, Columnist
The Ugly, Unfinished Fight for Suffrage
The 100-year struggle to enfranchise women didn’t result in universal voting rights.
A campaign that lasted a century.
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August 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which recognized women’s right to vote. The milestone conjures up sepia images of White women in white dresses carrying picket signs. Victory seems inevitable. After all, the arc of history bends towards justice, right? As the grandmother of the movement, Susan B. Anthony, said in her last major speech, “Failure is impossible.”
But a closer look at the fight for the vote reminds us: The arc of history bends only when it is forced to. And always, the work is contentious, progress is uncertain, and victory is incomplete.