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February 20, 2009

My View: History shows women's contribution to U.S. progress

Bonnie Hurd Smith

As we approach the month of March, America is once again poised to celebrate National Women's History Month — although, like the current debate over Black History Month, women's history is embedded throughout the American story and should not be relegated to one month.

Still, it is an opportunity to remember the women who have shaped our great nation and to tell a more complete story, especially in the wake of Mr. Michaud's recent letter, "These Men made us proud to be Americans," (Feb. 17, 2009). Of course they did, but these men did not act alone, and it is just as important for boys and men to be aware of and respect the contributions of women as it is for girls and women to own their history.

Anne Hutchinson in the 17th century claimed equality for women and religious freedom against the ruling Puritan ministers. Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston for having her own mind and sticking to her religious views. In the 18th century, Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man to fight in the American Revolution. Against the backdrop of Thomas Jefferson's words "All men are created equal," Abigail Adams urged the men who were drafting the New Republic's founding documents to "remember the ladies" and warned them that trouble lay ahead if they did not. Judith Sargent Murray claimed equality for women and presented historical proof of their abilities as leaders and citizens in published essays at a time when women could not speak in public.

In the 19th century, women like Sarah Parker Remond, Lydia Maria Child and Angelina and Sarah Grimk�© took to the public stage to fight against slavery. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone worked tirelessly for woman suffrage. Elizabeth Peabody and Margaret Fuller improved female education and encouraged women's intellectual achievements by example. All of these efforts took place before women could vote, hold public office or participate in the law.

In 1869, Arabella Babb Mansfield of Iowa became the first woman attorney to join the licensed U.S. bar. Esther McQuigg Morris of Wyoming became the first woman judge in America in 1870. In 1872, Victoria Claflin Woodhull of Ohio became the first woman to run for the office of president of the United States with former escaped slave Frederick Douglass as her running mate. That same year, 1872, Susan B. Anthony attempted to vote in New York and was turned away, and Charlotte E. Ray of Washington, D.C., became the first African-American woman attorney admitted to a state bar. Finally, in 1920, women achieved the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

In our own time, Sandra Day O'Connor of Arizona became the first woman associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. In 1985, Wilma Mankiller of Oklahoma became the first woman to serve as a principal chief in tribal history when she assumed the leadership of the Cherokee Nation. In 1999, Margaret A. Marshall became the first chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007.

Hilary Rodham Clinton was the first woman attorney to run for president on a major party ticket, winning more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in the country's history. Today, as secretary of state, Clinton is delivering the Obama administration's message of conciliatory negotiation and mature deliberation to the world.

Obama's no dummy. He knows he's not in this alone, and he has surrounded himself with some of the brightest men and women in the nation. Note also that two out of the three Republican senators who voted for the Economic Recovery bill were women (Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe).

The list of courageous firsts goes on and on — a list of women who acted to improve their communities, to improve this country in ways that truly honored the intent of the Declaration of Independence, and in ways that insisted upon the involvement of women fairly and equally.

They did this before they could speak in public, legally serve in the military, hold public office, or vote. They did it anyway because they believed in "female abilities" and the promise of America.

We will never know the names of hundreds more women who contributed because their stories were not recorded. But we know they were there — citizens, mothers, wives and daughters.

In March, and in every month, it behooves us all to "Remember the Ladies" with affection, respect and awe for all they have accomplished — and still are!

¢¢¢

Bonnie Hurd Smith of Salem is the author of "Boston Women & The Law: A Walking Trail through Four Centuries of Boston Women's Legal History" (2008) and the "Salem Women's Heritage Trail" (2000). The City of Salem elected its first woman mayor, Kim Driscoll, in 2006.

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