Rolling up our sleeves on Women’s Equality Day
Source: The Fulcrum
If I’m asked to rank the centuries based on the importance and impact of constitutional amendments, I’d be hard pressed to choose between the 18th and the 19th. The Bill of Rights, passed at the tail end of the 18th century, is certainly special. Free speech? Free press? Separation of church and state? Fundamental rights for the accused? Heady stuff, to be sure.
Still, the Civil War amendments of the 19th century are hard to beat. It’s no exaggeration to say that emancipation of enslaved Americans in the 13th Amendment, citizenship for all in the 14th, and the right to vote in the 15th drastically improved the American polity. Those amendments, more so than any other, brought the country closer to its professed aspirations.
One thing is certain, though: the 20th century did not match the two prior in terms of the majesty of constitutional revision. Income taxes, prohibition of liquor (especially given that the amendment was eventually repealed), presidential term limits and rules for congressional compensation just don’t have the grandeur of the earlier safeguards.
Save one. The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, belongs squarely on the Mount Rushmore of constitutional improvements. Aug. 26 will celebrate Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the 104th anniversary of its passage. From the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848 through the merger of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890, to the razor-thin vote by the Tennessee legislature to become the 36th and final state to ratify, the successful journey to electoral equality was arduous.
For some, unfortunately, it still is.
Read here the full article published by The Fulcrum on 27 August 2024.
Image by The Fulcrum
If I’m asked to rank the centuries based on the importance and impact of constitutional amendments, I’d be hard pressed to choose between the 18th and the 19th. The Bill of Rights, passed at the tail end of the 18th century, is certainly special. Free speech? Free press? Separation of church and state? Fundamental rights for the accused? Heady stuff, to be sure.
Still, the Civil War amendments of the 19th century are hard to beat. It’s no exaggeration to say that emancipation of enslaved Americans in the 13th Amendment, citizenship for all in the 14th, and the right to vote in the 15th drastically improved the American polity. Those amendments, more so than any other, brought the country closer to its professed aspirations.
One thing is certain, though: the 20th century did not match the two prior in terms of the majesty of constitutional revision. Income taxes, prohibition of liquor (especially given that the amendment was eventually repealed), presidential term limits and rules for congressional compensation just don’t have the grandeur of the earlier safeguards.
Save one. The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, belongs squarely on the Mount Rushmore of constitutional improvements. Aug. 26 will celebrate Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the 104th anniversary of its passage. From the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848 through the merger of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890, to the razor-thin vote by the Tennessee legislature to become the 36th and final state to ratify, the successful journey to electoral equality was arduous.
For some, unfortunately, it still is.
Read here the full article published by The Fulcrum on 27 August 2024.
Image by The Fulcrum