ERA Now Buttons Have Been Handed out to Guests]

Act I [Everyone is in their white outfits with black sashes, walks out onto the stage in a line] [ERA Now buttons have been handed out to guests] Michael Adler: We all realize the importance of the election that took place yesterday. Regardless of the results or your political affiliations or leanings, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s candidacy was an historic event for the United States, and it was a long time coming for women. Tonight we want to discuss with you how women got here, how far we have still to go, and our obligations to continue that momentum. As Clinton once declared, women’s rights are human rights. [7 people step out in irregular order to state a name, and anecdote about the women’s suffrage movement] We begin this evening with a little refresher on the history of women’s equality in the US. Back during the time of the Constitutional Convention, the status of women was on par with children. Women were legal dependents, unable to collect wages or make contracts. But women were already restless in this role, as evidenced by a letter Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband, John Adams, while he was serving here in Philadelphia in the Continental congress, March 31, 1776: Linda Alle-Murphy (Speaker 1 – Abigail Adams): “I long to hear that you have declared an independency – and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it would be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.” Tay Aspinwall: To which John Adams replied: “I cannot but laugh… Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our Masculine systems.” As the fight to end slavery and then for equal rights for all men gained momentum, suffragettes joined the fight, hoping that any broadening of the interpretation of the Constitution would include women as well. Lucretia Mott, famous suffragette and founder of Swarthmore College, following her attendance at the Seneca Falls Convention, wrote in 1849 on her Discourse on Women: Anne Brophy (Speaker 2 – Lucretia Mott): I am Lucretia Mott. “There is nothing of greater importance to the well-being of society at large – of man as well as woman – than the true and proper position of woman. Much has been said, from time “”to time, upon this subject. It has been a theme for ridicule, for satire and sarcasm. We might look for this from the ignorant and vulgar; but from the intelligent and refined we have a right to expect that such weapons shall not be resorted to, - that gross comparisons and vulgar epithets shall not be applied, so as to place woman, in a point of view, ridiculous to say the least.” Judge Hope (Speaker 3 – Victoria Woodhull): My name is Victoria Woodhull. I am best known as the first woman to run for the office of the president in 1872, and I did so, despite the fact that women had not yet won the right to vote. I made my fortune before my run, by becoming the first female stock broker and made a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange. I then became a newspaper editor, and women’s rights advocate. In 1871 I was well known as a brilliant orator (if I do say so myself), and was also the first woman to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, where I spoke on women’s suffrage, although I was not well received. Unfortunately, I didn’t win any electoral votes for my presidential bid. During my presidential run in 1871, in Steinway Hall I said: (Judge Hope continues as Victoria Woodhull): “Our government is based upon the proposition that: All men and women are born free and equal and entitled to certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now what we, who demand social freedom, ask, is simply that the government of this country shall be administered in accordance with the spirit of this proposition. Nothing more, nothing less. If that proposition means anything, it means just what it says, without qualification, limitation, or equivocation. It means that every person who comes into the world of outward existence is of equal right as an individual, and is free as an individual, and the he or she is entitled to pursue happiness in whatever direction he or she may choose.” Karlene Krenicky (Speaker 4 – Susan B. Anthony): I’m Susan B. Anthony, some of you may have heard of me. I was a Quaker from Massachusetts, born in 1820. I helped start the Women’s National Loyal League to petition to outlaw slavery. After the case of Minor v. Happersett, in 1874, where the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not grant women the right to vote (trust me, I was arrested for trying), I co-founded a newspaper called “The Revolution” with the motto, “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” Michael Adler: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton abandoned their support of the 14th Amendment when it became clear it would not grant rights to all disenfranchised citizens, controversially the amendment was written to “gender” the constitution; that is its first use of gender is the 14th Amendment’s enfranchisement of male inhabitants of the states. While they started the radical National Woman’s Suffrage Association, Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe fought for enfranchisement of black men, arguing that the rising tide lifts all boats through the American Woman’s Suffrage Association. It was 1872. Women could vote. That is, if they lived in the Wyoming or Utah territories, were over 21, and could find a polling place. In New York, there was no law specifically prohibiting women from voting. Susan B. Anthony and a small group of suffragists took this as an invitation to cast their ballots. They were arrested and convicted of “criminal voting” for their troubles. The suffragist movement would not be deterred. On the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration in 1913, Alice Paul of the National American Woman Suffrage Association led the Women’s Suffrage Procession, a march of thousands of suffragists down Pennsylvania Avenue. The march was timed with the inauguration to “protest against the present political organization of society, from which women are excluded.” Natalie Young (Speaker 5 – Jeanette Rankin): My name is Jeannette Rankin, and I was the first woman elected to Congress in 1916, I was known as a progressive and a feminist, and I represented Montana in the House on two separate times. By 1918 women had been granted some form of voting rights in about forty states, and I was instrumental in initiating the legislation that eventually became the 19th amendment. I dedicated my career to championing causes of gender equality, civil rights and a peaceful US. (Natalie Young continues as Jeanette Rankin): “Men and women are like right and left hands; it doesn't make sense not to use them both.” Tay Aspinwall: In 1919, the mainstream and radical suffragist finally won the first and only guarantee for women’s equal rights in the Constitution – the 19th Amendment, which guarantees that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of sex. In 1923, at the 75th anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, Alice Paul, who believed that enactment of an equal rights amendment was required to eliminate legal sex discrimination, introduced the “Lucretia Mott Amendment” which read “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” The amendment was introduced in every session of Congress until it passed, in revised form, in 1972. Ultimately, the ERA failed to garner the necessary ratification by 38 states within the requisite 7-year deadline imposed by Congress. In the first year after passage by Congress, 22 states ratified the ERA. Progress slowed as opposition began to build, reaching ratification by 35 states in 1977, three short of the necessary 38. Ultimately, the country was unwilling to guarantee women equal rights. Arguments by ERA opponents played on fears it would deny a woman’s right to be supported by her husband, women would be sent into combat, abortion rights and same-sex marriages would be upheld. States viewed it as a federal power grab and business interests opposed it on the grounds that it would cost them money. Jesse Shields (Speaker 6 – Bella Abzug): I’m Bella Abzug, and I graduated law school in the 1940’s and was vocal about my frustrations with how often it was assumed I was the secretary by male colleagues. I argued tirelessly throughout my career for the rights of everyone, regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation and became the first person to introduce a gay rights bill to Congress. I established both the National Women’s Political Caucus alongside Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem as well as the Women’s Environmental Development Organization. Michael Adler: In 1972, someone’s mother, sister, daughter, and maybe even some of the women in this room were out there somewhere thinking, “I could be the first women candidate for a major political party primary;” or “the first female Supreme Court Justice” or “even just a member of a jury.” In 1972, Shirley Chisholm was the first women to run on a primary ticket for a major political party.

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