[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 117 (Friday, July 20, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1575]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S RIGHTS HISTORY PROJECT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 19, 2007

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Madam Speaker, today, as we mark the anniversary of 
the first ever women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, I 
am proud to celebrate the accomplishments of our foremothers by 
introducing the National Women's Rights History Project Act.
  In contemporary American society, women enjoy rights to education, 
wages, and property ownership. However, it was only 87 years ago that 
women were finally granted the right to vote. Yet few Americans have 
any real knowledge of the long struggle to obtain the rights that we 
take for granted today. The National Women's Rights History Project Act 
will provide Americans with the opportunity to learn more about the 
female heroes that fought tirelessly to secure these rights.
  On July 19, 1848, a group of activists including Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Mary Ann M'Clintock convened the first 
women's rights convention at Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. 
The women's rights convention heralded the beginning of a 72-year 
struggle for suffrage. During the convention, 68 women and 32 men 
signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which was drafted to mirror the 
Declaration of Independence and set out such radical notions like 
women's freedom to own property, receive an education, and file for 
divorce.
  In 1851, a second women's rights convention was held in Akron, Ohio. 
It was at this convention that Sojourner Truth delivered the famous 
``Ain't I a Woman?'' speech. The woman's suffrage movement, however, 
was not solely limited to organized conventions. Under the leadership 
of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony the National American 
Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed.
  Susan B. Anthony also established the Equal Rights Association to 
refute ideas that women were inferior to men and fight for a woman's 
right to vote. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony and other women voted in the 
Presidential election, and were arrested and fined for illegal voting. 
At her trial, which attracted nationwide attention, Susan B. Anthony 
made a speech that ended with the slogan ``Resistance to Tyranny Is 
Obedience to God.'' She also campaigned for the rights of women to own 
property, to keep their own earnings, and to have custody of their 
children. I am especially proud that it was in Rochester, New York, 
that Susan B. Anthony fought so hard for the rights that women 
throughout this country rely on today. In fact, in 1900, she persuaded 
the University of Rochester, in my Congressional District, to admit 
women.

  In the early 1900s, a new generation of leaders joined the women's 
suffrage movement, including Carrie Chapman Catt, Maud Wood Park, Lucy 
Burns, Alice Paul, and Harriot E. Blatch. During this era, the women's 
rights movement increased its momentum by organizing marches, pickets 
and other protests. Suffragette Alice Paul and other activists began 
chaining themselves to the White House fence and participating in 
hunger strikes to gain the attention of Congress.
  The struggle for women's suffrage was not easy, and oftentimes it was 
made more difficult as a consequence of public misinformation and fear. 
Consider these remarks which, in 1912, appeared in the New York Times 
under the title, ``The Uprising of Women'':

       The vote will secure to woman no new privilege that she 
     either deserves or requires . . . Women will get the vote and 
     play havoc with it for themselves and society, if men are not 
     wise and firm enough and it may as well be said, masculine 
     enough, to prevent them.

  If by playing havoc, the New York Times meant becoming the single 
most sought after voting block in the country that often determines the 
outcome of elections, I guess they were right.
  Because of the persistent dedication of Susan B. Anthony and other 
remarkable leaders, women persevered. Although Susan B. Anthony was not 
alive to see it, the efforts of the women's rights struggle came to 
fruition when the nineteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving 
women the right to vote, was finally passed by Congress on June 4, 
1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920.
  We have clearly come a long way in 87 years--and we still have a long 
way to go. We must work to continue the momentum that started in Seneca 
Falls, by not only ensuring that all women vote, but that they do so 
with an understanding of the long fight to obtain this right and with a 
sense of responsibility to do their part in the struggle for women's 
equality.
  To honor these important women, the National Women's Rights History 
Project Act will establish a trail route linking sites significant to 
the struggle for women's suffrage and civil rights. It also will expand 
the current National Register travel itinerary Web site, ``Places Where 
Women Made History,'' to include additional historic sites. Finally, 
this bill will require the Department of the Interior to establish a 
partnership-based network to offer financial and technical assistance 
for interpretive and educational program development of national 
women's rights history.
  The women of this country have fought tirelessly to achieve equitable 
rights for our grandmothers, our mothers, ourselves, and our daughters. 
It is my hope that this bill will provide Americans with the 
opportunity to learn more about the female leaders who struggled to 
secure these rights.
  Madam Speaker, I encourage all Members to join me in celebrating 
their accomplishments by cosponsoring the National Women's Rights 
History Project Act today.

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