Women's History Month: Thank a Suffragette

Sylvia Pankhurst. How many of us know her name? How many of us remember how her actions started the movement to allow women the right to vote.

Suffragettes. They wore purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope. They marched and organized and suffered for  women to be given political equality.

March is Women's History Month and it's a good time for us to say a silent "thank you" to Ms. Pankhurst, her sister Christabell Pankhurst and mother Emmeline, and the other suffragettes who fought for the rights we take for granted.

August 18 1920 American Women Won the Right to Vote

Almost 100 years ago, the 19th amendment was passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,  provided:  

"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."

Canadian women won the right to vote in 1918 although women in Manitoba could vote in their Provincial Elections in 1916. Quebec women fared the worst with women not being granted Provincial voting rights until 1940!

On 24 May 1918, all female Canadian citizens aged 21 and over became eligible to vote in federal elections, regardless of whether they had yet attained the provincial franchise. However, the Elections Canada website specifies what conditions were attached to such eligibility:  

"age 21 or older, not alien-born and meet property requirements in provinces where they exist." 

Have you ever wondered if your grandmother or great-grandmother was involved in the Suffragette Movement? I hope mine were. I am quite sure they supported it but did they go out and protest in the streets? I don't know.

We fought hard to gain this right but I wonder how many of us use it. Do you vote? I know I sometimes miss although I do try to make it to every election voting day. I don't want to let my grandmothers down by not exercising that right.