the convention, writing of the Declaration: "This bolt is the most shocking and unnatural incident ever recorded in the history of womanity. If our ladies will insist on voting and legislating, where, gentleman, will be our dinners and our elbows? Where our domestic firesides and the holes in our stockings?

The National Reformer

Soon, newspapers across the country picked up the story. Reactions varied widely.

•            In Massachusetts, the Lowell Courier published its opinion that, with women's equality, "the lords must wash the dishes, scour up, be put to the tub, handle the broom, darn stockings."
•           In St. Louis, Missouri, the Daily Reveille trumpeted that "the flag of independence has been hoisted for the second time on this side of the Atlantic."
•          Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune wrote "When a sincere republican is asked to say in sober earnest what adequate reason he can give, for refusing the demand of women to an equal participation with men in political rights, he must answer, None at all. However unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right, and such must be conceded."

Religious reaction

Some of the ministers attended the Seneca Falls Convention, but none spoke out during the sessions, not even when comments from the floor were invited. On Sunday, July 23, many who had attended attacked the Convention, the Declaration of Sentiments, and the resolutions. Women in the congregations reported to Stanton, who saw the actions of the ministers as cowardly.

Bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=seneca+falls+lucretia+and+james+mott&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiV4LDqwczMAhVCqxoKHaRuBgMQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=F6UCKN1wY4uqdM%3A

USA Suffrage Literature

April 23rd is a very important day for the literature world. This day is known as International Day of the Book or World Book Days, a yearly event on April 23rd, organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. In adition, it's the day in which each country commemorate their best writters.

Because of this, we want to present the USA suffrage literature because this was also an important way to fight for their rights and show the female power education. Furthermore, an astonishing number of canonical and popular US writers voiced their support of woman suffrage through literary works. 

Between the  most important figures, we can mention:

 Fanny Fern, for example, wrote pro-suffrage essays such as “Independence” and “Shall Women Vote?”. 

 - Harriet Beecher Stowe published serialized fiction such as "My Wife and I" and fictional dialogues such as "The Chimney Corner" that expressed moderate support for suffrage. 

Louisa May Alcott and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps authored suffrage literature for children. 

Twentieth-century authors Gertrude Atherton, Mary Johnston, Zona Gale, Edna Ferber, and Mary Austin all wrote novels that describe aspects of American suffrage in moving detail.

 

Even avant-gardist Gertrude Stein considered the suffrage theme when she wrote an opera libretto memorializing Susan B. Anthony, The Mother of Us All twenty-five years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In addition to these more canonical figures, many popular writers–sensation novelist Lillie Devereux Blake, satirical poet Alice Duer Miller, and Western writer Abigail Scott Duniway–also made significant contributions to the suffrage literary tradition.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SUFFRAGE LITERATURE:

 Fern, Fanny. Ruth Hall and Other Writings. Ed. Joyce Warren. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1986.

—-. “A Divided Republic: An Allegory of the Future,” in A Daring Experiment and Other Stories. New York: Lovell, Coryell, 1892:  346–60.

Duniway,Abigail Scott. Edna and John [1876]. Reprint, Pullman: Washington State University Press, 2000.

Ferber, Edna. Fanny Herself. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917

BIBLIOGRAPHIE:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Book_Day#Spain
- http://womensuffrage.org/?p=529

AIN'T I A WOMAN?

If we are talking about women who fought for having rights and being as free as men were, we have to talk about Sojourner Truth too. 

That name makes us suspect something: 

- “sojourner” means “someone who stays temporarily” and combined with the word “truth” makes us imagine that it is “a woman who had temporarily the truth”. 

Sojourner Truth not only claimed rights of African Americans, but she also stood up for women's equality.

White and black women working together was an uneasy mix. Historically talking, it was a very difficult situation. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), started demeaning African American women. It cause was focused on enfranchisement for white women. So it started an emerging “Anti-Black” sense.  

The main goal of NAWSA's movement was to marginalize as many African-American women as possible. 

Through this effort African American women developed the idea of the "educated suffragist”, which meant that being educated was a requisite for being allowed to vote. 

At first, African - American female activists organized themselves creating the African - American Suffrage Movement.The women's suffrage movement began with women such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Ella Baker, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, and many others.

After the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, women both in the North and in the South started voting. Because of white people’s fears of black ones having political power, black women faced a lot of difficulties to vote until the 1960s.

Her innumerable speeches asking for both women’s rights and freedom of slavery, made her a particular personality in American history.

Sojourner Truth was born as slave in New York, called Isabella Baumfree. This woman continued her journey going to Florence, Massachusetts, where is still remembered today by a statue in her honor. 

There, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry looking for justice and improvement of society. 

Living in that town, she met the famous William Lloyd Garrison (who became a friend of her), and with other leaders, they achieved founding the antislavery resistance center. 

Sojourner also met Olive Gilbert who wrote The Narrative of Sojourner Truth. 

Before dying in Michigan in 1883, she met other important person and was photographed with him in a very controversial picture because of the disposition of them in the photo. This person was Abraham Lincoln, former President of the United States. 

In the picture, we show here, we can see a black woman who is sitting and a white President who remains standing next to her. 

During the 1840s, this courageous woman was involved in the antislavery movement, and by the 1850s she was also involved in the woman’s rights movement. Her most famous speech took place in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. It was called: “Ain’t I a Woman?”

This spontaneous speech is one of the most well-known ones that remains in the American and World history. 

She was known as an outspoken feminist and antislavery fighter. She could be proud, because she is still remembered by many people as an inspiring woman.

Many newspapers published this speech in different versions, but the most known one is the following: 

http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp

A lot of famous women have read her speech since years. Here, we have a well-known face, reading this famous speech: Kerry Washington

We really recommend that you listen to this touching speech. So funny and amazing!

She also has a bust in the Capitol of WDC. Here we can see an imagen of the actual First Lady: Michelle Obama, gazing at this bust. She is the first African-American woman to have a memorial bust in the U.S. Capitol.

DOCUMENTARY: WHO WAS SOJOURNER TRUTH 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92bR2S2HoS0

BOOK: SOJOURNER TRUTH: A LIFE, A SYMBOL by Nell Irvin Painter 

BOOK: Gilbert, Olive.  NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH: A NORTHERN SLAVE, EMANCIPATED FROM BODILY SERVITUDE BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK, IN 1828

More information in the bibliography:

https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/sojourner-truth.htm

http://www.biography.com/people/sojourner-truth-9511284#synopsis

http://sojournertruthmemorial.org/sojourner-truth/her-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_woman_suffrage_movement

http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/TWR-16.html

Iron Jawed Angels

We have seen that the suffragist movement had left a deep mark in history. For this reason, the suffragist movement has been the topic of many creations in the world of art such as films, books and so on. However, in this section, we are going to focus on one film which created diverse critical responses and told such important event during the American Suffragist Movement in 1910: Iron Jawed Angels (2004).

The film tells the story of two suffragists: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns recognized by the fact of using peaceful and effective nonviolent strategies and dialogues to make the American feminist movement conscious of the importance of their fight in order to get the right to vote. We are going to comment on diverse important aspects:

Firstly, one aspect that we have to mention and explain it is the fact that they were the founders of a new group of suffragist: National Woman’s Party (NWP), after being pushed out of the NAWSA (National American Woman’s Suffrage Association).

The National Woman’s Party gave the priority to the passage of a Constitutional Amendment ensuring women’s suffrage. Paul and Burns learned a lot from the suffragettes in Britain. For instance, in relation to the violence, the suffragettes used it in order to gain publicity and make people conscious of the women situation. Thus, Paul decided to use publicity in order to ridicule and damage the Democratic Party and the President, at that moment, Woodrow Wilson. It is very interesting because since the beginning of the film, we can see that the British and American suffragist movement are linked which shows that all women supported between them.

The purpose of this group was “to secure an amendment to the US Constitution enfranchising women and to pass the ERA”. What is the ERA? The ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) was a proposed amendment to the US Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women.

Moreover, the members of this party were called Silent Sentinels because they used the silence as a form of protest. A curiosity was that they continued her campaign even when the US entered into the war in 1917. It was argued that it was hypocritical for the US to fight for democracy in Europe while it was denying its benefits to the US population. However, the suffragettes in Britain decided to stop when their country entered into the war in 1914.

In relation to the President, Woodrow Wilson was an American politician and the 28^th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. He held off support for a nationwide constitutional amendment for the suffragist movement because his party was divided, including the South who was against anything related with rights, except for Arkansas. The National Woman’s Party spook badly of the President and his party for not having adopted any amendment on the matter. However, he kept in touch with the National American Woman Suffrage Association. 

Furthermore, in the film, we can see how the NWP protesters were against the President Wilson and tried to picket outside the White House. As a result, many women were arrested for their actions and imprisoned. Women were mistreated in the jail and so, they undertook to do a hunger strike. But, guards made them eat in an aggressive way. The same thing occurred in Britain to the suffragettes.

Officers making a suffragist eat in the jail

Another important thing was the Nineteenth Amendment. The NWP pressured the President to introduce this amendment into the Constitution, and finally, he did. The Nineteenth Amendment prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. This amendment was the culmination of the women’s suffrage movement in the US to get the vote.

In conclusion, we see the importance of films about this topic because it helps us to learn more about those women who fought for achieving the right to vote and get the equality between men and women. Also, it is important to know the details of the context because it can help us in understanding the reason of movements. 

In the next link, we can find the full movie and have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKZ2siXjijA 

Also, there are more information in the next links:

http://iron-jawed-angels.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Jawed_Angels
http://www.sewallbelmont.org/learn/national-womans-party/+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Woman%27s_Party
http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/woodrow-wilson 

Thanks for your attention and hope that you'll enjoy! :) 

ANTI-SUFFRAGE PUBLICITY

The Suffragist movement was one of the most important movements in the woman’s History. To get their rights they used mainly two ways:  newspapers and publicity.

It was a way of calling the attention of all the citizens. They used the influence that the newspapers were exercising on the people to be made know and to attract to more supporters. In addition, they used also postcards as part of the campaign for the women’s rights to vote. The postcards got the messages of the movement across in short, clear, and often humours ways.

Many of this publicity was clear in some newspapers managed by women suffragist, as the Woman’s Journal, an American weekly suffragist periodical by Lucy Stone and her husband devoted to the interests of woman (her educational, industrial, legal and political equality)

But it was not enough to have supporters. In fact, it was a way to get enemies. There were a lot of them that thought that women were a danger for the society and they were acting against the nature. For this raison, those opposed to women’s suffrage also used postcards to get their message out to the public, showing the figures of the women in a humourist way.

We can find a lot of this postcards in the Palczewski Postcard Archive at the University of Northern Iow who has a number of great examples that illustrate the frames used to present women’s full political participation as threatening.

Postcards issued by other groups reflect these same themes. The clear message is that giving women the right to vote threatens men, the family, and the entire natural order of things

   

From an actual point of view ,we have found these postcards so interesting. They show an other different world totally unimaginable  for the mentality of that epoch but a way of life totally adapted in ours. In that world we find families without fathers, only with the figure of the women as authority; fathers participating in childcare and in the housework; women being the sustenance to the family; women being leaders in politic or taking jobs reserved only for men.

 Some postcards show women expressing opinions and wearing trousers (the "Pantalette Suffragette") in ways that are threatening men's face and social order. If these images were presented without context, a modern viewer might assume that they must be "pro" women's suffrage images, because they represent things that are compatible with mainstream values today.  

This collection of postcards essentially shows us the world that we live in. We can say  they predicted that Women's Suffrage would lead the new style-life, even if men were against it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

- https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/11/08/vintage-anti-suffrage-postcards/

- http://global.britannica.com/topic/Womans-Journal