Democracy Links: Women's History / Studies / Issues

The League of Women Voters
of New Jersey

a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose purpose is to promote political responsibility
through informed and active participation in government

Democracy Links

WOMEN'S HISTORY/STUDIES/ISSUES

a League of Women Voters of New Jersey Education Fund Project

DID YOU KNOW . . . ?

429 Fortune 500 companies had female directors in 2001 (up from 345 in 1993)

2064 is the predicted year in which women will reach parity with men in the U.S. boardroom (from 10/98 TIME magazine)

Women earn 76.5 cents on the dollar compared to men (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5/00); an increase of 0.2 cent from 1998 and a 14 cent increase since the government started keeping track in 1979

23.6 percent of women completed a college education, compared to 27.8 percent of men (Census Bureau, 3/01)

IMPORTANT DATES

1776-1807: New Jersey granted women the vote in its state constitution.

1838: Kentucky widows with children in school are granted "school suffrage", the right to vote in school board election

July 13, 1848: Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Ann McClintock are invited to tea at the home of Jane Hunt in Waterloo, NY. They decide to call a two-day meeting at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Seneca Falls for the purpose of discussing women's rights.

July 19 and 20, 1848: Three hundred people attend the first convention held to discuss women's rights, in Seneca Falls, New York. 68 women and 32 men sign the "Declaration of Sentiments," including the first formal demand made in the United States for women's right to vote: "...it is the duty of the women of this country to secure for themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise."

February 14, 1920: The League of Women Voters is founded as "a mighty experiment" at the Victory Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Chicago, Illinois. By now, 33 states have ratified the suffrage amendment, but final victory is still three states away.

August 18, 1920: Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the Amendment. A young state legislator casts the deciding vote after being admonished to do so by his mother.

August 26, 1920: The 19th Amendment is quietly signed into law by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, granting women the right to vote.

Carrie Chapman Catt, from the Library of Congress
Carrie Chapman Catt: Net Resources

LWVNJ History 1920-1991, from Rutgers Library

New Jersey Women's History, a project by the Women's Project of New Jersey in collaboration with Special Collections/Archives, the Scholarly Communications Center located in Rutgers University Libraries and the New Jersey Historical Society
http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory/

Documents relating to New Jersey Women's History http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory/documents.htm

The Eagleton Institute of Politics; established by a 1956 bequest to Rutgers University from Florence Peshine Eagleton, a founder of New Jersey's League of Women Voters; research and programs about American politics and the political process
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~eagleton/

The Center for the American Woman and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, women candidates, leadership, gender gap in voting, and women in office
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cawp/

National Education for Women's Leadership program (NEW Leadership), educates and empowers young women to participate actively in politics and public policy making
http://www.newleadership.rutgers.edu/

Resources on Women and Gender, Rutgers
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/womens_studies/womens_studies.shtml

National Women's History Project, updates about events, conferences, publications, films and other resources related to U.S. women's history
http://www.nwhp.org/

"Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony," PBS
http://pbs.org/stantonanthony/

A History of the American Suffragist Movement
http://www.suffragist.com

National Conference of State Legislatures, legislative sessions, partisan composition, women in state legislatures
http://www.ncsl.org/index.htm

Library of Congress' "Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920," photographs and cartoons collection
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html

Women & the Vote--Alice Paul's Fight for Suffrage, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/civilrights/features_suffrage.html

Women in World History Curriculum, biographies, lesson plans, resources
http://www.womeninworldhistory.com

Women's International Center Biography Index
http://www.wic.org/bio/idex_bio.htm

Distinguished Women of Past and Present
http://www.DistinguishedWomen.com

Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1998
http://www.legacy98.org/

Multimedia sites in Women's History
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women/wom-mm.html

American Women's History, A Research Guide
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women.html

The National Women's Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, NY
http://www.greatwomen.org/

Places Where Women Made History, National Park Services' guide
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/

National Archives-Women's Suffrage & the 19th Amendment
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/amendment_19/

"Votes for Women" Photo collection, Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html

National Archives-Failure Is Impossible script
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/script-intro.html

Jane Addams' "Why Women Should Vote" speech
http://douglassarchives.org/adda_a03.htm

NAWSA's Women Suffrage speeches
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/naw

August 26, Women's Equality Day

PUBLICATIONS:

Many are available FREE from the League of Women Voters and can be downloaded easily.
Or use the BarnesandNoble.com Search Engine. Search by title or author or try searching under keywords such as: Democracy, Elections, Women's History, or Voting.



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