For many years, women claimed they should have a right to vote, but Congress disagreed. At first President Wilson said that he agreed with women's suffrage, but he didn't do anything. Supporters of women's suffrage began picketing the White House and were arrested. While in jail, many women went on hunger strikes and were being force fed which horrified President Wilson.
Then the United States joined the Great War, later to be renamed World War I. The women on the home front were expected to support not only their husbands and sons but also the nation's workforce. Was it fair that their wages were being taxed now, when they did not even have the right to vote on how those tax dollars were spent? On September 30, 1917, President Wilson spoke powerfully on behalf of women's suffrage but the first bill died in Congress. It took another year before women were finally given their right to vote!
Which of your ancestors were the first women to vote? How did they choose to use that vote? I hope that our descendants will be proud of the changes we're trying to make. Do you talk to your families about the awesome privilege it is to be able to vote and remind them of what it was like before women were given this privilege?
