A Little Something For Everybody

Despite what some people who look at the past through those rose-colored glasses would like to think, society's ideas about democracy have changed. In the early years of the Republic, it was widely accepted that only property owners (i.e., not the poor) - and white, male, Protestant ones, at that - should have the vote. Universal suffrage - the idea that the vote is the right of every adult citizen, regardless of race, religion, class, gender, or ethnicity - has been a long time coming. You wouldn't have to look hard to find people who still don't agree that it's a good idea.

Those of us old enough to remember the 1950s and '60s can recall not only the fight for racial civil rights, but the push to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 (the 26th Amendment, enacted in 1971).

For week 13, we salute universal suffrage with Everybody's Favorite:

We've touched on week 14's theme, women's right to property, before, while discussing child custody. Once married, a woman's property normally became her husband's. It wasn't until the Married Women's Property Act of 1870 that English women retained their rights to property and money (including inheritances and wages) throughout their lives. Similar laws affected American women, as well.

While the laws may have changed in the 19th century, society took a long time to catch up. When I was a young bride in 1973, it was both uncommon and difficult for women to establish credit or obtain a mortgage without her husband's consent.

So here's the Bride's Knot:

By The Seat Of Their Pants

I'm guessing, dear readers, that by now you've realized that the push to secure women the right to vote was just part of a larger effort to ensure that women were treated fairly in all aspects of life. One place where things definitely weren't fair was in female access to education. Girls who wanted a good education were thwarted both by the educational system, which often prohibited them from attending the same classes as boys, and by society at large, which all too often assumed that education was wasted on women.

I'm here to tell you this is not an attitude that changed quickly. I vividly remember a female co-worker of my dad's who wanted to know why I wanted to go to college, since I also wanted to get married and have children - in her mind, one desire precluded the other. And this was in the late 1960s, sigh.....

Week 11's block is the Little Red Schoolhouse.

It's hard to be brilliant - or quick, or self-sufficient, or independent - if you're trussed up in restrictive clothing. Some 19th century reformers therefore advocated pants for women. This was not well-received - reactions ranged from ridicule to condemnation at the pulpits. One activist, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, is remembered for her last name, which quickly became a slang term for women's trousers. It took another 100 years for American society to accept pants as an acceptable, even desirable, piece of women's attire. Here's to Amelia and her bloomers:

Marching Forward

Protest marches weren't invented in the 1960s. Suffragists organized a march down Pennsylvania Avenue for March 3, 1913, the eve of Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Three hundred people were injured when a large group of men opposed to suffrage blocked their way. Brick Pavement, week 9's block, commemorates this 5,000-strong march in support of women's right to vote.

One of the most famous American suffragists was Susan B. Anthony, who died before seeing her efforts pay off. However, she did manage to vote in the 1872 Presidential election (Grant vs. Greeley), thanks to the wording of the 14th Amendment, which acknowledged the citizenship of "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" - wording she and other suffragists took to include women. Fourteen women, including Susan, voted in Rochester, New York, and were arrested for their trouble. Susan was the only one brought to trial; she was convicted, but although she refused to pay the fine, she wasn't jailed. Here's the New York block in her honor.

Several years later Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another early campaigner for women's suffrage, drafted the wording for what was to become the 19th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by any State on account of sex.

Motoring Right Along

Are you amazed yet?

Suffragist Alice Paul, president of the National Women's Party, created a banner to track the ratification of the 19th Amendment. She added a star to the banner for each state that passed the amendment. We're tipping our hats to Alice with week 7's block, Alice's Flag.

2012 was the hundredth anniversary of women's suffrage in Kansas. Suffrage had been on the ballot in Kansas in 1867 and 1887 but failed to pass. But by 1912, cars were common and the suffragist movement was better organized. Supporters used the automobile to go from town to town and door to door to campaign. In their honor, we have week 8's block, Rocky Road to Kansas. 

It's a string-pieced variation on week 2's Amethyst block.

OK, Where Were We?

I am actually almost up-to-date on making the Grandmother's Choice blocks, but I am woefully behind in showing them to you, aren't I? I'm going to aim for two posts a week until I get caught up. I know. Be Amazed, people, be Amazed.

Week 5's block, New Jersey, commemorates the twisted history of women's suffrage in that state. At independence in 1776, the state's constitution gave the vote to propertied, adult residents - no race or gender stipulated. This "oversight" was "corrected" in 1807 to limit the right to vote to free, white males over 21. Women didn't get the vote back in New Jersey until the 19th Amendment was passed. The X in the block symbolizes the vote that New Jersey took away.

The suffrage movement was only one aspect of a larger push to ensure women were guaranteed equal rights under the law. One painful aspect of the prevailing inequality of women's lives in the 18th and 19th Centuries was that in the event of a divorce or separation, the wife lost all rights to her children, as well as any fortune she had brought with her into the marriage. Once notable case involved George Washington's step-granddaughter, Eliza Custis Law. Week 6's block, Aunt Eliza's Star, reminds us that the suffrage movement and the push for women's child custody rights were really the same struggle.

You can read more about Eliza's case here.