Women's Rights

You cannot rob us of the rights we cherish,

Nor turn our thoughts away

From the bright picture of a "Woman's Mission"

Our hearts portray.

We claim to dwell, in quiet and seclusion,

Beneath the household roof,--

From the great world's harsh strife, and jarring voices,

To stand aloof;--

Not in a dreamy and inane abstraction

To sleep our life away,

But, gathering up the brightness of home sunshine,

To deck our way.

As humble plants by country hedgerows growing,

That treasure up the rain,

And yield in odours, ere the day's declining,

The gift again;

So let us, unobtrusive and unnoticed,

But happy none the less,

Be privileged to fill the air around us

With happiness;

To live, unknown beyond the cherished circle,

Which we can bless and aid;

To die, and not a heart that does not love us

Know where we're laid.

>Annie Louisa Walker

Honoring Yesterday's Heroes

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.  If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes."  They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." 

Clare Boothe Luce

She was born March 10,1903 in New York City. Clare grew up to become an American playwright, the U.S. Representative from Connecticut, and diplomat. She was the first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad when she became the ambassador to Italy in 1953. . Clare received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983. She died from a brain tumor in Washington, DC on October 9, 1987 at the age of 84 years, leaving most of her estate to the Henry Luce Foundation which established the Clare Booth Luce Program to encourage women to enter into the fields of science, mathematics, and engineering...a field where women continue to be underrepresented. It became the largest private source of funding for women in those fields.

Honoring Yesterday's Heroes

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.

Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte, born April 21, 1816,, the eldest out of the famous Bronte sisters, was also  a British novelist. During her lifetime, she wrote Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Villette, and Shirley amongst numerous other books and poems.

Women Suffrage Banner, Washington, DC

Today's Quote

A woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.

 Susan B. Anthony

Today's Quote

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead." 

Louisa May Alcott

Women's Suffrage

Fellow men! why should the lords try to despise

And prohibit women from having the benefit of the parliamentary Franchise?

When they pay the same taxes as you and me,

I consider they ought to have the same liberty.

And I consider if they are not allowed the same liberty,

From taxation every one of them should be set free;

And if they are not, it is really very unfair,

And an act of injustice I most solemnly declare.

Women, farmers, have no protection as the law now stands;

And many of them have lost their property and lands,

And have been turned out of their beautiful farms

By the unjust laws of the land and the sheriffs' alarms.

And in my opinion, such treatment is very cruel;

And fair play, 'tis said, is a precious jewel;

But such treatment causes women to fret and to dote,

Because they are deprived of the parliamentary Franchise vote.

In my opinion, what a man pays for he certainly should get;

And if he does not, he will certainly fret;

And why wouldn't women do the very same?

Therefore, to demand the parliamentary Franchise they are not to blame.

Therefore let them gather, and demand the parliamentary Franchise;

And I'm sure no reasonable man will their actions despise,

For trying to obtain the privileges most unjustly withheld from them;

Which Mr. Gladstone will certainly encourage and never condemn.

And as for the working women, many are driven to the point of starvation,

All through the tendency of the legislation;

Besides, upon members of parliament they have no claim

As a deputation, which is a very great shame.

Yes, the Home Secretary of the present day,

Against working women's deputations, has always said- nay;

Because they haven't got the parliamentary Franchise-,

That is the reason why he does them despise.

And that, in my opinion, is really very unjust;

But the time is not far distant, I most earnestly trust,

When women will have a parliamentary vote,

And many of them, I hope, will wear a better petticoat.

And I hope that God will aid them in this enterprise,

And enable them to obtain the parliamentary Franchise;

And rally together, and make a bold stand,

And demand the parliamentary Franchise throughout Scotland.

And do not rest day nor night-

Because your demands are only right

In the eyes of reasonable men, and God's eyesight;

And Heaven, I'm sure, will defend the right.

Therefore go on brave women! and never fear,

Although your case may seem dark and drear,

And put your trust in God, for He is strong;

And ye will gain the parliamentary Franchise before very long.

ax Plowman

Honoring Yesterday's Heroes

Woman must not accept; she must challenge.

She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her;

she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.

 Margaret Sanger

This photo was taken of Margaret Sanger along with her sister Ethyl Byrne  on the steps of a courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, on January 8, 1917 during a trial accusing Sanger and others for opening a birth control clinic in New York. Both women were found guilty, and the clinic was shut down.

Our Heroes

Group portrait monument to the pioneers of the woman suffrage movement, which won women the right to vote in 1920.  The monument  was sculpted by Adelaide Johnson from an 8-ton block of marble in Carrara, Italy.

Honoring Yesterday's Heroes

"I am not blind to the shortcomings of our own people. I am not unaware that leaders betray, and sell out, and play false. But this knowledge does not outweigh the fact that my class, the working class, is exploited, driven, fought back with the weapon of starvation, with guns and with venal courts whenever they strike for conditions more human, more civilized for their children, and for their children's children."

Mary Harris Jones

Mother Jones was an Irish dressmaker and schoolteacher whose life was far from easy.  After losing her husband and four children  in a yellow fever epidemic, she moved back to Chicago; there, four years later, she lost everything in the Great Chicago Fire. She didn't give up on life, however; instead, she threw herself into working towards advancing political and social causes and became the most famous labor leader in the 19th century.  Today she is honored my the magazine that carries her name, "Mother Jones".  

Honoring Yesterday's Heroes

I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.

Amelia Earhart

Honoring Yesterday's Heroes

"My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I will not resign myself to the usual lot of women who bow their heads and become concubines."

TrieuThi Trinh

Trieu Thi Trinh was a peasant woman who led an insurrection against Chinese invaders in 240 A.D. Vietnam. She has been called the Vietnamese Joan of Arc. While growing up, she had been treated as a slave by her brother, and when when she saw the Chinese treating her countrymen with the same cruelty, she escaped and raised an army of over a thousand rebels to rise up against the Chinese,  Her rebellion was successful, and the invaders became so frighten of her that they said 'it would be easier to fight a tiger than a lady queen.

However, in 248 A.D., the Chinese army fought and overtook the rebel army.  Lady Trieu was so disheartened that she committed suicide by leaping into a river.  Today, a national holiday honors her bravery. 

Honoring Yesterday's Heroes

"...the Government must not think that they can stop this agitation. It will go on...We are here not because we are law-breakers; we are here in out efforts to become law-makers." 

Emmeline Pankhurst - WSPU, England, 1908

Emmeline Pankhurst, born in 1858, was a British political activist and one of the leaders of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote. She died in 1928.