To the editor:
What an exciting time to celebrate…100 years ago women won the right to vote in the United States.
Two years ago, I visited Seneca Falls, New York, for a Women’s Equality Conference. This trip made me think about our state’s rich history as the epicenter for the women’s rights movement. It also reminded me that many of the rights we have today can easily be taken for granted. It is so important that we pay homage to those brave, bold women who paved the way for us, and for the next generation of girls.
Suffragettes gathered in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. There, suffragettes wrote the Declaration of Sentiments which lays out all the inequities in the law that seem so outrageous by today’s standards, such as not having the right to vote, earn money, own property, gain a college education, and the list goes on.
I encourage everyone to read this Declaration of Sentiments which lists the grievance of women who were not seen as equal to men under the law. Yet this was the reality of women living in our country at that time.
This Declaration was the inspiration for the suffrage movement that lasted into the late 1910s, where women mobilized to convince male members of Congress to pass the 19th amendment allowing women the right to vote… 100 years ago.
Most of us are aware of the inequities that still persist for women, and that our work is far from over. However, it is also important to remember how far we have come. We must all exercise our right to vote this November, and in every election, to say thank you to all those women before us that made voting possible. Remember the history – it took over 70 years to get the right to vote for women.
Sincerely,
Sandy Galef
95th Assembly District
