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https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15376/archive/files/c10eea84b532274f613bb73ecdc9eaea.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=n2CrC0z4GWNDPG8jzzWkje5pG2RYE5a2FR%7E6h30aOrbQ0Y%7EIkaDWfKuwflhjh5pyUPz8ABoB6pTgNcB59owZAQmQnhQV5%7EObpCg-MgGwgN518luY4S9FW9KtthryYhL0bwmxbl8dwa%7EbIkXNl6ZrY9%7Ek%7EEigsejXQReKaKk70TU-UoEtwkHx7SppFrYI1W3iWbS90B5-VcNF0abBXJpa7pR4we8esnJwhJHJGaoKN84v5bPohdJWo4jddZEUJM8AvjOGIXgQ65q0hm4GWGh5pVRv2MGtAFo30ysmjQgZF48TY53hZCmrDSO5CPT7vEwq7Zx09EGp-HWbjP-HYah0TA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
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Politics
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Politics, 2016
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The University of Memphis Libraries
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<p class="Body1" align="center"><span>"Political Women: Before, During, and After the 19th Amendment"</span></p>
<p class="Body1"><br /> When asked, most people will say that women’s political roles began with the passing of the 19th amendment to the United States constitution, which granted women the right to vote. However, women were active in politics long before that. Throughout history there has been a fight for women to gain a legal place in the political sphere; in fighting, women were already informally taking action in politics. From the common woman to more notable, women have worked together across centuries and numerous barriers to be formally included in politics. Women have been political beings long before the government recognized them as such. When the 19th amendment was passed, women’s participation in politics continued yet was still obstructed by discrimination.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> From the very formation of American democracy, women were left out of political processes. The new Republic held onto the notion of a “political father.” <a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> In this new nation where individualism and democracy were praised, women were overlooked politically. Though they held no formal political rights, women found themselves in the political sphere. The idea of Republican Motherhood promoted the notion that women should raise their sons to be good citizens, which placed an emphasis on women’s political nature. Women were expected to raise good voters but were denied the right to vote themselves. Despite their disenfranchisement, women still pushed for reform in legislation for issues such as child labor laws, education, healthcare, and more progressive issues such as women’s labor laws and birth control.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> Abigail Adams is one figure that exemplified the idea of Republican Motherhood. She was considered the "colonial foremother” of feminism and fought for abolition and universal suffrage.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Though women had no formal political rights, Abigail Adams was one of the first female presences that had significant influence in the history of women’s rights.</p>
<p class="BodyA">Even more well-known than Adams are the duo known for women’s progress in politics was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. When first meeting in 1851, Stanton was already well-versed in the world of reform. She had married antislavery orator Henry B. Stanton in 1840 along with having had an informal legal education from her father, Daniel Cady, a notable law instructor in New York. Instead of attending reform meetings, she worked behind the scenes as her role as a mother kept her busy. <a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> </p>
<p class="BodyA">Susan B. Anthony’s background significantly influenced her morale and her belief that women should have a say in political matters.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Growing up Quaker, Anthony was brought up in a family with experience in abolitionist activism. After a failed attempt to speak at a temperance rally to discourage alcohol consumption, she realized that she needed to lobby with the suffragettes for women’s political rights. When she met Stanton in 1851, the pair immediately began moving to the creation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and became known as an inseparable duo.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> Anthony was the more versatile, working more with recruitment. Stanton wrote moving speeches and served as a firm foundation for Anthony to build from. The pair realized their combined potential and worked to create a suffrage movement that would change the course of history.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> The path to the 19th Amendment was anything but simple. Stanton and Anthony, as well as others, circulated petitions and urged Congress to pass an amendment to give women voting rights. Women picketed and campaigned because they realized quickly they not only had to fight for the right to vote, they had to win it.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> While neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to see their Amendment passed, their work was fundamental in getting the amendment passed. After the American civil war, women’s rights leaders saw emancipation as one of the most important of their goals. They believed that it would be useful as both a symbol of women’s equality and individuality to help improve women’s legal and social conditions. The fight fell short when the passing of the 14th and 15th amendments only granted voting rights to black men.<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In January of 1878, Aaron A. Sargent introduced the 19th Amendment (dubbed the Anthony Amendment) to the senate, but it sat in committees until 1887 when it was rejected by a 16 to 34 vote. As the number of states supporting suffrage grew, so did the number of supporters in Congress. In 1918, President Wilson endorsed the amendment and urged Democrats on Capitol Hill to give their support. In January 1918, the House of Representatives approved the amendment. However, in the Senate it failed to give 2/3 vote required for adoption. On February 10, 1919, it again failed by only one vote, but on June 4, 1919, the Congress of the United States finally approved the woman’s suffrage amendement.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Following that momentous approval, the suffragists needed to get three-quarters (36) of the states to ratify the amendment. The ratification process was anything but easy. Every state’s ratification (with the exception of four) met a long and difficult campaign against either the governor, the legislature or both. The article “Has Ratification Been Easy?” from the <em>Suffragist</em><em>,</em> goes in details of the struggles women faced during this time. By the middle of June of 1920, a year after congress sent the amendment to the states for approval, 35 states had ratified, needing only one more to pass. In <em>One Woman, One Vote</em>, historian Anastasia Sims stated that the suffragist leaders were shocked when Delaware unexpectedly defeated the amendment. No other state was slated to hold a legislative session before the November 1920 election and many politicians from both side of the party wanted the proposal to be made part of the Constitution before the election. Some states, anti-suffragist, governors intentionally refused to call into session legislatures because they knew they were in favor of the enfranchisement of women. Polls of the legislatures in Connecticut and Vermont suggested they would have ratified if called into Special Session, so the President called a Special Session of Congress to be brought before the House again. However, the anti-suffragist, anti-prohibition governors of the two states refused to do so. The cartoon “They Say”, illustrates the demand from Vermont legislatures who was constantly requesting a Special Session, but Governor Clement denied them based on his own anti-suffrage viewpoint, along with statements from him within the <em>Suffragist</em>. The people of Vermont were eager to support the amendment and wanted to be the 36th state but President Woodrow Wilson found an alternative.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Woodrow Wilson was able to convince the governors in North Carolina and Tennessee to call Special Sessions, but North Carolina defeated the amendment and urged Tennessee to follow their example. Suffragists were hoping on Tennessee legislatures would vote in their favor but were not sure of the outcome. The letters from President Woodrow Wilson, William L. Fierson and Tennessee Governor Albert H. Roberts in the Suffragist. The <em>Suffragist</em> published letters from Wilson asking Roberts for a Special Session and asking Fierson for advice on ratification, along with responses from both. After long lobbying/debates in Nashville, TN, the final campaign for ratification took place. In the article, “TN 36th!” the <em>Suffragist</em> editors detailed the campaign for ratification. The article emphasizes the role of Sue White, the Tennessee State Chairman of the Women’s Party, and the leader in the final campaign. The result of the Tennessee legislature came to a tie of 48-48. The Speaker called the measure to a ratification vote (a recall vote), where most people assumed the vote was defeated by the ant-suffragist red flowers pinned to them.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Anti-suffragist representative, Harry Burn received a letter from his mother, Pheobe Ensminger Burn (also known as Miss Febb in the community). In the letter she wrote, “Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the “rat” in ratification”. Burn voted in favor of the amendment, resulting in Tennessee’s ratification. Tennessee became the necessary 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment, and winning the women the right to vote.U.S. Secretary of State, Colby Bainbridge certified the results on 28 August 1920. The cartoon from the <em>Suffragist</em>, “Now All Together for the 36!” is an image of both parties standing on each side of a woman with a sash, with a banner above them reading “Tennessee”. This represents the two parties coming together supporting the amendment, and viewing women as equals. That following November 2, more than eight million women voted in the election. <a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1920, the passage of the 19th amendment changed the role of women in politics forever; for the first time in the country they were awarded the right to vote universally. Women showed up at the polls and “. . .were voting for and interested in the same issues that men were.” With the formal right to vote, women were still supporting many of the same issues; increased spending for schools and healthcare rights were two issues women involved themselves in right after winning the right to vote.<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> The vast issues women were involved in kept them very busy politically as could be seen demonstrated in political cartoons of the day. One in particular shows a woman telephone operator surrounded by papers, each with an issues women were fighting for such as birth control, health care, and tax reform.<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a>As time moved forward into the 1950s and 1960s women were still supporting similar issues and still are today. More recently, the gender gap in political interests have begun to break down. No longer are women primarily confined to domestic political issues; men and women alike are supporting the same issues and having differing views regardless of sex.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> To get a sense of what was happening with women in politics all over the nation we can specifically look at Tennessee, one of the pivotal and most controversial states in the passing of the 19th Amendment. Tennessee women generally followed the trend of other women all over the nation. Moving into the mid to late 1900s Tennessee women were finding ways to make their voices heard. The Tennessee League of Women Voters pushed two major issues: the revision of the Tennessee Constitution and reapportionment of the Tennessee state legislature. The league was greatly interested in state affairs. Their focus on reapportionment extended to overall efficiency of the state government. In the 1950s, the league extended their focus to matters of children and school board member selection and reform for the juvenile justice system. The women began promoting “personal democracy”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> These Tennessee women were making the effort to establish a core of educated women voters and to make sure their voices were being heard.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1963, Tennessee Governor Frank Clement established the Government Commission on the Status of Women. The commission was tasked with exploring four specific areas of women’s lives: employment, different treatment under the law, educational policies concerning women, and the effect of insurance and tax laws on the income of women. The commission was composed of both women and men of both African American and white races. The commission ultimately came to call for an end to discriminatory pay policies, that women serve on juries, and to repeal the luxury tax specific to women (i.e. jewelry, make up and feminine products). Due to the pay gap and luxury taxes still remaining to this day, the commission was not successful in all of its goals, but in some it did make head way.<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the 21st century, the role of women in politics was beginning to change. No longer was it new for women to be seen as political beings, and newer issues were beginning to interest women. One of the biggest issues that women took up was combatting violence against women. Though women’s violence has always existed and has to some degree been addressed by the law, the rising rape rates and their subsequent trials or lack thereof deeply concerned women. Besides their concern over violence towards women, women continued to support social services and child care, education, health care, and reproduction and family planning laws.<a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the most recent decade, women’s political participation has begun to fall; the novelty of being able to vote has worn off. Women don't remember the fight for suffrage, and the women who championed the 19th amendment are long gone. Children and grandchildren are no longer hearing the stories of how their ancestors fought to give them the right to vote. The lower voter turnout rates are not to blame solely on the lack of novelty of being a woman voter; voter turnout across the board has decreased in both men and women. However, despite this overall downwards trend in political participation, a gender division still exists. At the turn of 20th to 21st century, Tennessee was ranked particularly low in women’s political participation. In 1992-1996 the state ranked 46th out of the 50 states in both the percentage of women registered to vote and voter turnout amongst women. One area in which Tennessee was above average was in women’s resources ranking, 21st out of 50. Women officials in office were relatively low, however. There was only one woman in a statewide executive elected office in Tennessee and no women representing the state in congress by 2000. The state legislature boasted a 16.7 percent of women in 1999 and women made up 36.4 percent of the appointed officials in the state.<a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> In 2015, the number has only slightly increased to 17.4 percent in the state legislature but has gone back to 16.7 percent for 2016.<a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> Currently, there are now two women serving as congresswomen in the House of Representatives.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> One might think that the fight for equality and women’s rights would have long since been accomplished, and yet in our time of convenience it seems we have forgotten what a privilege it is to vote. There are countries in our world that still deny their women basic rights as human beings. To think that there are women in the world that do not know the triumph of having a say in such a male-dominated field seems inconceivable to the average American woman. It would seem that we view the world through rose-colored glasses and take for granted our advantage in the politics of the world, let alone the entire country. Some may say that we do not face the same hardships as our suffragette heroes of the past, but by careful examination of today’s political atmosphere, one might come to a vastly different conclusion. We must each use our earned right as intelligent and able women to distinguish ourselves not only in our country but also our homes. The modern woman must come to the realization that the battle was won, but the war is far from over.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> </p>
<div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> Linda K. Kerber <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship </em>(New York: Hill & Wang, 1998) Chapter 1.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920; Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”; Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : women, law, and policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994 pg 229 ; Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Levin, P.L. (1996). Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), American first ladies Their lives and their legacy (pp. 16-45). New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> "Women in the Progressive Era." Women in the Progressive Era. Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement.</em> Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 9-11,81-88, 333; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation</em>: “Why?”. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, 333-335.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a>“They Say” <em>The Suffragist,</em> pg 181; “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>pg 19;</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a><em> Suffragis</em>t: Special Session pg. 121-122; Suffragist: TN 36th (1&2) pg. 199-201 Sept. 1920; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation. Knoxville</em>: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a>; <em>Suffragist</em>: “Now All Together for the 36!”; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement</em>. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 338, 342-348</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994, 186-229</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 242-244</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a> Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : Politics, Economics, Health, Demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 21</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a>. "Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="BodyA" align="center">Works Cited</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Kerber, Linda K. <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship, </em>New York: Hill & Wang, 1998.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women at the Polls." <em>The Suffragist</em>, December 1920. Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“Women’s Party, Busy!” <em>The Suffragist, </em>December 1920 Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Thompson, R.A. “After Suffrage: Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, 1994.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics, </em>Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Levin, P.L. Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), A<em>merican first ladies Their lives and their legacy New York</em>, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html">http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905">http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo">http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in the Progressive Era." Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement, </em>Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women! The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the</em></p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>South, and the Nation,</em> Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“They Say” <em>The Suffragist, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: Special Session, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: TN 36th (1&2) Sept. 1920, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a></span></p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Contributor
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Nadiya Workman, Jamey Wolf, Kate Wells
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Has Ratification Been Easy?
Subject
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The Suffragist, Ratification of 19th amendment, politics
Description
An account of the resource
his is an article in The Suffragist in February of 1920, titled “Has Ratification Been Easy?” by Elizabeth Green Kalb. She talks about the difficulties of the ratification process and the oppositions women were forced to overcome. she goes in detail of the first month after the passage of the amendment by Congress. She emphasis on the difficulties of the south, east and west. Every state ratification (with the exception of four) meant a long and difficult campaign against either the governor, the legislature or both. She states that the halfway mark has passed and how the long road of difficulties have just started, but the ratification was on it’s way. This played a role in the politics group paper that emphasized on the difficulties of the ratification and the major role the last state had in the ratification as well.
Creator
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<em>The Suffragist</em>
Publisher
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The University of Memphis Libraries
Date
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February 1920
Rights
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Contributor
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Kalb, Elizabeth Green
politics
Spring 2016
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https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15376/archive/files/06a7ef29da502410786975cba9ec3445.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=DfCES2LJ9Z0tjl6F%7EM-pyIcaGh-oT4%7EvcdXvd2hGq2d6MZbjdgF2NC13HhEvS0FeNc9Hf7rceNT5Lae4kFeCIgeBR2yBhYaDLXUEdJzgXL5V8j6DIm9LYUB66BU1ZOKWJqx5c6JayzKGl4%7EEPcgV2rAvBTa64VOF5af74CMdUpqKaM%7EMZr9H%7EB7PgTIkptHFgGQDHePVUAZlZd6Sm3N7dXbgSMu7wJE91F%7EFORTfNwX8gM0V0K%7EuaadDyrviEoWvf64dKGtVHvohyagYwHTf25CKr5-StaEJo5ol5IBdrN3bm7Uu1EhulKWqYftxUF5GdQLyszL6XSX8oU69odHgcg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
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Politics
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Politics, 2016
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The University of Memphis Libraries
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<p class="Body1" align="center"><span>"Political Women: Before, During, and After the 19th Amendment"</span></p>
<p class="Body1"><br /> When asked, most people will say that women’s political roles began with the passing of the 19th amendment to the United States constitution, which granted women the right to vote. However, women were active in politics long before that. Throughout history there has been a fight for women to gain a legal place in the political sphere; in fighting, women were already informally taking action in politics. From the common woman to more notable, women have worked together across centuries and numerous barriers to be formally included in politics. Women have been political beings long before the government recognized them as such. When the 19th amendment was passed, women’s participation in politics continued yet was still obstructed by discrimination.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> From the very formation of American democracy, women were left out of political processes. The new Republic held onto the notion of a “political father.” <a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> In this new nation where individualism and democracy were praised, women were overlooked politically. Though they held no formal political rights, women found themselves in the political sphere. The idea of Republican Motherhood promoted the notion that women should raise their sons to be good citizens, which placed an emphasis on women’s political nature. Women were expected to raise good voters but were denied the right to vote themselves. Despite their disenfranchisement, women still pushed for reform in legislation for issues such as child labor laws, education, healthcare, and more progressive issues such as women’s labor laws and birth control.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> Abigail Adams is one figure that exemplified the idea of Republican Motherhood. She was considered the "colonial foremother” of feminism and fought for abolition and universal suffrage.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Though women had no formal political rights, Abigail Adams was one of the first female presences that had significant influence in the history of women’s rights.</p>
<p class="BodyA">Even more well-known than Adams are the duo known for women’s progress in politics was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. When first meeting in 1851, Stanton was already well-versed in the world of reform. She had married antislavery orator Henry B. Stanton in 1840 along with having had an informal legal education from her father, Daniel Cady, a notable law instructor in New York. Instead of attending reform meetings, she worked behind the scenes as her role as a mother kept her busy. <a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> </p>
<p class="BodyA">Susan B. Anthony’s background significantly influenced her morale and her belief that women should have a say in political matters.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Growing up Quaker, Anthony was brought up in a family with experience in abolitionist activism. After a failed attempt to speak at a temperance rally to discourage alcohol consumption, she realized that she needed to lobby with the suffragettes for women’s political rights. When she met Stanton in 1851, the pair immediately began moving to the creation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and became known as an inseparable duo.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> Anthony was the more versatile, working more with recruitment. Stanton wrote moving speeches and served as a firm foundation for Anthony to build from. The pair realized their combined potential and worked to create a suffrage movement that would change the course of history.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> The path to the 19th Amendment was anything but simple. Stanton and Anthony, as well as others, circulated petitions and urged Congress to pass an amendment to give women voting rights. Women picketed and campaigned because they realized quickly they not only had to fight for the right to vote, they had to win it.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> While neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to see their Amendment passed, their work was fundamental in getting the amendment passed. After the American civil war, women’s rights leaders saw emancipation as one of the most important of their goals. They believed that it would be useful as both a symbol of women’s equality and individuality to help improve women’s legal and social conditions. The fight fell short when the passing of the 14th and 15th amendments only granted voting rights to black men.<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In January of 1878, Aaron A. Sargent introduced the 19th Amendment (dubbed the Anthony Amendment) to the senate, but it sat in committees until 1887 when it was rejected by a 16 to 34 vote. As the number of states supporting suffrage grew, so did the number of supporters in Congress. In 1918, President Wilson endorsed the amendment and urged Democrats on Capitol Hill to give their support. In January 1918, the House of Representatives approved the amendment. However, in the Senate it failed to give 2/3 vote required for adoption. On February 10, 1919, it again failed by only one vote, but on June 4, 1919, the Congress of the United States finally approved the woman’s suffrage amendement.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Following that momentous approval, the suffragists needed to get three-quarters (36) of the states to ratify the amendment. The ratification process was anything but easy. Every state’s ratification (with the exception of four) met a long and difficult campaign against either the governor, the legislature or both. The article “Has Ratification Been Easy?” from the <em>Suffragist</em><em>,</em> goes in details of the struggles women faced during this time. By the middle of June of 1920, a year after congress sent the amendment to the states for approval, 35 states had ratified, needing only one more to pass. In <em>One Woman, One Vote</em>, historian Anastasia Sims stated that the suffragist leaders were shocked when Delaware unexpectedly defeated the amendment. No other state was slated to hold a legislative session before the November 1920 election and many politicians from both side of the party wanted the proposal to be made part of the Constitution before the election. Some states, anti-suffragist, governors intentionally refused to call into session legislatures because they knew they were in favor of the enfranchisement of women. Polls of the legislatures in Connecticut and Vermont suggested they would have ratified if called into Special Session, so the President called a Special Session of Congress to be brought before the House again. However, the anti-suffragist, anti-prohibition governors of the two states refused to do so. The cartoon “They Say”, illustrates the demand from Vermont legislatures who was constantly requesting a Special Session, but Governor Clement denied them based on his own anti-suffrage viewpoint, along with statements from him within the <em>Suffragist</em>. The people of Vermont were eager to support the amendment and wanted to be the 36th state but President Woodrow Wilson found an alternative.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Woodrow Wilson was able to convince the governors in North Carolina and Tennessee to call Special Sessions, but North Carolina defeated the amendment and urged Tennessee to follow their example. Suffragists were hoping on Tennessee legislatures would vote in their favor but were not sure of the outcome. The letters from President Woodrow Wilson, William L. Fierson and Tennessee Governor Albert H. Roberts in the Suffragist. The <em>Suffragist</em> published letters from Wilson asking Roberts for a Special Session and asking Fierson for advice on ratification, along with responses from both. After long lobbying/debates in Nashville, TN, the final campaign for ratification took place. In the article, “TN 36th!” the <em>Suffragist</em> editors detailed the campaign for ratification. The article emphasizes the role of Sue White, the Tennessee State Chairman of the Women’s Party, and the leader in the final campaign. The result of the Tennessee legislature came to a tie of 48-48. The Speaker called the measure to a ratification vote (a recall vote), where most people assumed the vote was defeated by the ant-suffragist red flowers pinned to them.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Anti-suffragist representative, Harry Burn received a letter from his mother, Pheobe Ensminger Burn (also known as Miss Febb in the community). In the letter she wrote, “Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the “rat” in ratification”. Burn voted in favor of the amendment, resulting in Tennessee’s ratification. Tennessee became the necessary 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment, and winning the women the right to vote.U.S. Secretary of State, Colby Bainbridge certified the results on 28 August 1920. The cartoon from the <em>Suffragist</em>, “Now All Together for the 36!” is an image of both parties standing on each side of a woman with a sash, with a banner above them reading “Tennessee”. This represents the two parties coming together supporting the amendment, and viewing women as equals. That following November 2, more than eight million women voted in the election. <a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1920, the passage of the 19th amendment changed the role of women in politics forever; for the first time in the country they were awarded the right to vote universally. Women showed up at the polls and “. . .were voting for and interested in the same issues that men were.” With the formal right to vote, women were still supporting many of the same issues; increased spending for schools and healthcare rights were two issues women involved themselves in right after winning the right to vote.<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> The vast issues women were involved in kept them very busy politically as could be seen demonstrated in political cartoons of the day. One in particular shows a woman telephone operator surrounded by papers, each with an issues women were fighting for such as birth control, health care, and tax reform.<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a>As time moved forward into the 1950s and 1960s women were still supporting similar issues and still are today. More recently, the gender gap in political interests have begun to break down. No longer are women primarily confined to domestic political issues; men and women alike are supporting the same issues and having differing views regardless of sex.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> To get a sense of what was happening with women in politics all over the nation we can specifically look at Tennessee, one of the pivotal and most controversial states in the passing of the 19th Amendment. Tennessee women generally followed the trend of other women all over the nation. Moving into the mid to late 1900s Tennessee women were finding ways to make their voices heard. The Tennessee League of Women Voters pushed two major issues: the revision of the Tennessee Constitution and reapportionment of the Tennessee state legislature. The league was greatly interested in state affairs. Their focus on reapportionment extended to overall efficiency of the state government. In the 1950s, the league extended their focus to matters of children and school board member selection and reform for the juvenile justice system. The women began promoting “personal democracy”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> These Tennessee women were making the effort to establish a core of educated women voters and to make sure their voices were being heard.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1963, Tennessee Governor Frank Clement established the Government Commission on the Status of Women. The commission was tasked with exploring four specific areas of women’s lives: employment, different treatment under the law, educational policies concerning women, and the effect of insurance and tax laws on the income of women. The commission was composed of both women and men of both African American and white races. The commission ultimately came to call for an end to discriminatory pay policies, that women serve on juries, and to repeal the luxury tax specific to women (i.e. jewelry, make up and feminine products). Due to the pay gap and luxury taxes still remaining to this day, the commission was not successful in all of its goals, but in some it did make head way.<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the 21st century, the role of women in politics was beginning to change. No longer was it new for women to be seen as political beings, and newer issues were beginning to interest women. One of the biggest issues that women took up was combatting violence against women. Though women’s violence has always existed and has to some degree been addressed by the law, the rising rape rates and their subsequent trials or lack thereof deeply concerned women. Besides their concern over violence towards women, women continued to support social services and child care, education, health care, and reproduction and family planning laws.<a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the most recent decade, women’s political participation has begun to fall; the novelty of being able to vote has worn off. Women don't remember the fight for suffrage, and the women who championed the 19th amendment are long gone. Children and grandchildren are no longer hearing the stories of how their ancestors fought to give them the right to vote. The lower voter turnout rates are not to blame solely on the lack of novelty of being a woman voter; voter turnout across the board has decreased in both men and women. However, despite this overall downwards trend in political participation, a gender division still exists. At the turn of 20th to 21st century, Tennessee was ranked particularly low in women’s political participation. In 1992-1996 the state ranked 46th out of the 50 states in both the percentage of women registered to vote and voter turnout amongst women. One area in which Tennessee was above average was in women’s resources ranking, 21st out of 50. Women officials in office were relatively low, however. There was only one woman in a statewide executive elected office in Tennessee and no women representing the state in congress by 2000. The state legislature boasted a 16.7 percent of women in 1999 and women made up 36.4 percent of the appointed officials in the state.<a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> In 2015, the number has only slightly increased to 17.4 percent in the state legislature but has gone back to 16.7 percent for 2016.<a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> Currently, there are now two women serving as congresswomen in the House of Representatives.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> One might think that the fight for equality and women’s rights would have long since been accomplished, and yet in our time of convenience it seems we have forgotten what a privilege it is to vote. There are countries in our world that still deny their women basic rights as human beings. To think that there are women in the world that do not know the triumph of having a say in such a male-dominated field seems inconceivable to the average American woman. It would seem that we view the world through rose-colored glasses and take for granted our advantage in the politics of the world, let alone the entire country. Some may say that we do not face the same hardships as our suffragette heroes of the past, but by careful examination of today’s political atmosphere, one might come to a vastly different conclusion. We must each use our earned right as intelligent and able women to distinguish ourselves not only in our country but also our homes. The modern woman must come to the realization that the battle was won, but the war is far from over.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> </p>
<div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> Linda K. Kerber <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship </em>(New York: Hill & Wang, 1998) Chapter 1.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920; Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”; Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : women, law, and policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994 pg 229 ; Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Levin, P.L. (1996). Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), American first ladies Their lives and their legacy (pp. 16-45). New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> "Women in the Progressive Era." Women in the Progressive Era. Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement.</em> Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 9-11,81-88, 333; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation</em>: “Why?”. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, 333-335.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a>“They Say” <em>The Suffragist,</em> pg 181; “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>pg 19;</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a><em> Suffragis</em>t: Special Session pg. 121-122; Suffragist: TN 36th (1&2) pg. 199-201 Sept. 1920; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation. Knoxville</em>: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a>; <em>Suffragist</em>: “Now All Together for the 36!”; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement</em>. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 338, 342-348</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994, 186-229</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 242-244</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a> Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : Politics, Economics, Health, Demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 21</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a>. "Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="BodyA" align="center">Works Cited</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Kerber, Linda K. <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship, </em>New York: Hill & Wang, 1998.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women at the Polls." <em>The Suffragist</em>, December 1920. Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“Women’s Party, Busy!” <em>The Suffragist, </em>December 1920 Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Thompson, R.A. “After Suffrage: Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, 1994.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics, </em>Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Levin, P.L. Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), A<em>merican first ladies Their lives and their legacy New York</em>, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html">http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905">http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo">http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in the Progressive Era." Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement, </em>Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women! The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the</em></p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>South, and the Nation,</em> Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“They Say” <em>The Suffragist, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: Special Session, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: TN 36th (1&2) Sept. 1920, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a></span></p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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Date
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2016
Contributor
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Nadiya Workman, Jamey Wolf, Kate Wells
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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"They Say"
Subject
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Politics, Tennessee, Vermont, 19th amendment
Description
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The drawing, "They Say" was published in 1920, in <em>The Suffragist.</em> The drawing illustrates a donkey holding a sign that says Tennesse and an elephant holding a sign that says Vermont. A woman in front of the two is wearing a suffrage sash and is holding a trophy that is that represents the 19th amendment. Tennessee has a sign that says "Dear lady walk upon this" and Vermont has a sign that says, "My fair lady, I implore you to cross to victory upon my rainment." I chose this drawing because it illustrates how Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment and how the legislature of Vermont wanted to become the 36th state that made the amendment pass. But the Governor Clement of Vermont did not allow them to have a Special Session. Which led President Wilson to try to convince Tennessee to have a Special Session, which they did and led Tennessee to becoming the 36th state and became the state that finalized the amendment.
Creator
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<em>The Suffragist</em>
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<em>The Suffragist</em>. Periodicals. July 1920 "They Say"
Publisher
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University of Memphis Libraries.
Date
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July 1920
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
politics
Spring 2016
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Politics
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Politics, 2016
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The University of Memphis Libraries
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<p class="Body1" align="center"><span>"Political Women: Before, During, and After the 19th Amendment"</span></p>
<p class="Body1"><br /> When asked, most people will say that women’s political roles began with the passing of the 19th amendment to the United States constitution, which granted women the right to vote. However, women were active in politics long before that. Throughout history there has been a fight for women to gain a legal place in the political sphere; in fighting, women were already informally taking action in politics. From the common woman to more notable, women have worked together across centuries and numerous barriers to be formally included in politics. Women have been political beings long before the government recognized them as such. When the 19th amendment was passed, women’s participation in politics continued yet was still obstructed by discrimination.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> From the very formation of American democracy, women were left out of political processes. The new Republic held onto the notion of a “political father.” <a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> In this new nation where individualism and democracy were praised, women were overlooked politically. Though they held no formal political rights, women found themselves in the political sphere. The idea of Republican Motherhood promoted the notion that women should raise their sons to be good citizens, which placed an emphasis on women’s political nature. Women were expected to raise good voters but were denied the right to vote themselves. Despite their disenfranchisement, women still pushed for reform in legislation for issues such as child labor laws, education, healthcare, and more progressive issues such as women’s labor laws and birth control.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> Abigail Adams is one figure that exemplified the idea of Republican Motherhood. She was considered the "colonial foremother” of feminism and fought for abolition and universal suffrage.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Though women had no formal political rights, Abigail Adams was one of the first female presences that had significant influence in the history of women’s rights.</p>
<p class="BodyA">Even more well-known than Adams are the duo known for women’s progress in politics was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. When first meeting in 1851, Stanton was already well-versed in the world of reform. She had married antislavery orator Henry B. Stanton in 1840 along with having had an informal legal education from her father, Daniel Cady, a notable law instructor in New York. Instead of attending reform meetings, she worked behind the scenes as her role as a mother kept her busy. <a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> </p>
<p class="BodyA">Susan B. Anthony’s background significantly influenced her morale and her belief that women should have a say in political matters.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Growing up Quaker, Anthony was brought up in a family with experience in abolitionist activism. After a failed attempt to speak at a temperance rally to discourage alcohol consumption, she realized that she needed to lobby with the suffragettes for women’s political rights. When she met Stanton in 1851, the pair immediately began moving to the creation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and became known as an inseparable duo.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> Anthony was the more versatile, working more with recruitment. Stanton wrote moving speeches and served as a firm foundation for Anthony to build from. The pair realized their combined potential and worked to create a suffrage movement that would change the course of history.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> The path to the 19th Amendment was anything but simple. Stanton and Anthony, as well as others, circulated petitions and urged Congress to pass an amendment to give women voting rights. Women picketed and campaigned because they realized quickly they not only had to fight for the right to vote, they had to win it.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> While neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to see their Amendment passed, their work was fundamental in getting the amendment passed. After the American civil war, women’s rights leaders saw emancipation as one of the most important of their goals. They believed that it would be useful as both a symbol of women’s equality and individuality to help improve women’s legal and social conditions. The fight fell short when the passing of the 14th and 15th amendments only granted voting rights to black men.<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In January of 1878, Aaron A. Sargent introduced the 19th Amendment (dubbed the Anthony Amendment) to the senate, but it sat in committees until 1887 when it was rejected by a 16 to 34 vote. As the number of states supporting suffrage grew, so did the number of supporters in Congress. In 1918, President Wilson endorsed the amendment and urged Democrats on Capitol Hill to give their support. In January 1918, the House of Representatives approved the amendment. However, in the Senate it failed to give 2/3 vote required for adoption. On February 10, 1919, it again failed by only one vote, but on June 4, 1919, the Congress of the United States finally approved the woman’s suffrage amendement.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Following that momentous approval, the suffragists needed to get three-quarters (36) of the states to ratify the amendment. The ratification process was anything but easy. Every state’s ratification (with the exception of four) met a long and difficult campaign against either the governor, the legislature or both. The article “Has Ratification Been Easy?” from the <em>Suffragist</em><em>,</em> goes in details of the struggles women faced during this time. By the middle of June of 1920, a year after congress sent the amendment to the states for approval, 35 states had ratified, needing only one more to pass. In <em>One Woman, One Vote</em>, historian Anastasia Sims stated that the suffragist leaders were shocked when Delaware unexpectedly defeated the amendment. No other state was slated to hold a legislative session before the November 1920 election and many politicians from both side of the party wanted the proposal to be made part of the Constitution before the election. Some states, anti-suffragist, governors intentionally refused to call into session legislatures because they knew they were in favor of the enfranchisement of women. Polls of the legislatures in Connecticut and Vermont suggested they would have ratified if called into Special Session, so the President called a Special Session of Congress to be brought before the House again. However, the anti-suffragist, anti-prohibition governors of the two states refused to do so. The cartoon “They Say”, illustrates the demand from Vermont legislatures who was constantly requesting a Special Session, but Governor Clement denied them based on his own anti-suffrage viewpoint, along with statements from him within the <em>Suffragist</em>. The people of Vermont were eager to support the amendment and wanted to be the 36th state but President Woodrow Wilson found an alternative.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Woodrow Wilson was able to convince the governors in North Carolina and Tennessee to call Special Sessions, but North Carolina defeated the amendment and urged Tennessee to follow their example. Suffragists were hoping on Tennessee legislatures would vote in their favor but were not sure of the outcome. The letters from President Woodrow Wilson, William L. Fierson and Tennessee Governor Albert H. Roberts in the Suffragist. The <em>Suffragist</em> published letters from Wilson asking Roberts for a Special Session and asking Fierson for advice on ratification, along with responses from both. After long lobbying/debates in Nashville, TN, the final campaign for ratification took place. In the article, “TN 36th!” the <em>Suffragist</em> editors detailed the campaign for ratification. The article emphasizes the role of Sue White, the Tennessee State Chairman of the Women’s Party, and the leader in the final campaign. The result of the Tennessee legislature came to a tie of 48-48. The Speaker called the measure to a ratification vote (a recall vote), where most people assumed the vote was defeated by the ant-suffragist red flowers pinned to them.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Anti-suffragist representative, Harry Burn received a letter from his mother, Pheobe Ensminger Burn (also known as Miss Febb in the community). In the letter she wrote, “Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the “rat” in ratification”. Burn voted in favor of the amendment, resulting in Tennessee’s ratification. Tennessee became the necessary 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment, and winning the women the right to vote.U.S. Secretary of State, Colby Bainbridge certified the results on 28 August 1920. The cartoon from the <em>Suffragist</em>, “Now All Together for the 36!” is an image of both parties standing on each side of a woman with a sash, with a banner above them reading “Tennessee”. This represents the two parties coming together supporting the amendment, and viewing women as equals. That following November 2, more than eight million women voted in the election. <a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1920, the passage of the 19th amendment changed the role of women in politics forever; for the first time in the country they were awarded the right to vote universally. Women showed up at the polls and “. . .were voting for and interested in the same issues that men were.” With the formal right to vote, women were still supporting many of the same issues; increased spending for schools and healthcare rights were two issues women involved themselves in right after winning the right to vote.<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> The vast issues women were involved in kept them very busy politically as could be seen demonstrated in political cartoons of the day. One in particular shows a woman telephone operator surrounded by papers, each with an issues women were fighting for such as birth control, health care, and tax reform.<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a>As time moved forward into the 1950s and 1960s women were still supporting similar issues and still are today. More recently, the gender gap in political interests have begun to break down. No longer are women primarily confined to domestic political issues; men and women alike are supporting the same issues and having differing views regardless of sex.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> To get a sense of what was happening with women in politics all over the nation we can specifically look at Tennessee, one of the pivotal and most controversial states in the passing of the 19th Amendment. Tennessee women generally followed the trend of other women all over the nation. Moving into the mid to late 1900s Tennessee women were finding ways to make their voices heard. The Tennessee League of Women Voters pushed two major issues: the revision of the Tennessee Constitution and reapportionment of the Tennessee state legislature. The league was greatly interested in state affairs. Their focus on reapportionment extended to overall efficiency of the state government. In the 1950s, the league extended their focus to matters of children and school board member selection and reform for the juvenile justice system. The women began promoting “personal democracy”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> These Tennessee women were making the effort to establish a core of educated women voters and to make sure their voices were being heard.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1963, Tennessee Governor Frank Clement established the Government Commission on the Status of Women. The commission was tasked with exploring four specific areas of women’s lives: employment, different treatment under the law, educational policies concerning women, and the effect of insurance and tax laws on the income of women. The commission was composed of both women and men of both African American and white races. The commission ultimately came to call for an end to discriminatory pay policies, that women serve on juries, and to repeal the luxury tax specific to women (i.e. jewelry, make up and feminine products). Due to the pay gap and luxury taxes still remaining to this day, the commission was not successful in all of its goals, but in some it did make head way.<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the 21st century, the role of women in politics was beginning to change. No longer was it new for women to be seen as political beings, and newer issues were beginning to interest women. One of the biggest issues that women took up was combatting violence against women. Though women’s violence has always existed and has to some degree been addressed by the law, the rising rape rates and their subsequent trials or lack thereof deeply concerned women. Besides their concern over violence towards women, women continued to support social services and child care, education, health care, and reproduction and family planning laws.<a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the most recent decade, women’s political participation has begun to fall; the novelty of being able to vote has worn off. Women don't remember the fight for suffrage, and the women who championed the 19th amendment are long gone. Children and grandchildren are no longer hearing the stories of how their ancestors fought to give them the right to vote. The lower voter turnout rates are not to blame solely on the lack of novelty of being a woman voter; voter turnout across the board has decreased in both men and women. However, despite this overall downwards trend in political participation, a gender division still exists. At the turn of 20th to 21st century, Tennessee was ranked particularly low in women’s political participation. In 1992-1996 the state ranked 46th out of the 50 states in both the percentage of women registered to vote and voter turnout amongst women. One area in which Tennessee was above average was in women’s resources ranking, 21st out of 50. Women officials in office were relatively low, however. There was only one woman in a statewide executive elected office in Tennessee and no women representing the state in congress by 2000. The state legislature boasted a 16.7 percent of women in 1999 and women made up 36.4 percent of the appointed officials in the state.<a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> In 2015, the number has only slightly increased to 17.4 percent in the state legislature but has gone back to 16.7 percent for 2016.<a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> Currently, there are now two women serving as congresswomen in the House of Representatives.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> One might think that the fight for equality and women’s rights would have long since been accomplished, and yet in our time of convenience it seems we have forgotten what a privilege it is to vote. There are countries in our world that still deny their women basic rights as human beings. To think that there are women in the world that do not know the triumph of having a say in such a male-dominated field seems inconceivable to the average American woman. It would seem that we view the world through rose-colored glasses and take for granted our advantage in the politics of the world, let alone the entire country. Some may say that we do not face the same hardships as our suffragette heroes of the past, but by careful examination of today’s political atmosphere, one might come to a vastly different conclusion. We must each use our earned right as intelligent and able women to distinguish ourselves not only in our country but also our homes. The modern woman must come to the realization that the battle was won, but the war is far from over.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> </p>
<div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> Linda K. Kerber <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship </em>(New York: Hill & Wang, 1998) Chapter 1.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920; Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”; Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : women, law, and policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994 pg 229 ; Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Levin, P.L. (1996). Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), American first ladies Their lives and their legacy (pp. 16-45). New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> "Women in the Progressive Era." Women in the Progressive Era. Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement.</em> Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 9-11,81-88, 333; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation</em>: “Why?”. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, 333-335.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a>“They Say” <em>The Suffragist,</em> pg 181; “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>pg 19;</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a><em> Suffragis</em>t: Special Session pg. 121-122; Suffragist: TN 36th (1&2) pg. 199-201 Sept. 1920; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation. Knoxville</em>: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a>; <em>Suffragist</em>: “Now All Together for the 36!”; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement</em>. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 338, 342-348</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994, 186-229</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 242-244</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a> Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : Politics, Economics, Health, Demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 21</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a>. "Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="BodyA" align="center">Works Cited</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Kerber, Linda K. <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship, </em>New York: Hill & Wang, 1998.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women at the Polls." <em>The Suffragist</em>, December 1920. Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“Women’s Party, Busy!” <em>The Suffragist, </em>December 1920 Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Thompson, R.A. “After Suffrage: Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, 1994.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics, </em>Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Levin, P.L. Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), A<em>merican first ladies Their lives and their legacy New York</em>, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html">http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905">http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo">http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in the Progressive Era." Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement, </em>Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women! The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the</em></p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>South, and the Nation,</em> Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“They Say” <em>The Suffragist, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: Special Session, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: TN 36th (1&2) Sept. 1920, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a></span></p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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Date
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2016
Contributor
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Nadiya Workman, Jamey Wolf, Kate Wells
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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"Tennessee, 36th!"
Subject
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politics, Tennessee, 19th amendment,
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"Tennessee--The 36th!" is a article from <em>The Suffragist</em> that was written in September 1920. The article talks about the week's of suspense that gave the final vote for ratification on August 18th. the article mentions Tennessee's intensive state wide campaign under the direction of Miss Sue White, who was the chairman and concentrated their efforts in Nashville. Before Miss White left Washington to head to Nashville, she polled the legislature in both Houses of the legislature for ratificaiton. The members of legislature were convinced that Special Sessions was legal and was ready to vote. However, when the Special Session came alot of the members of legislature changed their mind on their vote for the amendment due to pressure from anti-suffragist. The article goes in detail who changed their mind and who stood firm and resulted in a 48-48 tie. The Speaker of House called the measure to a ratification vote (recall vote) and that Burn stood up and voted in favor of the amendment (based on the letter he recieved from his mother the morning of) which ultimatley made Tennessee pass the ratificaiton and Tennessee became the necessary 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment, and winning the women the right to vote.U.S. Secretary of State, Colby Bainbridge certified the results on 28 August 1920.
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<em>The Suffragist</em>
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<em>The Suffragist</em>. Periodicals. September 1920 "Tennessee--36th!"
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The University of Memphis Libraries.
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September 1920
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
politics
Spring 2016
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https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15376/archive/files/aa8d44ce94b948b4c1ce5ea992f5d21b.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=eyq%7EKeEgJ8YItHMfVsDHmCUXY%7Eq8EJrkTpYuIKDbgaETN8w8U4KokAPFMvUWOuDS44Pk2Ji-7Gtawraq7L8Y8IJhZGHOg1y8taojTlY04ZprQaqU2LkYKgwherSeh0awE7pmb6PmVt%7EpEWsNKUwGpznZgTsTeR9j-jiHTotZ0nR7Bt17VRohBYgI3wJ51RaWKMMFnoFmu9gmrw5g78357XWAqzDGjV4n7Dc-kP87ROHULrJwz4%7ECclgaqyF9aO%7EVLQ9mA4l58G5PfmXdYTmicterdl6C0g9272L9sIvHNAk8Ue1ZqeQLh2YKI%7EfFLN8k9OWjttkpRP66h-z9Svp9bQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
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Politics
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Politics, 2016
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The University of Memphis Libraries
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<p class="Body1" align="center"><span>"Political Women: Before, During, and After the 19th Amendment"</span></p>
<p class="Body1"><br /> When asked, most people will say that women’s political roles began with the passing of the 19th amendment to the United States constitution, which granted women the right to vote. However, women were active in politics long before that. Throughout history there has been a fight for women to gain a legal place in the political sphere; in fighting, women were already informally taking action in politics. From the common woman to more notable, women have worked together across centuries and numerous barriers to be formally included in politics. Women have been political beings long before the government recognized them as such. When the 19th amendment was passed, women’s participation in politics continued yet was still obstructed by discrimination.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> From the very formation of American democracy, women were left out of political processes. The new Republic held onto the notion of a “political father.” <a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> In this new nation where individualism and democracy were praised, women were overlooked politically. Though they held no formal political rights, women found themselves in the political sphere. The idea of Republican Motherhood promoted the notion that women should raise their sons to be good citizens, which placed an emphasis on women’s political nature. Women were expected to raise good voters but were denied the right to vote themselves. Despite their disenfranchisement, women still pushed for reform in legislation for issues such as child labor laws, education, healthcare, and more progressive issues such as women’s labor laws and birth control.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> Abigail Adams is one figure that exemplified the idea of Republican Motherhood. She was considered the "colonial foremother” of feminism and fought for abolition and universal suffrage.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Though women had no formal political rights, Abigail Adams was one of the first female presences that had significant influence in the history of women’s rights.</p>
<p class="BodyA">Even more well-known than Adams are the duo known for women’s progress in politics was Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. When first meeting in 1851, Stanton was already well-versed in the world of reform. She had married antislavery orator Henry B. Stanton in 1840 along with having had an informal legal education from her father, Daniel Cady, a notable law instructor in New York. Instead of attending reform meetings, she worked behind the scenes as her role as a mother kept her busy. <a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> </p>
<p class="BodyA">Susan B. Anthony’s background significantly influenced her morale and her belief that women should have a say in political matters.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Growing up Quaker, Anthony was brought up in a family with experience in abolitionist activism. After a failed attempt to speak at a temperance rally to discourage alcohol consumption, she realized that she needed to lobby with the suffragettes for women’s political rights. When she met Stanton in 1851, the pair immediately began moving to the creation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and became known as an inseparable duo.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> Anthony was the more versatile, working more with recruitment. Stanton wrote moving speeches and served as a firm foundation for Anthony to build from. The pair realized their combined potential and worked to create a suffrage movement that would change the course of history.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> The path to the 19th Amendment was anything but simple. Stanton and Anthony, as well as others, circulated petitions and urged Congress to pass an amendment to give women voting rights. Women picketed and campaigned because they realized quickly they not only had to fight for the right to vote, they had to win it.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> While neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to see their Amendment passed, their work was fundamental in getting the amendment passed. After the American civil war, women’s rights leaders saw emancipation as one of the most important of their goals. They believed that it would be useful as both a symbol of women’s equality and individuality to help improve women’s legal and social conditions. The fight fell short when the passing of the 14th and 15th amendments only granted voting rights to black men.<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In January of 1878, Aaron A. Sargent introduced the 19th Amendment (dubbed the Anthony Amendment) to the senate, but it sat in committees until 1887 when it was rejected by a 16 to 34 vote. As the number of states supporting suffrage grew, so did the number of supporters in Congress. In 1918, President Wilson endorsed the amendment and urged Democrats on Capitol Hill to give their support. In January 1918, the House of Representatives approved the amendment. However, in the Senate it failed to give 2/3 vote required for adoption. On February 10, 1919, it again failed by only one vote, but on June 4, 1919, the Congress of the United States finally approved the woman’s suffrage amendement.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Following that momentous approval, the suffragists needed to get three-quarters (36) of the states to ratify the amendment. The ratification process was anything but easy. Every state’s ratification (with the exception of four) met a long and difficult campaign against either the governor, the legislature or both. The article “Has Ratification Been Easy?” from the <em>Suffragist</em><em>,</em> goes in details of the struggles women faced during this time. By the middle of June of 1920, a year after congress sent the amendment to the states for approval, 35 states had ratified, needing only one more to pass. In <em>One Woman, One Vote</em>, historian Anastasia Sims stated that the suffragist leaders were shocked when Delaware unexpectedly defeated the amendment. No other state was slated to hold a legislative session before the November 1920 election and many politicians from both side of the party wanted the proposal to be made part of the Constitution before the election. Some states, anti-suffragist, governors intentionally refused to call into session legislatures because they knew they were in favor of the enfranchisement of women. Polls of the legislatures in Connecticut and Vermont suggested they would have ratified if called into Special Session, so the President called a Special Session of Congress to be brought before the House again. However, the anti-suffragist, anti-prohibition governors of the two states refused to do so. The cartoon “They Say”, illustrates the demand from Vermont legislatures who was constantly requesting a Special Session, but Governor Clement denied them based on his own anti-suffrage viewpoint, along with statements from him within the <em>Suffragist</em>. The people of Vermont were eager to support the amendment and wanted to be the 36th state but President Woodrow Wilson found an alternative.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Woodrow Wilson was able to convince the governors in North Carolina and Tennessee to call Special Sessions, but North Carolina defeated the amendment and urged Tennessee to follow their example. Suffragists were hoping on Tennessee legislatures would vote in their favor but were not sure of the outcome. The letters from President Woodrow Wilson, William L. Fierson and Tennessee Governor Albert H. Roberts in the Suffragist. The <em>Suffragist</em> published letters from Wilson asking Roberts for a Special Session and asking Fierson for advice on ratification, along with responses from both. After long lobbying/debates in Nashville, TN, the final campaign for ratification took place. In the article, “TN 36th!” the <em>Suffragist</em> editors detailed the campaign for ratification. The article emphasizes the role of Sue White, the Tennessee State Chairman of the Women’s Party, and the leader in the final campaign. The result of the Tennessee legislature came to a tie of 48-48. The Speaker called the measure to a ratification vote (a recall vote), where most people assumed the vote was defeated by the ant-suffragist red flowers pinned to them.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> Anti-suffragist representative, Harry Burn received a letter from his mother, Pheobe Ensminger Burn (also known as Miss Febb in the community). In the letter she wrote, “Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the “rat” in ratification”. Burn voted in favor of the amendment, resulting in Tennessee’s ratification. Tennessee became the necessary 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment, and winning the women the right to vote.U.S. Secretary of State, Colby Bainbridge certified the results on 28 August 1920. The cartoon from the <em>Suffragist</em>, “Now All Together for the 36!” is an image of both parties standing on each side of a woman with a sash, with a banner above them reading “Tennessee”. This represents the two parties coming together supporting the amendment, and viewing women as equals. That following November 2, more than eight million women voted in the election. <a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1920, the passage of the 19th amendment changed the role of women in politics forever; for the first time in the country they were awarded the right to vote universally. Women showed up at the polls and “. . .were voting for and interested in the same issues that men were.” With the formal right to vote, women were still supporting many of the same issues; increased spending for schools and healthcare rights were two issues women involved themselves in right after winning the right to vote.<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> The vast issues women were involved in kept them very busy politically as could be seen demonstrated in political cartoons of the day. One in particular shows a woman telephone operator surrounded by papers, each with an issues women were fighting for such as birth control, health care, and tax reform.<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a>As time moved forward into the 1950s and 1960s women were still supporting similar issues and still are today. More recently, the gender gap in political interests have begun to break down. No longer are women primarily confined to domestic political issues; men and women alike are supporting the same issues and having differing views regardless of sex.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> To get a sense of what was happening with women in politics all over the nation we can specifically look at Tennessee, one of the pivotal and most controversial states in the passing of the 19th Amendment. Tennessee women generally followed the trend of other women all over the nation. Moving into the mid to late 1900s Tennessee women were finding ways to make their voices heard. The Tennessee League of Women Voters pushed two major issues: the revision of the Tennessee Constitution and reapportionment of the Tennessee state legislature. The league was greatly interested in state affairs. Their focus on reapportionment extended to overall efficiency of the state government. In the 1950s, the league extended their focus to matters of children and school board member selection and reform for the juvenile justice system. The women began promoting “personal democracy”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> These Tennessee women were making the effort to establish a core of educated women voters and to make sure their voices were being heard.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> In 1963, Tennessee Governor Frank Clement established the Government Commission on the Status of Women. The commission was tasked with exploring four specific areas of women’s lives: employment, different treatment under the law, educational policies concerning women, and the effect of insurance and tax laws on the income of women. The commission was composed of both women and men of both African American and white races. The commission ultimately came to call for an end to discriminatory pay policies, that women serve on juries, and to repeal the luxury tax specific to women (i.e. jewelry, make up and feminine products). Due to the pay gap and luxury taxes still remaining to this day, the commission was not successful in all of its goals, but in some it did make head way.<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the 21st century, the role of women in politics was beginning to change. No longer was it new for women to be seen as political beings, and newer issues were beginning to interest women. One of the biggest issues that women took up was combatting violence against women. Though women’s violence has always existed and has to some degree been addressed by the law, the rising rape rates and their subsequent trials or lack thereof deeply concerned women. Besides their concern over violence towards women, women continued to support social services and child care, education, health care, and reproduction and family planning laws.<a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> In the most recent decade, women’s political participation has begun to fall; the novelty of being able to vote has worn off. Women don't remember the fight for suffrage, and the women who championed the 19th amendment are long gone. Children and grandchildren are no longer hearing the stories of how their ancestors fought to give them the right to vote. The lower voter turnout rates are not to blame solely on the lack of novelty of being a woman voter; voter turnout across the board has decreased in both men and women. However, despite this overall downwards trend in political participation, a gender division still exists. At the turn of 20th to 21st century, Tennessee was ranked particularly low in women’s political participation. In 1992-1996 the state ranked 46th out of the 50 states in both the percentage of women registered to vote and voter turnout amongst women. One area in which Tennessee was above average was in women’s resources ranking, 21st out of 50. Women officials in office were relatively low, however. There was only one woman in a statewide executive elected office in Tennessee and no women representing the state in congress by 2000. The state legislature boasted a 16.7 percent of women in 1999 and women made up 36.4 percent of the appointed officials in the state.<a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> In 2015, the number has only slightly increased to 17.4 percent in the state legislature but has gone back to 16.7 percent for 2016.<a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> Currently, there are now two women serving as congresswomen in the House of Representatives.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="BodyA"> One might think that the fight for equality and women’s rights would have long since been accomplished, and yet in our time of convenience it seems we have forgotten what a privilege it is to vote. There are countries in our world that still deny their women basic rights as human beings. To think that there are women in the world that do not know the triumph of having a say in such a male-dominated field seems inconceivable to the average American woman. It would seem that we view the world through rose-colored glasses and take for granted our advantage in the politics of the world, let alone the entire country. Some may say that we do not face the same hardships as our suffragette heroes of the past, but by careful examination of today’s political atmosphere, one might come to a vastly different conclusion. We must each use our earned right as intelligent and able women to distinguish ourselves not only in our country but also our homes. The modern woman must come to the realization that the battle was won, but the war is far from over.</p>
<p class="BodyA"> </p>
<div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a> Linda K. Kerber <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship </em>(New York: Hill & Wang, 1998) Chapter 1.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920; Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”; Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : women, law, and policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994 pg 229 ; Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> Levin, P.L. (1996). Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), American first ladies Their lives and their legacy (pp. 16-45). New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> "Women in the Progressive Era." Women in the Progressive Era. Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement.</em> Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 9-11,81-88, 333; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation</em>: “Why?”. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Spruill, 333-335.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a>“They Say” <em>The Suffragist,</em> pg 181; “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>pg 19;</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a><em> Suffragis</em>t: Special Session pg. 121-122; Suffragist: TN 36th (1&2) pg. 199-201 Sept. 1920; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women!: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the South, and the Nation. Knoxville</em>: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
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<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a>; <em>Suffragist</em>: “Now All Together for the 36!”; Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement</em>. Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995. 338, 342-348</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> ”Women at the Polls” <em>The Suffragist </em>volume VIII no. 11 Dec 1920</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., “Women’s Party ‘Busy!’”</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[15]</sup></sup></a> Thompson, R.A. (1994). Ruth Thompson, “After Suffrage: : Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University,1994, 186-229</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 242-244</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[17]</sup></sup></a> Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : Politics, Economics, Health, Demographics </em>(Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000), 17.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[18]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., 21</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[19]</sup></sup></a> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a>. "Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx.</p>
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<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p class="BodyA" align="center">Works Cited</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Kerber, Linda K. <em>No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship, </em>New York: Hill & Wang, 1998.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women at the Polls." <em>The Suffragist</em>, December 1920. Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“Women’s Party, Busy!” <em>The Suffragist, </em>December 1920 Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Thompson, R.A. “After Suffrage: Women, Law, and Policy in Tennessee, 1920-1980” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, 1994.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Institute for Women’s Policy Research, <em>The Status of Women in Tennessee : politics, economics, health, demographics, </em>Washington D.C.: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2000.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> Levin, P.L. Abigail (Smith) Adams (1744-1818), First Lady: 1797-1801. In L.L. Gould (Ed.), A<em>merican first ladies Their lives and their legacy New York</em>, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online." Stanton Biography: Stanton and Anthony Papers Online. July 2009. Accessed April 15, 2016. <a href="http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html">http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/resources/ecsbio.html</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Susan B. Anthony." Bio.com. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905">http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">June-Friesen, Kate. "Old Friends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Made History Together." The National Endowment for the Humanities. July/August 2014. Accessed April 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo">http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/julyaugust/feature/old-friends-elizabeth-cady-stanton-and-susan-b-anthony-made-histo</a>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in the Progressive Era." Accessed April 23, 2016. https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/suffrage.html.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian.<em> One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement, </em>Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Spruill, Marjorie Julian. <em>Votes for Women! The Woman Suffrage Movement in Tennessee, the</em></p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>South, and the Nation,</em> Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.</p>
<p class="Footnote">“They Say” <em>The Suffragist, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> “Has Ratification Been Easy” <em>The Suffragist Feb 1920, </em>Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: Special Session, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote"><em>The Suffragis</em>t: TN 36th (1&2) Sept. 1920, Periodicals, Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Footnote">Cohen, Jennie. "The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment." History.com. August 16, 2010. Accessed April 15, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment">http://www.history.com/news/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage-passing-the-19th-amendment</a></span></p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Women in State Legislators for 2015." National Conference for State Legislature. September 4, 2015. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2015.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote">"Women in State Legislators for 2016." National Conference for State Legislature. February 4, 2016. <span><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx">http://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/womens-legislative-network/women-in-state-legislatures-for-2016.aspx</a></span>.</p>
<p class="Footnote"> "Tennessee." GovTrack.us. Accessed April 15, 2016. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/TN.</p>
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Date
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2016
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Nadiya Workman, Jamey Wolf, Kate Wells
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"Special Session in Tennessee"
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Special Session, Tennessee, 19th amendment, Woodrow Wilson, Albert H. Roberts, William L. Fierson
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This article is in <em>The Suffragist,</em> that consist of letters/telegrams from President Wilson to Governor Albert H. Roberts of Tennessee appealing for a special ratification session. Govenor Roberts stated that he owuld comply with President Wilson, in support of the amendment and that a session will be called. the article also has a letter President Woodrow Wilson wrote to acting attorney general William L. Frierson, asking his opinion on the constatutionality of ratification by a special session of Tennessee Legislature. Attorney General responded quickly and stated, "After the Ohio case, this leaves no doubt in my mind taht Tennessee Legislature if called in session, will have the clear power to ratify the amendment not withstanding any provision of the Tennessee Constitution." I chose this article, with these letters because it shows proof of the complication of the state of Tennessee consitution and the Federal constitution. This article also shows the major role President Wilson had in the women's suffrage movement, involving the 19th amendment. He constantly was fighting for their rights and doing everything in his power to help.
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<em>The Suffragist</em>
Wilson, Woodrow
Roberts, Albert H.
Frierson, William L.
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<em>The Suffragist. </em>June 1920 "Special Session in Tennessee"
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The University of Memphis Libraries
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June 1920
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
politics
Spring 2016
-
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Religion
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Religion, 2016
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© 2016, Reagan Andrews; Dallas Bright; Jazmyne Mendez.
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, and Jazmyne Mendez
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2016
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<p class="Body" style="text-align:left;" align="center"> </p>
<p class="Body"> History offers anyone who is willing to learn about it a window into the past. It is a way to view cultures from the past, the way ancient civilizations functioned or the societal constraints of our more recent predecessors. Specifically, history has a lot to say about the evolution of religion over time. Even more specifically, history offers insight to how women related to or used religion in the past. During the 1800s religion shaped southern life<a title="">[1]</a>. This proves to be true in the case of Sister Hughetta Snowden, who devoted her life to the church actively during the 1870’s. The same could be said for Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, although her activity does not happen until about one hundred years later. By comparing these two outstanding women, one can draw conclusions about the way religion changes or stays the same over time.</p>
<p class="Body"> Sister Hughetta Snowden was born February 16th, 1848 in Nashville, Tennessee.<a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> In 1871, she joined the Sisters of St. Mary in New York City at the age of 23.<a title=""><sup><sup>[3]</sup></sup></a> In 1873, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to expand the Sisterhood of St. Mary; however, at the same time there was a yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters worked together to help those who were ill. Later that year, they were able to start St. Mary’s School for Young Ladies.<a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> Sister Hughetta was the nineteenth choir sister in the Community of St. Mary after she took her final vows on August 21st, 1874.<a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Many of the Sisters who came to Memphis with her lost their lives to the yellow fever of 1878. In <em>The Christmas Invitation,</em> an autobiography of Sister Hughetta's experiences directly after the yellow fever of 1878, there is talk of how Sister Hughetta herself was sick with the plague when her fellow Sisters lives were taken.<a title=""><sup><sup>[6]</sup></sup></a> That same year, Sister Hughetta Snowden was named Sister Superior of the Southern work.<a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p> In 1881, Sister Hughetta established a summer home named “‘St. Mary’s-on-the-Mountain’”<a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> in Sewanee, Tennessee. She found that missionary work was greatly needed there so she “obtained permission from the Mother Foundress to start such work, and in 1897, a training school for mountain girls was opened”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> It lacked workers, causing it to be closed only two years later. Despite this setback, Sister Hughetta Snowden continued her missionary work in that area.</p>
<p> Sister Hughetta retrieved workers from St. Mary’s in Memphis and re-opened the school. This time the school flourished until it completely burned down on May 3rd, 1909.<a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Sister Snowden was very optimistic, and with the help of her friends, a stone structure is built from the ashes of the old school. This was where she continued her work until a year before she passed away.<a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p>In one of Sister Hughetta's letters, she discussed the Sisters need to obtain permission to establish "a Sisters' Home" in 1888.<a title=""><sup><sup>[12]</sup></sup></a> She stated that the separate house for the Sisters was basically a necessity for them to live the religious life that they were called to do. "For there were now seven Sisters at the school and to give them the retirement and privacy that their life demanded and to facilitate them in the conventual living of the true Religious Life – ever an uppermost desire – the separate house for the Sisters was demanded."<a title=""><sup><sup>[13]</sup></sup></a> They did receive permission and were able to get their "Sisters' Home" for more space and privacy.</p>
<p>Sister Hughetta’s life speaks volumes about religion and the effects it had on society in that time period. By analyzing a more recent nun’s life, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie, comparisons can be made between the ways religion transcends over time periods. Though Sister Hughetta was a nun in the Episcopal Church and Sister Mary Anne was in the Dominican order of the Catholic Church, there are still great similarities between the two women and their impact on religion.</p>
<p>Sister Mary Anne Guthrie was born in 1926. She is known in Memphian history for her battle with Bellevue Baptist Church, and for being the first nun to run for congress. A Memphis native, she moved away for a short period of time, only to return to Memphis in 1968 to serve as a nurse practitioner at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While in Memphis, she made sure to raise some hell (all jokes aside.) </p>
<p class="Body"> In 1974, Sister Mary Anne was told by the bishop of her convent, (which was a part of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church,) that she could not become a bishop herself, “[and] she might as well go to Washington.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> During the time, women could not hold the role as bishop in the Catholic Church, so Sister Mary Anne was encouraged to seek a political role in the secular world. She ran as a Democratic for the 8th district, opposed by four men and one woman, until one candidate dropped out of the race to support Sister Mary Anne. It was published in a newspaper on July 29, 1974, that Mark Flanagan was the man who withdrew from the race to give Sister Mary Anne a better chance of winning. He made his decision because he felt he and the Sister stood for the same things, one of which being a more ethnically-balanced Memphis. Flanagan is quoted saying, "We can't tolerate white racism and neither can we tolerate black racism." <a title="">[15]</a> The remaining candidates were Lee Whitman, Representative Harold Ford, Charles Burch and Joan Best. Sister Mary Anne was for the equality of all human beings, and felt if she won the congressional seat it would bring the government “a sense of humanity.”<a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> She also thought that her being a nun would help win the race.</p>
<p class="Body">Sister Mary Anne thought the main problem with the government was its diminishing integrity. She also felt less money should be spent on the nation’s defense and more should be spent on the bettering of less fortunate people. One example of her selflessness was while she was running for Congress, she spoke about why she felt America needed "a national health system that would not destroy free enterprise in the medical field."<a title="">[17]</a> Upon reading the health insurance bills before Congress, the Sister said she felt none of them were properly financed. She felt the government should not be over-taxing the middle class to fund health insurance. To combat the lack of care for a health system, Sister Mary Anne proposed creating her own health bill when elected. She told those at a luncheon at Harris Methodist Church, she was prepared to fight <em>all </em>opposition to her health insurance plans, especially from those from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).<a title="">[18]</a> With the help from neighborhood health centers, Sister Mary Anne hoped to educate people, especially the elderly, about medicines and better care for oneself. She ended her proposal with stressing the need for older voters to make a big turnout at the voting primary, stating, "We don’t need more food stamp programs, we need more income—a chance to live with dignity."<a title="">[19]</a></p>
<p class="Body">Another example of the Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s humanity is shown in her infamous battle with Bellevue Baptist Church. A large part of the debate was over the techniques in which Bellevue chose to expand their church. All the purchases made by Bellevue over the years, forced people to move away so the church could take over new lands. Another portion of the debate was deciding whether or not to deny the church its growing needs. Sister Mary Anne Guthrie criticized Bellevue’s motives and means of expansion mainly because the church was putting people out of their homes, and“. . . she watched in frustration for years as Bellevue Baptist Church’s property acquisitions displaced residents and turned the church’s vicinity into an ‘asphalt jungle’”.<a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a></p>
<p class="Body">One last example of Sister Mary Anne Guthrie's generosity is when she went to Lebanon, a then-war-torn country, to work at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Hospital. She took on the intensive care-recovery room with just six other nurses, when prior to the war there were 194 available workers. Once the war began hundreds of doctors and nurses fled the country. Rather than watching the war unravel over the news, Sister Mary Anne left her post as director of the Catholic Diocesan office of human rights, and offered up six months of her life to help the people of Lebanon. After reading newspaper articles about the conditions of the Palestinian refugee camps, Sister Mary Anne took a seventeen day Women's Interreligious Study Tour of the Middle East. She traveled into Beirut with the AUB Hospital's director, where she saw the newspapers had not told a single lie. She even volunteered to stay longer in Beirut if there was still a shortage of nurses after the war had ended.</p>
<p class="Body"> Throughout Sister Mary Anne Guthrie’s life, she was known for always wanting to help people who could not help themselves, and striving to make her voice heard for the greater good. She accomplished a lot of ground-breaking goals left a very impressive legacy behind—for those who can find it. After she passed, there was nothing left of her accomplishments aside from mostly newspaper archives. Only Sister Mary Anne’s brother, Milton Guthrie, would be found if one searched for information on her online. Since her brother was a more famous priest in Memphis, there is not a trace of her anywhere online. This just shows how men are considered more important for history than women even if the women leave a big impact.</p>
<p class="Body">Although Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie were born 78 years apart, the two still have numerous things in common with each other. First and foremost, they were both dedicated nuns who devoted their lives to helping others. For example, Sister Hughetta left behind her life in New York City to come to Memphis, where she eventually dedicated her time to helping those who fell victim to the yellow fever outbreak<a title="">[21]</a>. Sister Mary Anne also uprooted her life in the pursuit to help those around her when she decided to leave and help the sick in the needy areas of Peru<a title="">[22]</a>. Sister Mary Anne and Sister Hughetta did have integrity, but the way it transcended over the two time periods is very different. </p>
<p class="Default"> Sister Hughetta’s life and the work she did within the church tended to be more traditional work. Her move to Memphis was a church order, and so were most of the things she did in the Memphis community. Although Sister Hughetta had a lasting impact on Memphis, she did not necessarily challenge the gender ideals of her time period. However, Sister Mary Anne challenged the values of not only the church but society’s values as well. When Sister Mary Anne was the first nun to run for congress, she was opposed by church members and people who believed women simply did not have a place in congress. </p>
<p class="Default"> Both of these women faced the hardships of their time period, whether it be disease or restricting social standards—bravely. Sister Hughetta Snowden and Sister Mary Anne Guthrie will be remembered for both their similarities and differences. They will both continue to maintain their lasting historical impact on Memphis for decades to come. </p>
<p class="Default">____________________________________________</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. 204-24. Print.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[2]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[3]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Biographical information in the R.B. Snowden family papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[4]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[5]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[6]</a> Margaret W. Jones and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985. 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[7]</sup></sup></a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[8]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[9]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[10]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[11]</sup></sup></a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[12]</a> Gerald Chaudron. 2014. Sister Hughetta Remininence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 - 137.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[13]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title=""><sup><sup>[14]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress<em>.</em>”<em> Herald-Tribune,</em> July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[15]</a> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[16]</sup></sup></a> Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land</em>. The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[17]</a>“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[18]</a>Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[19]</a> Ibid.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="Footnote"><a title=""><sup><sup>[20]</sup></sup></a> Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” Herald-Tribune, July, 1974</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[21]</a> St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[22]</a> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div>
<p> Bibliography</p>
<p class="Body">Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. R.B. Snowden Family Papers. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65.</p>
<p>Chaudron, Gerald. 2014. Sister Hughetta Snowden Reminiscence. University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 54 – 137.</p>
<p class="Body">Clark, Michael. <em>Sister May Start Raising Cain If Bellevue Keeps Razing Land.</em> The Commercial Appeal, May, 1983.</p>
<p>Dunn, Jeanette R., and Joe P. Dunn. "Southern Women and Religion."<em>Southern Women at the Millennium</em>. Melissa Walker, ed. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2003. Print.</p>
<p> “Flanagan Quits Race to Back Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">“Form of National Health System is Supported by Sister Guthrie.” July, 1974. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">Jones, Margaret W., and Susan P. Robinson. <em>The Christmas Invitation</em>. Memphis, TN: St. Luke's Press. 1985.</p>
<p>Lapham, Anita. “Memphis Woman Is First Nun To Run For Congress.” <em>Herald-Tribune</em>, July, 1974.</p>
<p> “Peru’s Call Answered by Sister.” August, 1983. MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3. Available at University of Memphis McWherter Library Special Collections.</p>
<p class="Body">St. Mary’s Cathedral. 1926. “Sister Hughetta Memorial.” University of Memphis Libraries. MSS 65. Box 1. Folder 13.</p>
<p class="Body"> </p>
</div>
</div>
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Reagan Andrews, Dallas Bright, Jazmyne Mendez
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https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19740721&id=nT0gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5mYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5772,2330312&hl=en
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Memphis Woman is First Nun to Run for Congress
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Religion, Memphis, Congress, Nun, Guthrie, Mary Anne
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In this newspaper article created by Anita Marie Lapham, Sister Mary Anne Guthrie talks about her decision to run or Congress and her past experiences as an activist and a nurse. The 8th district seat is being fought for by two women and four men. Sister Mary Anne starts off talking about how she has worked with poor, uneducated people for a long time, as well as the economically secure educated. With such experience, she feels as though the dignity of all human beings should be reserved at all times. Just as socioeconomic status should not define or deter people, Sister Mary Anne feels the same goes for sex. She has pushed for the equality and integration of women in many aspects of society. She goes on to say another deciding factor in her running for Congress was when her bishop said Guthrie could not become a bishop herself, and she may as well go to Washington. <br /><br />Sister Mary Anne first decided to enter the politics realm in the 1960s when she successfully set up a hospital in Spalding, Nebraska for the elderly. She wanted to run For Mayor because the current politicians were no good for the community. Once the Vatican II documents were released. Guthrie chose to go to Appalachia to serve the poor. Once Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Guthrie returned to Memphis to work as a supervisor for Memphis’ John Gaston Hospital. She also worked as an integral part of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s nutrition program for the poor known as Memphis Area Project South. She found herself going to Memphis Light, Gas and Water to tell them not to turn off utilities for poorer people.
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Anita Lapham, the Herald-Tribune
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MSS 475, Box 370B, Folder 3
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The University of Memphis Libraries
Date
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July 21, 1974
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Lapham, Anita
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All rights reserved.
Religion
Spring 2016
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15376/archive/files/35394b3f6ba8f76875eaeda55862c36e.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=NxYjO7ZCnSFWoyj3a0-iHO8xykoNGy54MDdY-NJuROR5H5U18mcLM-11R80gGJcqf7BU00TwxLc7Zj4lbKV%7E%7EpSHJz7uzQaDQQbLVwpdk-8-s2mB1qxvFGZVrkxFUqfxoNH56WrlVP7tEkQPaYkh5EwR1y%7EGsylFQjfUmIS7q%7EcRB0U-77E4-1jANplnkGoCZtgW67eqwNBzPSJSxvt6EVTAqr4CwWmGiggVo%7EXWhRjRoc7194u6h58ceVqM5Yd46rGG2tS9pyi6YxC6E81SN6q7uAE8ati5EoNRm0qWERA0b4n2Vb-IzvVsw2PkraWrsRMgxZDFB8U7SXBVG53wkA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
86b06483635c934f1f1a5882bfdb34c1
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Education
Subject
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Education, 2016
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The University of Memphis Libraries
Description
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Women’s Role in Education
The field of education changed dramatically from the late nineteenth centurty to the 1960s, particularly for women in the Shelby County area. Education's function as a tool for social mobilty and enfranchisment began to be used by women during the Reconstruction period. As they entered the workforce in the late 1800s women demanded an end to wage discrimination, but with the evidence seen here it was not without cultural ideas of white supremacy. Education as a tool for enfranchising women would expand to issues of race and politics during the first half of the twentieth century when there were still segregated schools and crippling gender roles. The changing landscape of education for women is evidenced in the many letters and articles left behind from these eras.
One of the first women involved in education in Memphis was Elizabeth Avery Meriwether. Born to a slaveholding family in the antebellum south, Meriwether’s contributions to gender quality in the field of education were motivated out of her racial identity and societal position and her experiences during the Civil War. Meriwether’s husband, Minor Meriwether was a captain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and eventually became a founding Member of the Ku Klux Klan. During the Union occupation of Memphis, Elizabeth was an open supporter of Confederate forces and was believed by Sherman’s army to be secretly aiding Confederate forces. Meriwether was left vulnerable by her involvement in the war and the absence of her husband and had her property confiscated and was forced out of Memphis in 1862, spending the remaining years of the war as a refugee. Her subsequent involvement in women’s rights and education were motivated in part by this experience as both she and other white confederates tried to rebuild their lives after the war and maintain political and social control during the Reconstruction. She began to advocate for white women’s suffrage in order to offset the new freedmen’s vote as well as the northern republican vote. Her arguments for women’s suffrage/equality were made more palatable to white southern men since they were firmly rooted in racist ideals/”southern respectability.” Meriwether had no qualms about marrying a newfound sense of women’s equality with old antebellum ideals and wrote a series of fictional stories romanticizing the antebellum southern culture. Education during this period of time was not only gendered, but also highly racialized and used with the specific intent of perpetuating both racism and mysogyny by instilling servile values in both groups. Meriwether began to link the transformative power of education to advocate for gender equality in a broader sense and used the tactic of disenfachising black individuals in the realm of politics and education. By bringing greater equality and education to white women, white supremacists could continue to exercise control over the black population in the South.
Elizabeth Meriwether’s interest in women’s rights brought her into the issue of equal wages for women teachers in the Memphis City School system. She published a series of letters in the local Appeal newspaper in 1873. These exchanges were dubbed “The Woman’s Question” and dealt with wage equality for women and the competency of females as teachers. Meriwether’s response to a “Serratus Magnus” (a doctor who wrote a series of responses to Meriwether in opposition to equal pay and women entering the workforce) in the Appeal comically throws Serratus’ grammar mistakes back in his face as she uses this as an example of intellectual equality among the sexes: “If to write the English language correctly and concisely be one of the peculiar rights and prerogatives of the master sex, then, by some pitiable accident, “Serratus M.” has been defrauded of that masculine right.” With Merriwether’s aid the movement for wage equality in Memphis gained traction and in 1873 the issue of wage equality was resolved (across rank and in both black and white schools), although representation on the Board of Education was still lacking women. The decision to equalize for both genders came more out of a financial need to cut expenses than from the genuine belief in wage equality, but nonetheless this advancement resulted in males leaving the occupation (for higher paying jobs) and subsequently led to more women entering the field of education. This advancement represents a cultural shift that was made possible only in the aftermath of the Civil War. Women (for white affluent women specifically) not only had to step up and perform masculine duties in the absence of husbands and fathers during the Civil War, but also were bereft of their protections when they entered the workforce/public sphere in an attempt to help support themselves and their families after the war. Women before the Civil War were regularly employed as teachers, however did not usually stay in the workforce once married; this trend changed after the war and was one of the reasons Meriwether became concerned with the enfranchisement of women as teaching was a respectable profession.
It is interesting to see that the first stirrings of feminism in Memphis were motivated by a confluence of economic issues and racist sentiment. This wave of women entering into the field of education and demanding wage equality was no doubt a large step for women's equality. This new push for social equality thorugh education would be expanded to issues of race during the first half of the twentieth century with the aid of women such as Charl Williams.
Charl Williams began her career as a teacher in a one-room school building in Arlington, Tennessee. She was a young woman in her early twenties when Jim Crow education was expanding and gender based wage discrimination was engrained and accepted into society. Williams was extremely passionate about education reform, suffrage, gender and racial equality, and equal pay for women. She was able to channel all of these passions and make an enormous difference in the Tennessee school systems. She later became superintendent of Shelby County Schools and was the first woman vice-chair of the national Democratic Party. She used these positions to revolutionize rural schools by providing more funding, more schools, and equal opportunities for all students. “For Charl Williams,” author Sarah Freeman explains, “eliminating gender discrimination, especially in politics and the workplace, and improving public education were codependent causes.” She campaigned for higher salaries for public schools, which employed mostly women, and for the rights of married women in the workforce.
Charl Williams worked as president for the National Education Association (NEA), and after earning this title she worked very hard to enhance the operations of Shelby County Schools. She operated closely with President Franklin Roosevelt and the first lady on how to improve public school systems in rural areas. She obtained support of federal aid for the equalization of public education for black and white children through her position in this organization. Not only did Williams work for racial equality and fight illiteracy rates, she also spoke openly against women leaving the work force. The social stigma of women remaining purely domestic creatures disheartened her. She argued, that without the services of the nation’s ten million workingwomen, the “wheels of business and industry in this country would cease,” but offered that perhaps women needed “to prove to cynical males that women are indispensable to the welfare of the nation.”
Although Charl Williams was just a small town teacher at one point in her career, the enormous impact she made on schools all over the U.S. was shown in a news paper article from the New York Evening post. Mary Armstrong wrote, “While it is impossible to tell here all that Miss Williams has accomplished for Shelby County since 1914, some idea can be gained from the fact that it is now considered one of the three model counties of the nation.” In the span of 7 short years she raised Southern rural schools to a standard much higher than even schools in the North. Williams added a nine-month school year, ten month’s salary for teachers, and a bonus for summer study. She could be considered one of the more progressive activists during Jim Crow and institutionalized racism and sexism.
Like Charl Williams, Julie Norman Isenberg was an active advocate for women’s education, but during the 1960s. Isenberg was a native Memphian and Smith College graduate and was active in the Smith Alumnae Association. Her intrest in education as a means of enfranchisment for women in society and politics is evidenced in her letters and writings to the Smith College adminstration. Isenberg was involved with the American Alumni Association, which held seminars on public responsibility. The goal of these seminars were to bring about reforms in education as they pertained specifically to the areas of government and civil leadership in primary and seconary education, in order to create a well informed voter-ship of women in the U.S. Isenberg attended the association's Seminar for Public Responsibility in 1960 at Dauphin Island (Isenberg's tution was paid in part by the Smith Alumnae Association). This was stirred to advocate educational chage both at her alma matter and in the general public as well. In 1961, Isenberg wrote an impassioned letter to the President of Smith College advocating for further involvment in the program. It is clear in this letter that Isenberg saw her position as an educated woman as coming with certain responsibilies to the public. Isenberg states that the program "is a new, exciting, far reaching way in which Smith can be responsive to the needs of our country, ‘calling’ its alumnae to grapple personally and responsibly, with the problems of our society at all levels."
It is very interesting to see how Smith's administration handeld Isengberg's push for involvment in education reform and is a good representation of social expecations of women in both politics and education at the time. While Smith's adminstration did authorize to send another member of the Alumnae Association to the seminar the following year in 1961, they were very reluctant to link the Smith name directly to the American Alumni Association's education reform movement. Nell Richmond, wife of Smith's president and head of the Alumnae Asssociation, wrote Isenberg back regarding Isenberg's letter to her husband. In her letter Richmond is careful to offer support for the general idea of education reform but states, "...to a woman, we felt that it is not the place of the Alumnae Association to recommend that Smith clubs as such take up the betterment of local education as a club activity." Richmond goes on to state, "we cannot begin to have political overtones." This sentiment expressed by Richmond demonstrates that there was still reluctance on the part of women to be involved directly in the public/political spehere. Education reform that stressed classes in government and instilled a sense of civic responsiblity would inevitably lead to greater numbers of women entering into the political field or at the very least supporting political figures who supported women's issues. Isenberg received yet another letter from Smith College written by Gerneral Secretary Katherine Cowen. In her letter, Cowen reiterated what Richmond had said about the Smith Alumnae Association becoming involved directly with the American Alumni Association; however, she did more to help preserve the image of Smith as a progressive instituion. Cowen quotes Sophia Smith's will (founder of the college) and states that the goal of Smith College is to "furnish for my own sex means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now…for young men." Cowen's reiteration of the college's mission statement (and later list of classes Sophia wanted to be available to women at Smith) gives a fuller picture of the conflicting nature of women's education during this time. Educations, and subsequently professional and social roles, were still highly gendered in spite of progressive rhetoric and strides women had made in the public realm. Isenberg's insistance that a woman's education was not just for her own personal benefit, but that it demanded a certain level of leadership in public was not unique to her. Isenberg recived a letter from fellow Smith Alumnae Mary Louise Reilley after an article Isenberg published in the Smith Quartely (a publication by the Smith Alumnae Association) about her expirences at thr American Alumni Association's Seminar for Public Responsibilty. Reilley who was a former educator shared her concerns about the state of education, "...as an active worker in the League of Women Voters...I tremble for my country at the ignorance, apathy and irresponsibility of the majority of our so-called educated citizens." The sentiments expressed by both Isenberg and Reilley reflect that this was a time in which women were beginning to view their privlige as educated women as giving them certain responsibillites to involve themselves personally with the political realm. This entrance of more women into politics, provided by education that was less gendered, was no doubt the reason why the Smith administration was reluctant to link its name to the education refroms Isenberg was advocating for.
Education's use as a tool for social reform changed dramatically from the racist and provinical view of Elizabeth Avery Merriwether to Charl Williams’ attempt at desegregation in the early 1900s and Isenberg's educational reform agenda in the 1960s. Each woman addressed above had a very different way of advocating change, but nonetheless fought for women’s equality in education. The diverse time frames give an interesting view into how cultural ideas of racism, sexism, and equality change over time, but also prove that in a world of gender discrimination there are always voices attempting to be heard.
Kathleen Christine Berkeley, “Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, ‘An Advocate for Her Sex’: Feminism and Conservativism in the Post-civil War South” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 43, no. 4 (Tennessee Historical Society, 1984): 390–407.
Ibid., 396 – 397.
Kathleen Christine Berkeley, “Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, ‘An Advocate for Her Sex’: Feminism and Conservativism in the Post-civil War South” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 43, no. 4 (Tennessee Historical Society, 1984): 397.
Ibid., 405.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Teresa A. Meade and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks Blackwell, A Companion to Gender History (Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 133-137.
Ibid., 133.
Kathleen Christine Berkely, “The Ladies Want to Bring About Reform in the Public Schools: Public Education and Women’s Rights in the Post-Civil War South” History of Education Quarterly 24, no. 1 (History of Education Society: Wiley, 1984): 51.
The Memphis Daily Appeal, “The Woman’s Question.” March 26th, 1873. From Library of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/memphisdailyappeal (accessed April 23rd, 2016).
Kathleen Christine Berkely, “The Ladies Want to Bring About Reform in the Public Schools: Public Education and Women’s Rights in the Post-Civil War South” History of Education Quarterly 24, no. 1 (History of Education Society: Wiley, 1984): 45-53.
Ibid., 53.
Ibid., 50-54.
Kathleen Christine Berkeley, “Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, ‘An Advocate for Her Sex’: Feminism and Conservativism in the Post-civil War South” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 43, no. 4 (Tennessee Historical Society, 1984): 402.
Sarah Wilkerson Freeman, Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009), 164.
Ibid.,166.
Ibid.
Ibid., 179.
Mary Gilpin Armstrong, “The Story of Charl O. Williams” The Journal of Education 95, no. 6 (Trustees of Boston University), 146.
Ibid., 146.
Julie Isenberg. Julie Isenberg to Thomas Mendenhall June 11th, 1961. Letter. From University of Memphis Library.
Nell Richmond. Nell Richmond to Julie Isenberg June 15th, 1961. Letter. University of Memphis Library.
Katherine Cowen. Katherine Cowen to Julie Isenberg June 19th, 1961. Letter. University of Memphis Library.
Mary Louise Reilly. Mary Reilly to Julie Isenberg November 24th, 1960. Postcard. University of Memphis Library.
Bibliography
Secondary Sources
Berkeley, Kathleen Christine. 1984. “Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, "an Advocate for Her Sex": Feminism and Conservativism in the Post-civil War South”. Tennessee Historical Quarterly 43(4). Tennessee Historical Society: 390–407. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42626482.\
Berkley, Kathleen Christine. 1984. “The Ladies Want to Bring About Reform in the Public Schools: Public Education and Women’s Rights in the Post-Civil War South”. History of Education Quarterly 24(1). [History of Education Society, Wiley]: 45-58.
Blackwell Companions to History: A Companion to Gender History Edited by Teresa A. Meade and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks Blackwell Publishing 2004.
Helper-Ferris, Laura, Beverly G. Bond, and Sarah Wilkerson Freeman. Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2016).
Primary Sources
Armstrong, Mary Gilpin. 1922. “The Story of Charl O. Williams”. The Journal of Education 95(6) (2366). Trustees of Boston University: 146. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42806057. Accessed April 24th, 2016.
Cowen, Katherine. Katherine Cowen to Julie Isenberg June 19th, 1961. Letter. University of Memphis McWherter Library. Box 1 Folder 11.
The Memphis Daily Appeal, “The Woman’s Question.” March 26th, 1873. From Library of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/memphisdailyappeal (accessed April 23rd, 2016).
Reilly, Mary Louise. Mary Reilly to Julie Isenberg November 24th, 1960. Postcard. University of Memphis McWherter Library. Box 1 Folder 11.
Richmond, Nell. Nell Richmond to Julie Isenberg June 15th, 1961. Letter. University of Memphis McWherter Library. Box 1 Folder 11.
Isenberg, Julie. Julie Isenberg to Thomas Mendenhall June 11th, 1961. Letter. University of Memphis McWherter Library. Box 1 Folder 11.
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Cara O' Connell, Denise Wakemen
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Cara O’Connel, Denise Wakeman, Micah Marshall
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"The Woman's Question", Elizabeth Avery Merriwether in the Memphis Appeal
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education, wage equality
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This document is a part of a series of letters in which readers of the Appeal wrote in with their opinions about “ The Woman’s Question”, in which the discussion ranged from wage equality (which was the issue that sparked the public debate), what was appropriate work for women, and women’s competency in education and their biological intellectual capacity. Meriwether responded to a “Serratus M.” who wrote into the Appeal stating his opinion that women are not competent teachers in comparison with male teachers and therefore do not deserve equal pay. Meriwether’s counterargument is that women are just as intellectually capable as men. Merriwether used humor in her response to "S.M" and attacked his incorrect use of grammar in his earlier letters to the Appeal and brings attention to the reader that " Yet, if this delightful writer were a teacher, he would expect to be paid one-third more than any woman..." Merriwther's involvement in "The Woman's Question" came about at a time when more women were entering the workforce during the Reconstruction era in the south. Women were looking for more long term employment after the Civil War, as many recognized the need for financial independence. This document represents some of the first stirrings for gender equality.
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Appeal Newspaper, Elizabeth Avery Merriwether
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Library of Congress, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
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Library of Congress
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March 26, 1873
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Memphis daily appeal. (Memphis, Tenn.), 26 March 1873. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045160/1873-03-26/ed-1/seq-4/>.
Education
Spring 2016
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5a8003331c96ee6da1ea8161525f7711
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Collections -- Spring 2015
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Spring 2015
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This collection contains items that were used in the first HIST4851 course.
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Preservation and Special Collections, University of Memphis Libraries
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Brigitte Billeaudeaux
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Cohabitation Bill
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The following article is about the displeasure Lois DeBerry and two other female legislators faced against a bill ending alimony payments to a person if they resided or cohabitated with a person of the opposite sex for 90 days or more. The female representatives were railroaded by representative Ira Murphy. Rep. Gaia was planning on proposing an amendment to the bill but Murphy called for an end of debates and the bill was passed. Murphy rushed the decision because Sen. White was having doubts about the proposed bill which would have hindered the passing of the bill. The reason that DeBerry and the other women stood against the bill because the language was not clear. There was not enough clarity about residing and cohabiting or the amount of time that these events should happen. DeBerry’s lack of support for the bill shows that she supported motions that supported women instead of debilitating them.
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Balentine, Jim
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Mississippi Valley Collection
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The University of Memphis Libraries
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Digital Image © 2015, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All
rights reserved.
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February 29, 1980
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Memphis Press-Scimitar
Subject
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Politics
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Hist4851, Spring 2015
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https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/15376/archive/files/be8403ccee5318cfc9889a1bcb224e05.JPG?Expires=1712793600&Signature=u4dDoa03oWlNTjdnqY8-ylcm2rvgIKgmyLEn61R4L-%7Enz-atkM8IMOP83QtjfnUgOr3AUhZT2hkbVK5gm2-Q6UOrRi67TscwB9r93QAiN8R8kgvMJCytIMqs3C0lXIM3Uy0VWfztGkVhUXEYTw4Q6Xd%7E3X6dR5QPK1YYuTFW83o-pgR1oslKNFyUbIUVp8fGxN5%7EjbdmFjXJI4nWMt08OaPSXaZv7v0LQ87vwWqCq-fOZ4bVoRxBjuwLH7OTVLvuOMjuP9XBuVQkbSYF5ekQdJ4iPQIkMgX97SMa5xUj%7EXr-yXyYFZll8P8I0K2iZl74rxq5veZ3jcwajl8nkWR3dg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
891b554ced991c2412852553ca683ab3
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Domesticity
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Domesticity, 2016
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The University of Memphis Libraries
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© 2016, Gloss, Morgan; Houston, William; Johnson, Breanna; Williams, Bernadette.
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<p align="center">Disruption of the Ideals of Domesticity During WWII</p>
<p> WWII caused dramatic and rapid shifts to take place within the realm of traditional domestic ideals and values in society for both men and women. The war had thrust many women into early marriage and into the workforce, which sometimes caused an uprising in tensions at home. This shift in the traditional belief that a woman’s true place was at home or at a low paying, menial job challenged gender relations in many complex ways, which opened up the door to new found sexuality and sexual freedoms for women. <a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> The war left a long standing impact on many different aspects of American lives during this time, including the institution of marriage and the sexuality of many women.</p>
<p> A preoccupation with marriage and sexual identity are apparent in letters written by two Memphis, Tennessee residents that courted each other during WWII. These two people were Merrill Dan and Hope Bespalow. Merrill was a Lieutenant in the US Army and was shipped out and stationed overseas (mainly in Europe) for the better part of their courtship years. Hope Bespalow was a college student during this time at the University of Wisconsin. The letters contain many of the traditional ideals and values believed in during this time frame and can allow a reader to see firsthand how they were used and applied. Some of these included the common fears of infidelity, fears of becoming a war widow, and some ideas surrounding marriage. Unlike many couples, Hope and Merrill did not get married immediately before Merrill was shipped out for combat. They courted each other through letters that span years during the war. This proved to be very hard with problems of delayed letters that could take months to arrive and government overbearingness with their censorship practices. But their love and dedication for each other can clearly be seen in every single letter.</p>
<p> Within the realm of courtship and marriage before the turn of the century, traditions were often set aside for many different reasons. Men typically looked for four values instilled in a woman that they wanted to see in their future wife: piety, submissiveness, purity and domesticity. Often times, women felt that they could not fully live up to these standards and felt discouraged. Their insecurities were reinforced within certain areas of everyday life, like religion and literature. The expectations put on women left them feeling rather guilty even if they had the opportunity to be courted for marriage. This, however, did not mean that women did not try to redefine and defy the ideals set before them. The number of women who rebelled against these ideals only increased as time went on.<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a></p>
<p> By the early 1900s, a new form of womanhood had begun to gain popularity simply known as “the new woman.” It had allowed for femininity to take on a different shape that caused change between both the public and private spheres of their everyday lives. Women who had taken on and embraced these ideals of the “new woman” participated in suffrage rights and reform, pursued a higher education, and made their way into the workforce with moderate gains. These ideals, however, were met with staunch criticism. Those opposed to it “insisted that voting, higher education, and athletic endeavors would damage women’s health and undermine their femininity and that professional women’s work and increased personal freedoms would harm the […] middle class family ideal.”<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a> But as was seen during WWII, this new ideal was more refined, fully embraced, and practiced.</p>
<p> By the 1940s, courtship still relied heavily on the men. Women on the other hand had no specific set of rules to follow as they did in previous decades. This is evident in the Merrill Dan and Hope Bespalow letters. As opposed to the traditional ideals of “true womanhood,” Dan was more interested in letting Hope be herself. In one letter in particular, he believed that their marriage should “be on a 50/50 basis. Not with one dominating the other.”<a title="" href="#_ftn4">[4]</a> Dan continued his support of Hope within her own life choices like furthering her education. This may not be a solid indication of how every potential marriage was viewed at this time but it is at least a fair example as to how far women had come within the realm of marriage. This is also an interesting example of how women could chose whom and how they lived their life instead of living their life indicated by an antiquated set of values laid out and enforced by men.</p>
<p> During WWII, marriage was on the rise. Researchers, Willard Rodgers and Arland Thornton state, “these later cohorts [couples in the 1930s and ‘40s] have married at younger ages and fewer have remained single.”<a title="" href="#_ftn5">[5]</a> One might assume that this upswing was because men were leaving for the battlefields and therefore married quickly. But, these couples had many reasons for marrying so young and so rapidly. Some women married quickly so that they could receive the pension checks from soldiers, while some soldiers married quickly so that they knew that they had someone missing them at home. Other women married quickly for fear that all of the men being sent off to war would perish and they did not want to remain single forever. Regardless of their motives, young women all across America were getting married fast.</p>
<p> With the quickness of their marriages, couples often found themselves married to almost complete strangers. Others found it better to use different methods of courtship to get to know their future spouse. These methods included physically going out on dates just like before the war began or by writing letters almost daily, like Merrill and Hope Dan. Letter writing during WWII was very popular among soldiers and their loved ones. It was also very problematic when it came to courtship and marriage. Sometimes, more often than not, letters could take months to arrive to either party. Even with this unfortunate issue, many still wrote their loved ones every single day. The contents of these letters varied in substance. Most were very mundane and spoke of common daily activities. For example, Hope wrote in one letter that her family was in need of a new maid and Merrill wrote in one of his that he had a stomach ache and was going to see a doctor. <a title="" href="#_ftn6">[6]</a> In this format, it would seem that couples during WWII were forced to communicate more through letter-writing than most couples before and after them. This helped them to really get to know one another.</p>
<p> The difficulties of consistent deliveries and censorship made correspondence tough on those waiting for their letters to arrive. Censorship by the government meant that the person writing the letter was very careful about what they wrote in case their letters were intercepted and contained material deemed inappropriate by the federal government. If a letter contained that type of information it was received with black stripes through certain parts of the letter or it would not arrive at all in some instances.<a title="" href="#_ftn7">[7]</a> Censorship affected a variety of couples’ letters that functioned primarily as their only way of communication.</p>
<p> When Hope and Merrill began their correspondence they were barely close acquaintances but when the letters came to an end they were married to each other.<a title="" href="#_ftn8">[8]</a> In some instances though, the Dan couple were very different in comparison to other couples of their age. While many women were scrambling to secure their husbands before all the men were shipped off to war, Hope was furthering her education and preparing for her own future. Yet around her, many of her friends were getting excited at the prospect of their impending marriage, as evident in the letters, when she wrote to Merrill about the many engagement parties and weddings that she had attended.</p>
<p> Unlike her friends, Hope was not ready to throw herself into marriage. In one letter dated April 21, 1944, she wrote to Merrill about visiting her hometown and seeing “all my happy and married friends.”<a title="" href="#_ftn9">[9]</a> She continued, “I’m very glad that I haven’t found the person I want to marry yet, it’s hell when there’s a war on and the future is so uncertain.”<a title="" href="#_ftn10">[10]</a> She differed from the normal attitude of young women of her time when she wrote, “I may end up an old maid, at least that’s what everybody tries to tell me when I am home, but I’d rather that than take the chance of being a war widow with children.”<a title="" href="#_ftn11">[11]</a> These candid excerpts show that not every woman was so keen on entering into marriage for many valid reasons. Hope, however, did end up marrying Merrill, but not until the conclusion of the war in 1945.</p>
<p> Women during WWII saw many new freedoms and opportunities they never had before. They seized the opportunity to leave their home fronts and daily unskilled tasks to enter into the workforce. Some women would take on different roles like being nurses, joining the military, and taking on male dominated professions that would test their intellect, skill and physical power. This opportunity for women was enlightening and empowering in regards to dispelling the typical stereotypes given, quite unfairly, to women. This all was possible when America finally entered into the war and began drafting thousands of eligible men into service leaving these positions vacant. Women felt it was their duty to step in and fill the gap. They helped to shape the country during this time, not just within the political system, but also in the home life. <a title="" href="#_ftn12">[12]</a></p>
<p> Also during this time, many women adopted a more liberal attitude in regards to their sexuality during the war. This caused yet another sexual double standard between the sexes and it would even go as far as involving the U.S. government campaigning and facilitating a “war against women who transgressed [sexual] boundaries.”<a title="" href="#_ftn13">[13]</a> Initially, it began as a government effort to eradicate sexually transmitted diseases among soldiers caused by prostitution in and around military bases but quickly snowballed into an attack against women who were perceived as immoral or “loose”. Women, whether guilty of those behaviors or perhaps just exercising their sexual independence, were detained and forcibly tested for STDs and sometimes forced to enter into a rehabilitation program depending on the results. Men, both enlisted and not, were never forced to follow any form of the strict regulations placed on women.<a title="" href="#_ftn14">[14]</a> Military culture had a strong correlation to sexual assertiveness and the men were expected to be sexually active.<a title="" href="#_ftn15">[15]</a> This attitude towards women’s new found sexuality caused more issues for women.</p>
<p> This same belief extended into attitudes towards the issue of infidelity. Hope and Merrill discussed infidelity in passing in their letters. In one letter during their courtship years, Hope writes to Merrill and expresses concern about faithfulness. She writes almost as a warning, “But watch those French women! Have you seen any yet?”<a title="" href="#_ftn16">[16]</a> This warning stems from the belief that French women were enthralled with American soldiers for a multitude of reasons. “GIs were known as Amerilots”: they had lots of everything and they signified abundance” and in return the soldiers had “preconceived sexual fantasies and an ingrained belief in the decadence of French women.”<a title="" href="#_ftn17">[17]</a> As for what the women back home were doing while their soldiers were away, Hope again writes to Merrill, that the “unfaithfulness of wives of boys overseas […] is disgusting.”<a title="" href="#_ftn18">[18]</a> Between the sexes both at home and overseas infidelity was rampant and condemned, yet still a common occurrence for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p> WWII both disrupted and reformed the ideals of traditional domesticity and true womanhood. It gave rise to new and improved ideals of the popularized “new woman” who had previously only pushed for suffrage and reform, and a higher education along with meager equal opportunities in the workplace. The war gave more women opportunities to enter the workforce and prove their worth outside the home and they were able to create their own sexual identities and exercise their own sexual freedoms. These changes, however, did not come without difficulties. Women often had to endure sexism, resentment and many other problematic attitudes when it came to their new found opportunities and freedoms within both the home front and the workplace and even sexually. But these women did so much for both the war effort and for their men serving overseas. They gave their time, their energy and some even gave their lives. Some would say that the women of this time period helped blaze the trail to a better tomorrow for all women in America.</p>
<p align="center">Works Cited</p>
<p>Anderson, Karen. "The Great Depression and World War II." In <em>A Companion to American Women's History</em>, edited by Nancy A. Hewitt. Blackwell Publishing LTD, 2005.</p>
<p>Baker, Paula. “The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920”.<em> The American Historical </em>Review 89 (1984): 620–47.</p>
<p>DuBois, Ellen C., and Lynn Dumenil. <em>Through Women's Eyes</em>. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012.</p>
<p>Hope and Merrill Dan Papers, 1943-1945. The University of <br />Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department at the McWherter Libary.</p>
<p>Macleod, Robert B., R. M. Williams, R. M. Williams, and L. S. Cottrell. Review of <em>Studies in Social Psychology in World War II. Vol. II: The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath: Measurement and Prediction</em>. <em>Science & Society</em> 15. (Guilford Press, 1951): 64–68.</p>
<p>Pfau, Ann. "Review of Hegarty, Marilyn E., <em>Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes: the </em><em>Regulation of Female Sexuality During World War II</em>." (H-War, H-Net Reviews, November 2008).</p>
<p>Roberts, Mary Louise. "What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France." (Times Higher Education, May 2013). <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/what-soldiers-do-sex-and-the-american-gi-in-world-war-ii-france-by-mary-louise-roberts/2003931">https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/what-soldiers-do-sex-and-the-american-gi-in-world-war-ii-france-by-mary-louise-roberts/2003931</a>.</p>
<p>Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860”. <em>American Quarterly</em> 18. (1966): 151–74.</p>
<p>Willard Rodgers and Arland Thornton, “Changing Patterns of First Marriage in the United States,” <em>Demography </em>22, NO. 2 (1985). .</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Karen Anderson, "The Great Depression and World War II." In <em>A Companion to American Women's History</em>, edited by Nancy A. Hewitt. (Blackwell Publishing LTD, 2005).</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860”. <em>American Quarterly</em> 18. (1966): 151–74.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref3">[3]</a> Ellen C. DuBois, and Lynn Dumenil. Through Women's Eyes. Boston, MA: (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012).</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref4">[4]</a> Merrill Dan, “March 2, 1945. Letter to Hope Bespalow”. 2 March 1945. Box 1, Folder 24, Hope and Merrill Dan Papers 1943-1945. Hope and Merrill Dan Papers, 1943-1945. The University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department, The University of Memphis Libraries.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref5">[5]</a> Willard Rodgers and Arland Thornton, “Changing Patterns of First Marriage in the United States,” <em>Demography </em>22, NO. 2 (1985).</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref6">[6]</a> Bespalow, Hope. “November 15, 1944 Letter to Merrill Dan”. 15 November 1944. Box 2, Folder 46; Dan, Merrill. “Saturday - April 27, 1944 Letter to Hope Bespalow”. 27 April 1944. Box 1, Folder 2.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref7">[7]</a> Macleod, Robert B., R. M. Williams, R. M. Williams, and L. S. Cottrell. Review of <em>Studies in Social Psychology in World War II. Vol. II: The American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath: Measurement and Prediction</em>. <em>Science & Society</em> 15. (Guilford Press, 1951): 64–68.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref8">[8]</a> Merrill Dan, “July 1, 1945 Letter to Hope Bespalow”. 1 July 1945. Box 1, Folder 33; Dan, Merrill. “July 4, 1945 Letter to Hope Bespalow”. 4 July 1945. Box 1, Folder 33.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref9">[9]</a> Hope Bespalow, “April 21, 1944 Letter to Merrill Dan”. 21 April 1944. Box 2, Folder 44.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref10">[10]</a> Ibid.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref11">[11]</a> Ibid.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref12">[12]</a> Paula Baker, “The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920”.<em> The American Historical </em>Review 89. (Oxford University Press, American Historical Association, 1984): 620–47.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref13">[13]</a> Ann Pfau, "Review of Hegarty, Marilyn E., <em>Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes: The Regulation of Female Sexuality During World War II</em>." (H-War, H-Net Reviews, November 2008).</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref14">[14]</a> Ibid.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref15">[15]</a> Karen Anderson, "The Great Depression and World War II." In <em>A Companion to American Women's History</em>, edited by Nancy A. Hewitt. (Blackwell Publishing LTD., 2005).</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref16">[16]</a> Hope Bespalow, “August 30, 1944 Letter to Merrill Dan”. 30 August 1944. Box 2, Folder 44.</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref17">[17]</a> Mary Louise Roberts, "What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France." (Times Higher Education. May 2013).</p>
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<p><a title="" href="#_ftnref18">[18]</a> Hope, Bespalow, “June 19, 1945 Letter to Merrill Dan”. 19 June 1945. Box 2, Folder 61.</p>
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Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gloss, Morgan; Johnson, Breanna.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1943-1945
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
William Houston, Bernadette Willams, Morgan Gloss, Breanna Johnson
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
November 15, 1944 Letter to Merrill Dan
Subject
The topic of the resource
letters, censorship
Description
An account of the resource
This is a PDF of a letter from the Special Collections section of the University of Memphis Library. Hope Bespalow, a student at the University of Wisconsin, writes a letter to Merrill Dan, a lieutenant in the United States army. They were both natives of Memphis, Tennessee. The letter is handwritten and written on November 15, 1944. It is written on white paper and in cursive. Hope writes mostly on the subject of the time delay of Merrill’s letters getting to her and her own letters getting to Merrill. She spends a large portion of the letter telling of her aggravation with the delay of delivery.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bespalow, Hope
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
The University of Memphis Libraries
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
November 15, 1944
Rights
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Digital Image © 2016, University of Memphis Libraries Preservation and Special Collections Department. All Rights Reserved.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Hope and Merrill Dan Papers Box 2, Folder 46 MSS 274
domesticity
Spring 2016