A Woman's Right to Vote - What it Cost

With election day coming right around the corner, Nov. 2, 2010, I just wanted to remind all women to get out and use your right to vote, you have only had that right since the passing of the 19th Amendment on Aug. 26, 1920! 

The right for women to vote is something that was hard fought for and it is with very good reason that is was called the Suffrage Movement.

Many of our mothers and grandmothers protested outside the White House asking President Wilson when they would have liberty and the right to vote. These women were innocent and defenseless yet they were constantly arrested for, believe it or not, "obstructing sidewalk traffic."  However, once out of jail, these courageous women would return to the picket line.

Then on what would become known as "The Night of Terror," Nov. 2, 1917, thirty-three of these imprisoned women, with the blessing of the warden, were beaten senseless by 40 club wielding prison guards with many being left barely alive by the end of the night.

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.  When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

President Woodrow Wilson try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized, however the doctor refused. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave, that didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished that: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

These women worked so hard and fought with everything that they had so that we could have the privilege to vote. Please exercise that right on November 2, 2010, don't let their sacrifice be for nothing.
 
 
~ Historical information taken from About.com: Women's History by Jone Johnson Lewis; all other information is my opinion and I was not given any compensation to write this post. It was only done out of my love for this country.