The Susan B. Anthony Amendment

August 2020

 This month, we asked out writers to reflect on the passing of the nineteenth amendment - known as the 'Susan B. Anthony Amendment'

Rights and wrongs

Emmy Jansen
Class of 2023

When Susan B. Anthony died in 1906, she did not see the fruition of her life’s work. Fourteen years later, the 19th Amendment would be passed and nicknamed in her honor, making it illegal to deny an individual the right to vote on the basis of sex. Women’s suffrage isn’t a topic that is often on our minds; I didn’t realize until last spring that women had been voting for less than a hundred years. It can be easy to take for granted something that seems so unimportant today. It’s all too easy to say, "my vote doesn’t count," and "voting doesn’t change anything," but that wasn’t what Susan saw. She knew voting was an important right and a big step on the way to gender equality.

Women have only been voting for one hundred years. For most of us, women’s suffrage isn’t a big deal. From childhood, I knew that I would be able to vote once I turned eighteen, just like everyone else can. The road to this place, where in 2020 I can vote without discrimination on the basis of sex, was a long and hard one. Susan B. Anthony and other women petitioned, protested, and lobbied until the 19th Amendment was passed. She dedicated her entire life to this cause and never got to see it fulfilled while she was walking on this earth. But we live out her life every time we vote, man or woman.

Women make up a slightly greater population than men in this country. But women, as a whole, are not only that. The diversity of the community is greater than just the gender. In most elections, the proportion of eligible women that vote is greater than the proportion of eligible men who vote. This is true of all races and ethnicities, except for Asian/Pacific Islander. This is true of all ages until 64 years old. This is true for presidential and non-presidential elections. Women vote more than men, even though voting is only a recent part of their lives.

In my life, this has certainly been true. I voted for the first time when I was seventeen. In Virginia, if you will be eighteen by the next general election, you are allowed to vote in the primaries. June 11, 2019, I headed to the polls for the first time. It was my first truly "adult" action. Since then, I have voted three more times, twice by mail. It surprised me when none of the other girls in my dorm had absentee ballots to fill out in November. Despite being older than me, none of them had voted before or even thought about it. It just wasn’t important to them. "I don’t know the candidates," they’d say. "I’m not a political person."

But the Constitution doesn’t say, "only political people have the right to vote." It says that no one shall be denied the right to vote on the basis of race or sex, thanks to Susan B. Anthony and countless others. The Constitution clearly defines our rights, many of which we use regularly, like freedom of religion or speech. I’ve never expressed my Second Amendment rights, but I still have them. This is true of voting. Rights don’t define the only things we are able to do, they just protect the things that we see as important enough to need protection. If voting is one of these, it’s for a reason. It needs to be protected. It needs to be used.

It took my older siblings years before they voted, even after they turned eighteen. My brother voted for the first time this past March at twenty-three years old, but only because it was a presidential race. Claiming their place at the polls has not been a top priority for young people for a very young time. Despite being a politically active generation, very few of us regularly exercise our right to vote. It’s true that voter turnout increases as age increases, but there are always exceptions. My mom volunteers at the polls for each election and she always encounters older adults who are voting for the first time.

I have an interest in politics, which might be why I’m more inclined to participate. But being a part of the American democratic process shouldn’t be an experience only shared by those who enjoy government. The United States is not just made up of people who vote; the United States government represents those that vote, those that don’t, and those that vote against it. When someone becomes governor, they aren’t just governor to the millions of people who supported them. They are governor to the thousands that voted against them and the thousands that didn’t vote at all. It’s very easy not to care about politics. You can avoid news channels, never pick up a newspaper, and change the station on the radio. Actively participating in the political process takes an amount of effort. You have to drive to the polling place or remember to request an absentee ballot before the deadline. You have to research the candidates and remember their names long enough to shade in a bubble. It would be much easier not to vote. But if it were truly so unimportant, Susan B. Anthony wouldn’t have an amendment named after her.

The right to vote has been something fought over for centuries. Whether it was about gender in 1920, race in 1965, or felon suffrage today, we have always known how important voting is to democracy. But we don’t treat it like we should. It takes me about ten minutes to do what Susan B. Anthony never got to. I get a sticker. I watch the results on TV later that night. There are lots of ways to be politically active and have your voice heard. But voting is the easiest and most impactful way to influence public policy.

If we ever forget how important voting is, history reflects it. Voting was such an important right that it was denied to certain groups of people. But it was even more important, because they fought to get it back.

Read other articles by Emmy Jansen

For her, failure was impossible

Harry Scherer
Class of 2022

For the past century, our nation’s Constitution has been amended to prohibit federal and state governments from denying women the right to vote. This permanent addition to our founding document serves as a memorial of one of our most successful and courageous social reformers.

Susan B. Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts in the winter of 1820. Raised in a conservative Quaker household, Anthony and her family contributed to the abolitionist movement and offered their home in Rochester, New York as a meeting place for anti-slavery activists like Frederick Douglass.

Early on in her life, she observed the precious fruits that can come from a solid education. In 1857, she called for the education of blacks and women at the New York State Teachers’ Convention. She relied on her formative education throughout her life to study the topics that were relevant to her activism; in 1881, for example, she published the first volume of the History of Woman Suffrage. Anthony always relied on history to better understand the present and to craft the content of history for the future.

Once the crusade for the abolition of slavery was technically accomplished, Anthony shifted her social focus to the issue of women’s rights. In 1863, she wrote "Appeal to the Women of the Republic" along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the friend with whom Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. Six years later, she organized the first Woman Suffrage Convention in Washington, D.C. While dealing with seemingly constant legal struggles because of her activism, Anthony produced a template for petitions that were distributed throughout the 1870s and 1880s calling for universal suffrage.

The body of the petition read: "The right of suffrage in the United States shall be based on citizenship, and the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state on account of sex, or for any reason not equally applicable to all citizens of the United States. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." Under this bold statement, men signed their names on the left side of the document and women signed the right side. This was a method employed by Anthony to ensure that all members of her movement were assured of the support of both men and women for their noble effort. In addition, this method proved that at least some persons who were already legally eligible to vote were willing to publicize their support for universal suffrage.

In 1905, Anthony met with President Theodore Roosevelt about a universal suffrage amendment to the Constitution. She died a year later in her Rochester home and the amendment for which she fought was finally ratified in 1920.

Three attributes of Susan B. Anthony are worth noting. First, her zealous activism was not motivated by an interest in personal gain or the fulfillment of a radical ideology. On the contrary, Anthony was emboldened by her Christian recognition that every human person is made in the image and likeness of God and that any government policy that does not accept this identity works against individual creativity and should be altered. Anthony’s goals were clearly and peacefully offered; she sought structural refinement, not structural demolition. Unlike many activists that we encounter today, her social reform was brought to completion when she saw the accomplishment of her goals.

Secondly, her activism was consistent. A pro-life organization bears her name today because she understood that all human life is both a subject and object of love. About abortion, Anthony said, "sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them." Her respect and admiration of women and motherhood cannot be overstated; one political poster publicized during Anthony’s time said, "Women bring all Voters into the world…Let Women Vote." Susan B. Anthony had a great love for preborn children because she had a great love for the women who carried them. This intellectual consistency and devotion to truth certainly serves as a reason for her political success.

Thirdly, her social power was clarified through her rhetorical ability. On the year that she died, she delivered a speech at her 86th birthday celebration. During her remarks, she said, "There have been others also just as true and devoted to the cause — I wish I could name everyone — but with such women consecrating their lives, failure is impossible!" In what came to be known as the "failure is impossible" speech, Anthony encouraged women and men around the country to recognize their rights as human persons and as Americans. At the same time, she required a simultaneous responsibility that could not be avoided in light of her radical demands. As a pragmatic woman, she knew that the success of her movement would only come about through clear speech and transparent motives. In order to inspire this clarity and transparency, Anthony was as honest with her supporters as she could be. While she identified the obvious areas in which her nation was struggling and failing her citizens, she also demanded high standards for the women who would ultimately reach the political success that she viewed as ultimately inevitable. She knew that rights without responsibilities are meaningless clichés, unimportant statements that dare to be altered by a charismatic malefactor.

Anthony’s work was a refreshing response to Benjamin Franklin’s warning that America is "a republic, if you can keep it." Her love for America and her citizens motivated her to sacrifice her personal goals in light of potentially national growth. As a diligent reformer, she recognized that the successes of the country in which she was born must have proved that there was something in her nation for which to fight. She saw this battle as an unfortunate but necessary one and it is for her selfless and patriotic service that we should all be grateful.

Read other articles by Harry Scherer

Worth more then rubies

Angela Guiao
Class of 2021

My entire life, I have been surrounded by strong women. The first is my mother. A single mother, she pushed herself to provide a happy life for me. She sacrificed without question. She never let me see her weak. She showed me what determination is and how hard work could help me accomplish my dreams.

My aunts were the same. Though they were thousands of miles away in the Philippines, I watched how they were able to build themselves a life from nothing. How they were able to put my cousins through school, all the way through university. How they fought every step of the way until they succeeded in their goals. They never gave up.

I grew up reading stories written by Jane Austen and poems by Maya Angelou. I was obsessed with Amelia Earhart, and constantly reminded of the work of Mother Theresa. As I grew older, I learned of the importance of action. Evident in the achievements of Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and Ida B. Wells.

My knowledge of such influential women inspired me to take advantage of my opportunities, to appreciate the freedom to speak, to move, to decide, and to vote.

Susan B. Anthony was born on February 15, 1820. Though she was a white woman, from a young age she displayed a mindset far ahead of her time, having participated in collecting anti-slavery signatures from the age of 17.

As she grew older, she slowly became more and more involved in equal rights, focusing especially on the women’s suffrage movement. She eventually became President of the National American Women Suffrage Association, an organization she co-founded, and helped pave the way to granting women the right to vote.

On August 18, 1920, almost 100 years ago, the 19th amendment was passed granting women the right to vote. This amendment was passed 14 years after Susan B. Anthony had passed away from heart failure.

Eventually, the 19th amendment started also being referred to as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in honor of all her hard work and contributions to the fight for women’s equal rights.

Susan B. Anthony’s hard work and activism gave women the right to vote. It gave them a choice whereas before it was simply impossible. Her involvement established a foundation for other strong women leaders to advocate and fight for their rights. For more rights.

She began a fight that women are still fighting today.

If I am being completely honest, not many people I know vote.

I don’t think many people understand how important their vote is. It is easy to look at the size of America, or even your city and think to yourself, "My vote doesn’t matter". However, it does. Especially, our voice as women matter.

According to statista.com, in 2019 there were a little more than 168 million females compared to 161million males in the United States. Since the US Census Bureau estimated a total population a little higher than 329 million in 2019, that would mean women make up approximately 51% of the population.

Yet, in a society where there are relatively the same number of women as men, the disparity between the rights a woman has in comparison to a man is rather remarkable. We cannot let everything that women before us spent years fighting for go to waste.

We need to continue to fight. Fight to be heard. Fight to be respected. Fight to be equal.

Though the work of Susan B. Anthony occurred 100 years ago, her ideals and vision of a woman’s role in society is still relevant.

"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand." -Susan B. Anthony

Women’s rights are a continuous and pertinent discussion in politics today. Women are continuing to make themselves heard. With many notable women’s rights movements occurring in the world today such as the Women’s March and the Feminist movement, many women are devoting their time to advocating women empowerment.

It was because of women like Susan B. Anthony who showed me the strength behind being a woman. It was women like her who taught me not be afraid. To embrace who I am and the traits I bring. It was women like her who taught me not to lessen myself for other people but to take my strengths and let them empower me.

As a college student. It is easy to feel unimportant. We’re young, inexperienced. In a world filled with people much more qualified and wiser than us, it is easy to think that our voice is not as loud or not worth listening to.

But Susan B. Anthony started her career in advocacy at the age of 17. She continued fighting the fight consistently until she co-founded one of the leading women’s suffrage foundations. Her work eventually led to winning the right for women’s rights.

My voice can make a difference. It is never too early to start advocating for the things that I believe in, for the movements that I connect to. My voice does matter. It can and will be heard.

Susan B. Anthony showed me what it meant to truly fight for something you believe in. She and all the women activists that played a part in making the world better for women give me hope that I too can make a difference. I hope one day to emulate the characteristics that made her and so many others so strong and worthy of leadership.

Because of her, I know that one day I will leave my own impact onto the world. I know not to silence myself or to allow my rights to be decided on by those who know nothing about me. I know not to conform to expectations because that is what has always been done or because I am too afraid to be belittled.

Every single voice is important. Every single voice matters. Every single voice can continue the fight.

Read other articles by Angela Guiao

Having a say

Morgan Rooney
MSMU Class of 2020

Exactly 100 years ago, on August 18, the 19th amendment was ratified. It states that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Even though I learned about the Susan B Anthony amendment when I was in school, I realized that I did not know much detail about the subject at all. I knew that women gained the right to vote in 1920 and I knew that Anthony played a huge role in that, but it was unknown to me that she died over 14 years before the amendment was ratified. It was all the way back in 1872 that Anthony was arrested after casting her ballot for the presidential election in Rochester, NY. As much of an outrage as this was, it took many years for women to be given the right to vote across the country.

Even though Anthony was committed to many different causes throughout her life, the right to vote was not the first. There were so many more layers to women’s rights than just that. In fact, women held very little power in marriages, it was difficult to file for divorce, and a married woman was unable to sign contracts and documents on her behalf.

I’ve always been extremely grateful for my childhood. I grew up with many dreams in my head and no obvious obstacles lying on the road while I was on my way to achieve them. The mindset I had was that if I worked hard enough, I would be able to perfect any career dream I saw fit. Fortunately, I’ve been able to keep these dreams, even after high school and through college. Realism has definitely taken over in other ways, but it is a blessing to know that my dreams are possible for me to achieve.

Thanks to people who fought for rights in the past, I’ve never had to worry about what I was and wasn’t allowed to do. I never worried about who I was and wasn’t able to become. I had always felt truly free like an American is meant to feel. I had the liberty to make my own decisions. I don’t often think back about when I should be giving credit to.

Earlier this year, during spring break, I was back home in Texas, just in time for the state elections. About two weeks before the borders closed off to Europe, my fiancé had flown in from Ireland to spend the week with me. We had intentions to drive down to the coast and spend a few days on the beach together. However, the day we headed south was the day of the election, so early in the morning, we stopped by my old high school so I could practice my right for the first time.

After parking, I walked into the building, where I spent my days during the 9th and 10th grade, and I followed the signs to the room where everyone was directed to vote. When I entered the room, a woman standing behind the doorway pointed to two different tables. She informed me that if I was voting democrat, I had to go to one and if I was voting republican, I needed to go to another. Listening to her instructions, I headed to the table when I intended to vote. For my whole life, I had always been told that my political beliefs are often something that I best keep to myself, so this situation was slightly odd for me.

The man at the table asked for my ID and printed out my ballot. He began to give my instructions before asking, "have you even voted before?" At this point, I was nearly 22 but knew I could pass for several years younger if I tried. I answered honestly and said I hadn’t, explaining that I was out of the state during the 2016 election and did not receive my absentee ballot in time to fill it out and get it back to Texas.

"First time voter!" The man called out. The thing that surprised me was that every single person in the room turned to me and started clapping. Even from the opposing side, everyone was smiling and clapping. I don’t normally like it when people catch me off guard and bring attention to me, but I found this experience to be incredibly enlightening. Even though everyone has different opinions and we disagree with each other on so much, the vast majority of us just want what is right for our friends, family, and ourselves. Even if someone is going about it in a way that doesn’t seem to be a linear approach, chances are, they have similar goals as you.

My voting experience motivated and moved me in several different ways. Even though I went to one table, the other one clapped for me. This showed me that others are happy to see a young Texan like me practicing my right as an American. Voting showed me that I am free to vote in whatever way I choose and no one in the room should treat me with disrespect. Lastly, it showed me that my ability to vote so easily is a freedom that many don’t have in this world. I am forever grateful.

This whole experience was very encouraging and I’m looking forward to voting again this fall. Before a certain time in this country, I wouldn't have been given the ability to have my say. Women were generally forced to surrender their choice of representatives to the men in their lives. This November, when I vote in the presidential election, I will remember all of the people before me who worked hard so that I could be able to have my say in how the country works.

Read other articles by Morgan Rooney

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