19th Amendment

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Maine for helping us coordinate this very important moment today, and I, too, want to recognize the presence of our former colleague, who is playing such a great role in helping us commemorate next year as such a very important time for us to recognize the important role of women's voices in American politics.

I join my colleagues today to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Senate's passing of the 19th Amendment and to honor all the women who struggled hard and long to make sure our democracy included our voices, the voices of all women, all those women who saw the promise of the United States and fought for their place in it. Those women helped craft a more perfect union. For nearly a century, these women fought to be heard, and their efforts fundamentally transformed our democracy and our country.

I am very proud to represent a State with a long tradition of women activists and leaders. Today, I want to recognize two influential suffragists from my State--Emma Smith DeVoe and May Hutton. Both women were pioneers in the struggle to get the right to vote. In an era when women were given few opportunities, these two women refused to be held back. They instead paved a way for women to fully engage in the political process.

Tacoma resident Emma Smith DeVoe built the Washington Equal Suffrage Association and led the successful campaign to enshrine women's suffrage in Washington's State Constitution a full 10 years ahead of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. She helped win the right to vote for women in Idaho in 1896 and led campaigns in other States, speaking and organizing rallies and sit-ins, and she helped found the National Council of Women Voters to continue the nationwide suffrage movement and educate newly enfranchised women about politics across the country. Her efforts got her the nickname ``the Mother of Woman's Suffrage.''

May Hutton, the other activist from our State, overcame a very difficult childhood. She and her husband became successful entrepreneurs and devoted much of their self-made wealth to activism.

When they moved to Spokane from Idaho in 1906, May actually lost her right to vote in the process. She quickly set out to work to change that injustice and win the franchise for women in every State in the territory.

She wrote:

Women should vote because they have the intelligence to vote. They should vote because it gives them responsibilities, and responsibilities better fit women for all conditions of life. Equality before the law gives women a fair chance with men in a question of wages for the same work.

There you go--a century ago, someone standing up for women to have the same wage in work, and that is the work we continue here today.

She continued:

In other words, the enfranchisement of women means a square deal for all.

May stood tall for more than just women's rights; she proposed extending the franchise to all adults, regardless of sex, race, or color.

Washington's territorial legislature gave women the right to vote in 1883, but it was struck down by the courts. Because of the continuous efforts of Ms. DeVoe, Ms. Hutton, and so many others, women finally gained the franchise in Washington in 1910--a full decade before this right was guaranteed nationally. Emma Smith DeVoe and May Hutton paved the way for so many women. Washington State is proud of their work, and we are proud of their accomplishments.

As we honor them today, we must also recognize that the struggle for equal rights is still not over. We have more to do. We know that our country is stronger, more representative, and more successful when we include women at every table and in every boardroom and at every ballot box and in every discussion in our families and in our communities, but we need to be reminded of the example of Emma and May so that other suffragists know that we remember their work and are grateful for it and that we are going to continue the fight to get equal access and equal representation in all issues in the United States.

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