When you look at the big picture, women haven’t been voting that long. It may seem like it – 96 years is a long time – but think of it this way: America has been around for 240 years.
Originally, voting was for white, male, property owners. Slowly, things began to change. In 1856, all states opened voting to white men, property owners or not. By 1870, all men, regardless of race or religion, were allowed to vote. Women, on the other hand, still had 50 years to go.
Women’s suffrage in the United States can be pinpointed back to the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention in the country. It was held over the course of two days in 1848 and passed a resolution in favor of women’s right to vote. From there, the Seneca Falls Convention inspired other women’s rights conventions throughout the United States, where women’s suffrage was at the core.
But that wasn’t enough.
For 70 years, women continued to fight for their right to vote. The suffrage movement’s leaders – Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone – all died before the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920. They spent their adult lives fighting for something they would never get to see. Imagine spending your lifetime fighting for something and never being able to see the work you put in finally pay off.
Of course, being born far after 1920, I’ve been able to vote since the day I turned 18. I didn’t have to fight for this right, it was just given to me, making my voting rights easy to be taken for granted.
For a while, I couldn’t wrap my head around the importance of my vote, nor did I understand its importance. Early on in my voting privileges, I didn’t realize how many decades women had to fight to be able to vote. Thanks to a college paper on Susan B. Anthony, things started to sink in, which caused for quite the existential crisis.
“That could have been me if I was born 100 years ago.”
“I wonder how I would have reacted if I never had the right to vote. Would I fight or just accept things as they were?”
“What am I doing with my life right now to even show appreciation for this?”
Things got pretty intense in my apartment over the course of that paper. In that time, though, I decided I would make myself a promise. I would never take voting for granted.
In that time, I have made an effort to vote as often as possible, from presidential elections to local elections. Not only does voting make me appreciate my right to vote even more, but it makes me feel like I’m part of something and helping change my community for the better. Just this past year, I was able to cast my vote for Grand Rapids, Michigan’s first female mayor, Rosalynn Bliss. Voting for Mayor Bliss was an extremely personal choice for not just me, but many others in the city. If you live in Grand Rapids, you see her everywhere: events, speaking engagements, volunteer opportunities and enjoying the local businesses. It’s easy for the community to see how much she loves her city, and people feel like they knew her. My vote was exciting because it not only showed support for a role model, but also played a part in a historical moment: our first female mayor.
This November will be similar for me. Like many Americans, I will be casting my vote for Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential nominee. Out of my 14 years as a voter, these past couple of years have been the most exciting for me. I’m not only seeing history being made, but I’m taking part in it. More than ever before, voting’s significance and my role in it is clear to me.
You don’t have to like Hillary Clinton to be able to understand the magnitude of her presidential nomination. The fact is that she made history and we get to see it all in our lifetimes. Out of the 240 years America has been around, we are living in a time where we saw our first black president and potentially our first female president. It’s pretty incredible when you think about it that way.
We have the suffragettes to thank for the work, dedication and passion that got us to this point today. The road to our first female presidential nominee was a long one, but so was the road to our right to vote. And while I wasn’t alive to see women win the right to vote, there is a big chance I will be to see our first female president.