Many of you may have seen the recent study that said if women did not vote, Trump would win. As disturbing as I find that thought it's not nearly as disturbing as the hashtag that started trending on Twitter soon after those results were announced. #Repealthe19th.
Now there is speculation that the hashtag started as a joke by some Twitter trolls with nothing better to do than annoy people. Whatever its origins, it caught steam online and many Trump supporters began using it to voice their support for their candidate. What I found really shocking was the women who were saying they would give up their right to vote in order to ensure a Trump presidency.
Do people not realize what it took for women to gain that right in the first place? Female suffragists, or suffragettes, endured social ostracism, protested for years, and were even imprisoned and to secure this right for themselves and future generations. My own great grandmother had to basically fight her father to exercise her right to vote.
My great grandmother would role in her grave if she knew that #Repealth19th was a thing, and I'm guessing these famous suffragettes would as well.
1. Susan B. Anthony
Arguably the most famous female suffragist of her time. She was eventually put on the United States dollar coin in the late 20th century.
2. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Formed a dynamic duo with Susan B. Anthony. Cady Stanton was the writer and theorist while Anthony was the speaker and strategist. She was also one of the women who called the Seneca Falls convention and even wrote its Declaration of Sentiments.
3. Lucretia Mott
An activist for both the rights of women and the abolition of slavery. Lucretia Mott, along with the previously mentioned Elizabeth Cady Stanton, called the Seneca Falls convention. This convention specifically addressed the rights of women. Mott was also a Quaker minister.
4. Alice Paul
Alice Paul was born significantly after the previously mentioned suffragettes and therefore brought a new style to the movement. After visiting London and its suffragettes Paul brought their more militant style to the American movement. She also proposed the Equal Rights Amendment to Congress in 1920 which has yet to be passed.
5. Carrie Chapman Catt
When Susan B. Anthony stepped down as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Chapman Catt was elected to replace her. Far less radical than Alice Paul she was responsible for founding the Women's Peace Party and the International Woman Suffrage Association.
While these women had different styles and were born in different times they all shared one goal. To obtain more rights for women. Because of this, each of them would probably roll in their grave knowing that there are people who would undo what they worked so hard to achieve.