[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16510-16511]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               COMMEMORATING THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fortenberry). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate an 
extremely important anniversary: 157 years ago today Lucretia Mott and 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton stood before a women's rights convention in 
Seneca Falls, New York and made it known that women's rights could not 
be complete until they were granted the right to vote.
  One hundred and fifty-seven years ago, women and men would not be 
considered equal without the strongest tool that existed in this 
country to enact change and that was the right to vote.
  In the greatest democracy in the world, the idea that half of the 
population did not have a voice was completely unacceptable to these 
two women and the countless others who stood beside them such as 
Sojourna Truth, a very strong advocate also for women's rights.
  What seems like an absolute now, that women should be part of the 
process, that women should be able to hold elected officials 
accountable for their actions, that women themselves could become 
elected officials, was not the case 157 years ago, Mr. Speaker.
  The women who stood up and fought back 157 years ago did so in order 
that we could be able to stand here today. Because of the courage of 
these women, we now have 69 women serving in the House of 
Representatives and 14 women serving in the Senate.
  However, women did not receive the right to vote without a struggle. 
Suffragists such as Carrie Chapman Catt, Maud Wood Park, Lucy Burns and 
Alice Paul faced such humiliations as arrest, jail time, and derision 
from all directions so that women could simply walk to the voting 
places and speak their minds through their votes.
  We owe a great deal of gratitude and great debt of gratitude to these 
women. Had they not marched, picketed and protested, many of us would 
not be standing here today. Unfortunately, many women are not making 
the most of this right that many fought so powerfully to secure.
  Our voices are no less important than they were many decades ago. Our 
ideas and beliefs are held no less powerful. Women have the power to 
make changes and affect policy. They can do so simply by going to the 
voting booths. However, while 60 percent of the women voted in the last 
election as opposed to 56 percent of men, a full 32 percent of women 
are still not registered to vote. A shocking 45 percent of young women 
ages 18 to 24 are not registered to vote.
  It is not enough for women to rest on our laurels given that we have 
and do have the right to vote. We actually have to get out and make our 
voices heard. We must engage all women in the process. We must 
demonstrate to them that their voices matter to us.

[[Page 16511]]

We must devote our energies to letting young women know that, like 
their counterparts 157 years ago, their participation can change the 
path of history.
  I want to thank these women who fought so hard 157 years ago so that 
women across this land could vote and can continue to vote and that I 
could have the opportunity to stand here today and give thanks to them.

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