You're part of a long line of women fighting for voting rights
And we can't stop now
This week on “Okay, But Why?” we talked about the history of voting rights in America, and how dangerous the SAVE Act would be for millions of American voters. Today, we want to take a step back and talk about a woman who dedicated much of her life to the fight for women’s right to vote. Alice Paul was a leader in the American women’s suffrage fight.
photo courtesy of The National Women’s History Museum
By 1917, Alice Paul was part of the well-known group of “Silent Sentinels” that spent 18 months picketing in front of the White House. During this time, over 1,000 suffragists took turns holding signs that asked “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”
Prior to the Silent Sentinels, Alice Paul organized a national parade for women’s suffrage in Washington, D.C. in 1913, the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Did you know that the Women’s March of 2017 wasn’t the first time women took to the streets around an inauguration, to make their voices heard? If you participated that day, or in any other march or rally, you are part of a long history of women fighting for women’s equality in this country.
Today, women all across America are still fighting for equal rights. In fact, with the threat of the SAVE Act we are even still fighting for our right to vote. The SAVE Act would make it harder for millions of Americans to register to vote or change their voter registration. Even if you’re already registered to vote, if you need to update your information you will need proof of citizenship like a birth certificate or a passport that matches your current name. That means if you legally changed your name after marriage, your birth certificate will not be proof of citizenship. This disproportionately affects women, so it’s no surprise that women are leading the effort to STOP the SAVE Act.
Last week we had over 4,000 women attend an evening virtual event to learn more about the SAVE Act. And since then, millions of people have viewed the event and social media posts urging them to take action.
Now it’s your turn. You can take action right now by telling everyone you know about the SAVE Act and how it will make registering to vote even harder. We created a social media toolkit that you can access here to easily share out posts and information to your network. There are graphics and videos you can share, or you can simply share this post.
American women like Alice Paul have fought for generations to have the same rights as the men in this country. And we can’t stop fighting now. Let’s take action together.