Democracy, Justice and Equality: A history lesson
Study the past if you want to define the future. - Confucius
Study the past if you want to define the future. - Confucius
A few weeks ago, I (Wendy) saw Shaina Taub’s incredible Tony Award-winning Broadway play, Suffs: The Musical. It's a must-see for theater lovers. Beyond its entertainment value, Taub’s sharp writing and poignant lyrics about a social movement over 100 years ago offer invaluable insights for today’s political climate.
The suffrage movement is often romanticized as a harmonious sisterhood of female activists united in their mission for women's voting rights. The reality was far more complex. As the cast of Suffs vividly illustrates, the movement was marked by factions, friction and frustration. The 70-plus-year struggle for women's freedom was fraught with polarizing tensions between leaders—young and old, Black and white, those embedded in institutions and those rejecting them.
This week, as the United States gears up for its flag-waving, BBQ-laden July 4th celebration of independence, freedom, justice and democracy, political polarization is causing many to question whether these values remain intact. Despite the festivities, there's a growing sense of unease about the state of our nation.
So this month we offer three lessons we think the suffragist movement teaches us about leaning into a political both/and today and about our continued, collective efforts to uphold freedom, equality and justice around the world.
As always, we are keen to hear your comments.
The fights and the struggles for equality and justice are never finished, and no generation really completes that work. It doesn’t mean you don’t still have to work and fight and organize as if you could finish it. It’s holding that contradiction in your head as an activist, and as any person working towards a better future. - Shaina Taub, Creator of Suffs, The Musical
We stand in the midst of global turmoil—geopolitical, climate, racial and technological. We need change now, yet efforts often spiral into polarized deadlocks halting advances. Perhaps, we can draw lessons from the women's movement, both its triumphs and its shortcomings, to navigate these turbulent waters.
Change is slow. The urgency of today’s societal challenges contrasts sharply with the glacial march of broad and lasting social change. Societies, composed of individuals with divergent values and goals, often move at a snail's pace. In 1776, Abigail Adams in 1776 pleaded to her husband John Adams and the Continental Congress to "remember the ladies." They didn’t. It wasn’t until the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, that the suffrage movement began to gain formal traction. It then took another 72 years for the 19th Amendment to be ratified in 1920. And even now, the Equal Rights Amendment remains unpassed, even as new, related issues emerge. While the problems we face are urgent, embracing the long view can help us push forward, one step at a time.
Change is conflictual. The suffrage movement was rife with tensions, conflicts and opposing perspectives. Racial tensions were particularly pronounced as white reformers often marginalized Black feminists. During the 1913 Women’s March, Black women were relegated to the ‘colored’ section at the back. As soon as the march started, Black female activist Ida B. Wells defiantly jumped in to join the procession with the Illinois state delegation, flanked and supported by two white women. Additionally, the movement saw clashes between the more conservative old guard and more radical new guard. Frustrated with slow progress and inspired by British suffragists, Alice Paul leaned toward militant tactics, leading to her imprisonment and brutal treatment. Her efforts also put her at odds with established leaders like Carrie Chapman Catt. Despite these conflicts, diverse approaches can offer key roles that drive movements forward. It’s not about choosing one path but valuing a multiplicity of strategies. That is, making change is not an either/or. The more we can appreciate, even harness differing approaches, the better off we are in making change.
Change often comes from the periphery. While the epicenter of the suffragist movement was in the American Northeast, the first victories for women's voting rights occurred out West. Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived in upstate New York, Lucretia Mott in Philadelphia. Yet, by 1916, after 480 state campaigns and 41 state referenda, only nine states granted women the vote—all in the West. Sometimes, those on the periphery have greater freedom to act and can provide crucial momentum to the core movement.
1915 Map by Henry Mayer depicting the states that passed laws for women to vote that are all in the West.
Copyright - Cornell University – PJ Mode Collection of Persuasive Cartography, used with permission for educational purposes
In the quest for change,the lessons of patience, conflict, and the power of the periphery offer guidance to help us move forward one step at a time amid today’s challenges.
For an in-depth understanding of the suffragist movement in the United States, check out:
Rebecca Mead (2018) The Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States
Rebecca Mead (2004) How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914
Doris Stevens, Jailed for Freedom; This book offers a first hand account of suffragists' prison experience after being sent to jail for silent protests at the White House.