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“THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S RIGHTS HISTORY PROJECT ACT” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1838-E1839 on Sept. 14, 2005.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S RIGHTS HISTORY PROJECT ACT
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HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER
of new york
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to celebrate the accomplishments of our foremothers by introducing the National Women's Rights History Project Act.
In contemporary American society, women enjoy rights to education, wages, and property ownership. However, it was only 85 years ago that women were finally granted the right to vote. Yet few Americans have any real knowledge of the long struggle to obtain the rights that we take for granted today. The National Women's Rights History Project Act will provide Americans with the opportunity to learn more about the female heroes that fought tirelessly to secure these rights.
On July 19, 1848, a group of activists including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Mary Ann M'Clintock convened the first Women's Rights Convention at Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. The Women's Rights Convention heralded the beginning of a 72-year struggle for suffrage. During the Convention, 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which was drafted to mirror the Declaration of Independence and set out such radical notions like women's freedom to own property, receive an education, and file for divorce.
In 1851, a second women's rights convention was held in Akron, Ohio. It was at this convention that Sojourner Truth delivered the famous
``Ain't I A Woman?'' speech. The woman's suffrage movement, however, was not solely limited to organized conventions. Under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed.
Susan B. Anthony also established the Equal Rights Association to refute ideas that women were inferior to men and fight for a woman's right to vote. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and other women voted in the presidential election, and were arrested and fined for illegal voting. At her trial, which attracted nationwide attention, Susan B. Anthony made a speech that ended with the slogan ``Resistance to Tyranny Is Obedience to God''. She also campaigned for the rights of women to own property, to keep their own earnings, and to have custody of their children. I am especially proud that it was in Rochester, New York that Susan B. Anthony fought so hard for the rights that women throughout this country rely on today. In fact, in 1900, she persuaded the University of Rochester, in my Congressional District, to admit women.
In the early 1900s, a new generation of leaders joined the women's suffrage movement, including Carrie Chapman Catt, Maud Wood Park, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and Harriot E. Blatch. During this era, the Women's Rights movement increased its momentum by organizing marches, pickets and other protests. Suffragette Alice Paul and other activists began chaining themselves to the White House fence and participating in hunger strikes to gain the attention of Congress.
The struggle for women's suffrage was not easy, and oftentimes it was made more difficult as a consequence of public misinformation and fear. Consider these remarks which, in 1912, appeared in the New York Times under the title, ``The Uprising of Women'':
``The vote will secure to woman no new privilege that she either deserves or requires . . . Women will get the vote and play havoc with it for themselves and society, if men are not wise and firm enough and it may as well be said, masculine enough, to prevent them.''
If by playing havoc, the New York Times meant becoming the single most sought after voting block in the country that often determines the outcome of elections, I guess they were right.
Because of the persistent dedication of Susan B. Anthony and other remarkable leaders, women persevered. Although Susan B. Anthony was not alive to see it, the efforts of the women's rights struggle came to fruition when the Nineteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote, was finally passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920.
We have clearly come a long way in 85 years--and we still have a long way to go. We must work to continue the momentum that started in Seneca Falls, by not only ensuring that all women vote, but that they do so with an understanding of the long fight to obtain this right and with a sense of responsibility to do their part in the struggle for women's equality.
To honor these important women, the National Women's Rights History Project Act will establish a trail route linking sites significant to the struggle for women's suffrage and civil rights. It also will expand the current National Register travel itinerary website, ``Places Where Women Made History,'' to include additional historic sites. Finally, this bill will require the Department of Interior to establish a partnership-based network to offer financial and technical assistance for interpretive and educational program development of national women's rights history.
The women of this country have fought tirelessly to achieve equitable rights for our grandmothers, our mothers, ourselves, and our daughters. It is my hope that this bill will provide Americans with the opportunity to learn more about the female leaders who struggled to secure these rights.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to join me in celebrating their accomplishments by National Women's Rights History Project Act today.
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