Women celebrate 89 years of voting

For 89 years, women have been able to rock the vote.

The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, celebrated its 89th anniversary Wednesday, and women’s rights activists on both a national and local scale emphasized the symbolic significance of the amendment’s passage.

“On this Women’s Equality Day, we take time to recognize not only the historic 19th Amendment, but the tremendous progress we’ve made over the last 89 years in expanding and protecting voting rights,” said Mary G. Wilson, national president of the League of Women Voters, in a press release.

Sally Hegeman, president of the Bloomington-Monroe County chapter of the League of Women Voters, said that nearly nine decades later, women attaining the right to vote is central to the American political process.

“I don’t think there could be anything more important,” Hegeman said. “One thing we tend to forget was the struggle it took to attain that right.”

Women were often jailed for their protests before the amendment’s passage, Hegeman said.

“It wasn’t just a nice, sweet bunch of ladies handing out petitions,” Hegeman said. “They had to fight. Now we take our right to vote for granted and ignore our responsibility.”

The Bloomington chapter will celebrate Equality Day with an upcoming showing of “Iron Jawed Angels,” a 2004 movie chronicling the early women’s suffrage movement and the amendment’s eventual passage.

Yvette Alex-Assensoh, IU dean for women’s affairs, also emphasized the historical importance of the anniversary.

“With the right to vote, women have had a voice and the ability to contribute to the political process,” Alex-Assensoh said. “With the ability to vote, women can help make decisions and pass laws.”

However, Alex-Assensoh said the 19th Amendment alone does not mean struggles for equality are done.

“Think about how far we have to go,” Alex-Assensoh said. “In recognizing and celebrating, there are also many barriers and many gaps yet to close.”