After casting a vote for President in the 1872 presidential election, Susan B Anthony was arrested, tried and fined a hefty sum of $100. She refused to pay. Instead, she defiantly went around Monroe and Ontario counties on a speaking tour, preaching the truth that all men and women are born equal with the same inalienable rights. In 1873 she began her lecture thus
Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.
The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:
"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.
Due to Anthony’s efforts and others’ within the women’s suffrage movement, in 1920, women’s inalienable right to participate in our democracy was recognized with the adoption of the 19th Amendment:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
While women finally had their right to participate in our nation’s democracy secured, the systemic societal and political biases limited their ability to lead it.
The first female member of congress, Jeanette Rankin of Montana was elected in 1916.
The first female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, was elected in 1924.
The first female US Senator, Rebecca Felton of Georgia, served one day in 1922 before Hattie Caraway of Arkansas, was elected in 1932.
However, through 2016 only 307 women have ever served in the US congress, with only 31 to have ever held the office of US Senator. Of those 307 women, 104, including 20 Senators, are currently serving.
And none had been nominated for President by a major party until 2016, when Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination in Philadelphia.
The race to win election to the highest office in the land would never have been easy. But Clinton, the former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State and one of the most qualified candidates for President would have to compete for the job against one of the most unqualified men ever nominated for that office. As if he were her equal. Of course.
She would have to face repeated misogynistic slurs, calls for her imprisonment, and more horrifyingly, even for her execution. But she stands.
She would be adjudged to have lost forums because she didn’t smile enough in delivering substantive answers while her opponent babbled incoherently. But she stands.
She would be graded harshly in debates while her opponent is graded on a curve because no one expects him to know policy better than her. But she stands.
She would face a grotesque opponent who broke almost all traditional expectations of political and even human decency. But she stands.
She would endure her opponent seeking to emotionally abuse her by throwing reminders of her husband’s sexual infidelity in her face. But she stands.
She would bear the burden of knowing that losing this campaign would bring a
racist, authoritarian bully to power in the country she loves. But she stands.
She would have to face unprecedented opposition from a foreign power, while American media bestowed the veneer of normalcy at the prospect of Russia actively trying to sabotage a presidential candidate. But she stands.
She would have to suffer the indignity of having the private emails of her campaign manager examined and broadcast daily by the media. But she stands.
She would have to endure the political weaponization of the FBI since a hapless director was unable to control testosterone fueled elements within the FBI who unjustly sought her indictment.
And yet, throughout all of this, she still stands. She stands.
On January 20, 2017 she’ll finally take a seat, and sit in the Oval Office.