Votes for Women

Do you know what percentage of women in your age range are registered to vote?  Or how many voted in 2010?  According to the U.S. Census, women in my age range report being registered to vote at a 63.8% rate, but of those, only 38.6 actually vote.

Now I understand that there are times when it really feels like choosing the lesser of 2 evils when voting, and sometimes we are sick.  But also according to the census, the largest percentage of voters say they didn't vote because they were too busy or not interested.

So I'm issuing a challenge.  I'd like you to rent the movie Iron Jawed Angels.  It is the story of Alice Paul and the horrendous treatment she endured while fighting for the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, some 55 years after African-American men got that same right after the Civil War.  It is not a pretty picture.  If you don't have the opportunity to do that, then at least read about the Silent Sentinels.

I think that after realizing how hard women had to fight for the right to vote, we should cherish that right.  We had to fight to have a voice in our government - let's make sure our voices are heard.

Here's a link to the various census charts on voting.

Here's a link to the wiki article on the Silent Sentinels.

And here's a trailer for the movie, which is available from Netflix, but I don't know about other outlets.