Women’s history month is celebrated during March in the United States, dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments and achievements of women throughout history. Every year, it is known that The National Women’s History Alliance designates a theme for women’s history month, as a way to emphasize the specific importance of raising awareness. This year, the theme is a continuation of last year’s theme: “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.”
The Women’s Suffrage movement started in 1848, when the determined Elizabeth Cady Stanton was invited to tea with her friends, and ended in 1920, when the 19th amendment was adopted, saying that states could not discriminate voting based on sex. Despite this perceived success, it is important to note that there were still millions of women who were prohibited from voting. After all, African-American women were still held back by the same laws and requirements for voting that repressed African-American men, and barely any women from other ethnicities were citizens. Nonetheless, passing the 19th amendment was still an important milestone in the movement for equal rights between men and women. During the women’s suffrage movement, women protested against their oppression by advertising items like sheet music, buttons, tote bags, and souvenir fans with clever writing such as “She’s good enough to be your baby’s mother, and she’s good enough to vote with you.”
Fast forward to this year, women are still making big changes when it comes to voting. The 2020 election ended with a big win for the democratic party when Georgia voted blue for the first time since 1992. Behind this big win was Stacey Abrahms, who realized that the key to letting President Biden win Georgia was to persuade the black population to go to the polls and vote, instead of spending the time convincing the undecided voters to vote for him.
The fight for equal rights is as strong as ever, and Women’s History Month is a time for us to celebrate how far we have come, while we continue to push further. As John F. Kennedy said, “ As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.”