19th Amendment

TOMORROW IS the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment providing for woman suffrage. It's certainly a time for celebration. But the story of the drive to obtain this basic right is scarcely ennobling -- including the final act, the antics of the state legislature that put the amendment into effect.In fact, the amendment, first introduced in December 1868, witnessed so many setbacks that prudent observers would have given little likelihood of its ultimate ratification.The initial congressional effort died quickly.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) made it through Congress in 1972, but after a 10-year effort to get the approval of the two-thirds of the states required for passage, it fell short by three states. Brought forth again with Democrats in control of Congress and redubbed the Women's Equality Amendment (WEA), it states that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Proponents observe that women still get only 77 cents for every dollar that men are paid.

1915: Ovenproof glass - Pyrex - improves the kitchen1920: 19th Amendment: American women win the right to vote

NEW YORK - Kansas state Sen. Kay O'Connor, a self-described "old fashioned conservative lady," recently admitted that she "does not celebrate the enactment of the 19th Amendment in 1920" - a woman's right to vote. "We have a society that does tear families apart," said the Republican legislator, who originally entered the workplace to assist with her daughter's medical expenses. "I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of. The 19th Amendment is around because men weren't doing their jobs, and I think that's sad."

City voters will know what to make of the Big School Deal when they learn how well spending per pupil catches up to state average.As soon as he sees what Counsel Starr is up to, Bill will head straight back to Thailand.Serbs voted wrong so the courts corrected them.Republicans must decide which is easier, trying to please women or repealing the 19th Amendment.Pub Date: 11/29/96pTC

NEW YORK - Kansas state Sen. Kay O'Connor, a self-described "old fashioned conservative lady," recently admitted that she "does not celebrate the enactment of the 19th Amendment in 1920" - a woman's right to vote. "We have a society that does tear families apart," said the Republican legislator, who originally entered the workplace to assist with her daughter's medical expenses. "I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of. The 19th Amendment is around because men weren't doing their jobs, and I think that's sad."

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago tomorrow, the Secretary of State certified the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing to women the right to vote.It had been a long struggle, and it took longer still for many women to exercise their hard-won right. Historians say that women did not vote in large numbers until the 1952 presidential election.Today, women play a pivotal role in U.S. politics at all levels of government. In the current races for elective office in Baltimore City, voters take for granted the fact that women are waging strong campaigns for all three city-wide offices.

Women had to fight for the voteAmerican women who had long been denied the right to vote were given that sacred responsibility on Aug. 26, 1920 when the 19th Amendment giving women the responsibility and right to vote became law. It reads as follows:''Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article...

Look around the political scene and it is hard to imagine public life without the participation and influence of women. Yet as the 75th anniversary today of the ratification of the 19th Amendment reminds us, the emergence of women as a political force is a relatively recent phenomenon. Despite the fact that women won the franchise in 1920, they didn't vote in large numbers until the 1952 presidential elections. And not until the 1980s did significant numbers begin running for office.The indomitable women who steered the 19th Amendment to its official ratification would find many things to warm their hearts in the current political scene.

Before Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Susan Faludi and other modern feminists, there was suffragist Christia Adair. She fought for women's right to vote, even though she knew that as a black woman in Texas she would not benefit from the passage of the 19th Amendment.Adair, and scores of other feminist foremothers, paved the way for contemporary feminists (as well as millions of other women) to live and think on equal terms with men.With "Women in Action: Rebels and Reformers from 1920 to 1980," the League of Women Voters reminds us of those largely anonymous activists.

WE GATHERED in the Lyndon B. Johnson Room of the U.S. Capitol to toast the anniversary of women's right to vote: the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. It was a typical Washington networking mix: lobbyists, journalists, government officials and people from the arts world. A couple of men, but mostly women. Among the women were the silver-haired war horses from the early days of the women's movement, for whom birth control, personal credit, graduate school and jobs outside the elementary-school classroom had been the new frontier.

1915: Ovenproof glass - Pyrex - improves the kitchen1920: 19th Amendment: American women win the right to vote

One of the problems that often come with history done on television is distinguishing hype from historical record.The bigger the budget, it seems, the greater the tendency for filmmakers to overstate the importance of their stories in an effort to get us inside their tents at the circus of prime-time programming -- especially in a sweeps ratings period like the one this month.Since his triumph with "The Civil War" and an exclusive underwriting deal with General Motors, no one has had bigger budgets to work with than documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and no one makes bigger claims for the importance of each of the persons he studies.

City voters will know what to make of the Big School Deal when they learn how well spending per pupil catches up to state average.As soon as he sees what Counsel Starr is up to, Bill will head straight back to Thailand.Serbs voted wrong so the courts corrected them.Republicans must decide which is easier, trying to please women or repealing the 19th Amendment.Pub Date: 11/29/96pTC

Women had to fight for the voteAmerican women who had long been denied the right to vote were given that sacred responsibility on Aug. 26, 1920 when the 19th Amendment giving women the responsibility and right to vote became law. It reads as follows:''Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article...

Look around the political scene and it is hard to imagine public life without the participation and influence of women. Yet as the 75th anniversary today of the ratification of the 19th Amendment reminds us, the emergence of women as a political force is a relatively recent phenomenon. Despite the fact that women won the franchise in 1920, they didn't vote in large numbers until the 1952 presidential elections. And not until the 1980s did significant numbers begin running for office.The indomitable women who steered the 19th Amendment to its official ratification would find many things to warm their hearts in the current political scene.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) made it through Congress in 1972, but after a 10-year effort to get the approval of the two-thirds of the states required for passage, it fell short by three states. Brought forth again with Democrats in control of Congress and redubbed the Women's Equality Amendment (WEA), it states that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Proponents observe that women still get only 77 cents for every dollar that men are paid.

WE GATHERED in the Lyndon B. Johnson Room of the U.S. Capitol to toast the anniversary of women's right to vote: the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. It was a typical Washington networking mix: lobbyists, journalists, government officials and people from the arts world. A couple of men, but mostly women. Among the women were the silver-haired war horses from the early days of the women's movement, for whom birth control, personal credit, graduate school and jobs outside the elementary-school classroom had been the new frontier.

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago tomorrow, the Secretary of State certified the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing to women the right to vote.It had been a long struggle, and it took longer still for many women to exercise their hard-won right. Historians say that women did not vote in large numbers until the 1952 presidential election.Today, women play a pivotal role in U.S. politics at all levels of government. In the current races for elective office in Baltimore City, voters take for granted the fact that women are waging strong campaigns for all three city-wide offices.

TOMORROW IS the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment providing for woman suffrage. It's certainly a time for celebration. But the story of the drive to obtain this basic right is scarcely ennobling -- including the final act, the antics of the state legislature that put the amendment into effect.In fact, the amendment, first introduced in December 1868, witnessed so many setbacks that prudent observers would have given little likelihood of its ultimate ratification.The initial congressional effort died quickly.