Evolution of Women’s Participation in American Politics
In the 2016 presidential elections, a woman candidate won the popular vote while after the 2018 midterms, the House of Representatives elected a woman as the speaker. These feats are a culmination of centuries of clamor by women for a place in the political arena. The clamor began in the early 19th century when women had neither a place nor a voice in politics (McGlen, O’Connor & Gunther-Canada, 1998). At the time, only male white men could run for office or cast their votes. The clamor for women suffrage took over a century until the enactment and promulgation of the 19th Amendment in 1919 and 1920 respectively. However, the 19 th Amendment was only a new beginning in the fight for women’s political empowerment, whose clamor continues to the current date.
Significant Gains and Setbacks in Women’s Suffrage
The path to the status of women's empowerment began with the clamor for women suffrage, which has had major gains and some substantive setbacks. The first major gain for women suffrage was the Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 (McGlen, O’Connor & Gunther-Canada, 1998). The said declaration joined the forces of civil rights campaigners and women suffragists in the clamor for universal suffrage. Under the convention, women suffragists got the cover of social justice, which, limited opposition against their campaign from some quarters. The second major gain came almost three-quarters of a century later in 1919 when US Congress enacted the 19th Amendment, which would become law the following year in 1920 (von Garnier, 2004). The final major gain tool place in 1964 and it involved the enactment of the Civil rights Act. The act prohibited any form of discrimination, based among others, on gender. These acts mitigated the machinations of some state organs that sought to limit the ability of women to either vote or run for office.
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Perhaps the greatest setback in the clamor for women suffrage came in the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870. The 15th amendment allowed colored men to vote, thus dividing the cause for universal suffrage. Further, the 15th Amendment exposed African American men to great persecution in an effort to prevent them from voting. The chaos created by the 15th Amendment within the women suffragist movement and the nation at large contributed to the delay in the enactment of laws that allowed women to vote. Indeed, after 1870, it took half a century for women to eventually get the right to vote.
Women’s Participation today as Impacted by Legal and Political Structures in History
White male Americans can easily take the right to vote and run for office for granted but women do not. Just as with colored Americans, women had to fight for the right to vote, with some women having to face violence and persecution in the clamor for women's suffrage (von Garnier, 2004). During the 2019 and 2020 State of the Union addresses, women in Congress wore white attire as a way of celebrating a century of voting rights. The US political scene is highly segmented based on ideology, with some politician leaning right and another left. However, both conservative and liberal women politicians wore white in the two aforementioned occasions. Based on the above, historical political structures inspire women to stand together in a bipartisan effort to support women’s rights and address women’s issues. From a legal perspective, laws relating to women’s issues were solely determined by men until 1920. Issues such as gender-based violence, age of consent, and minimum age of marriage did not get the proper consideration, as there were no women in political office. The history of women suffrage inspires women to come together at a bipartisan level to address such issues, including through the enactment of laws (Thomas & Wilcox, 2014).
Women’s Vote and/or War on Women
Based on the argument in the segment above, there is evidence of a “woman’s vote” in America, more so in the addressing of issues relating to women. Even pollsters during elections seek to establish how respective candidates are faring among women voters. Common parameters in polls include the percentage of women supporting a candidate, percentage of education women or percentage of colored women supporting a candidate. Some analysts even argue that a candidate can fail purely due to the lack of support among women voters (Thomas & Wilcox, 2014). An example of such commentary was regarding presidential candidate Donald Trump after the airing of a misogynistic recording just before the elections in 2016. Similarly, available commentaries show that there is a form of “war on women” in politics. During elections and election campaigns, there are regular reports about violent or abusive attacks towards women candidates, more so by their male counterparts(Lawless & Fox, 2008). Women leaders can take advantage of both the “women’s vote” and the “war on women” to consolidate votes and further women’s issues in politics. After all, there are as many women voters as there are male voters in the country. The male vote is primarily divided along with ideologies such as conservatives versus liberals. If women came together buoyed by campaigns for important women’s issues, they can generate a powerful force through the ballot and further their issues.
Lessons from Suffragists for Modern Women Politicians
Among the most important lessons that women politicians can learn from women, suffragists come from the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments created in the Seneca Falls Convention. In the convention, Women Suffragists changed tactics and presented themselves not as women but as mothers. Women causes resonate to 50% of the population while motherhood causes resonate with 100% of the populace, as every human alive is either a daughter or son of a woman. Under the motherhood approach, women argued that they were not fighting for their right to vote but for the rights of all Americans to vote. Based on this approach, women can find a unifying perspective for all the issues that they are fighting for currently. Instead of presenting issues from a gender perspective, they can present them from a social justice perspective. Politics is always about numbers in a democracy and taking a social justice approach to issues will reduce opposition or even increase support for women’s issues.
References
Lawless, J. L., & Fox, R. L. (2008). It takes a candidate: why women don't run for office . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McGlen, N. E., O’Connor, K., A., V. A. L., & Gunther-Canada, W. (1998). Women, politics, and American society . Boston: Longman.
Thomas, S., & Wilcox, C. (2014). Women and elective office: past, present, and future . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
von Garnier K. (Director) (2004) Iron Jawed Angels . (2004).
