Library program chronicles highlights of American women's fight to vote

SALEM

Parades, protests and picketing paved the way for women to earn the right to vote.

Kim Kenney, curator of the William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum in Canton, chronicled highlights leading to the 19th Amendment during a recent program “Woman Suffrage: A Celebration of Persistence” at Salem Public Library, 821 E. State St.

Kenney said the Declaration of Sentiments is a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men. They represented 100 of some 300 people who attended the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. It was written primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who worked with feminists Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright and Mary Ann McClintock.

Kenny pointed out it took about 72 years, from the start of the suffrage movement in 1848 to ratification Aug. 18, 1920, of the 19th Amendment that guarantees all American women the right to vote.

Jeanette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives in 1916, Kenney said, and it took until 1984 for Geraldine Ferraro to be the first female vice presidential candidate in the Democratic Party. More than 30 years passed before Hillary Clinton was nominated as the first female presidential candidate of a major political party.

“We’re a developed nation, but it took this long for a female presidential candidate,” Kenney said. She pointed out Margaret Thatcher was Great Britain’s prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

Kenney said one would think “the momentum” of the Ferraro nomination would have led to a female presidential candidate sooner. “I think the suffragettes would be happy there finally is a female candidate for president but wonder why it took so long,” Kenney said.

Kenney also mentioned the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in New York. The park is the site of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House, the home of the suffragette and her husband, Henry, and their seven children.

Read more about the events in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.