Celebrate Suffrage

Submitted by CCCL_KaraS

August marks the Centennial of the Victory of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Contra Costa Library is excited to share resources and offer programs to celebrate this watershed victory for voting rights. 

What was Women’s Suffrage? 

Women’s Suffrage was the fight to secure voting rights for women. One of the largest reform movement in United States history, participants in the Women’s Suffrage Movement believed that securing the vote was essential to achieving women’s economic, social, and political equality. Determined organizers lobbied, paraded, petitioned, lectured, and picketed for years. It was not work for the timid. Suffragists were ridiculed, patronized, and outright dismissed. Some were assaulted and spent time in prison, and all for speaking up for having their rights seen as equal to those of men.  

The Women’s Suffrage Movement questioned the country’s commitment to democracy and challenged existing gender stereotypes. Although few of the women who began the suffrage campaign well before the Civil War lived long enough to witness its final victory in August 1920, their work was carried on by their daughters, granddaughters, and other women whom carried the torch of equality onwards. All told, the campaign for women’s voting rights lasted more than seven decades. 70 years. A lifetime. 

The dictionary definition of Suffrage is “the right of voting.” Can you think of any other group of people that has had to fight – or is fighting – to exercise their right to vote?  

Learn more about the history of our democracy and suffrage in the U.S..

Be sure to check our events calendar for programs about Women’s Suffrage, civic engagement topics, and candidate forums. 

Of course, the best way to honor this milestone of the Women’s Suffrage Movement is to cast your vote!