WHY IS IT CALLED "SUFFRAGE?"

A vote is just a vote, but suffrage is a vote with high purpose. Thus it is no surprise that the high-purposed radical movement to extend the vote to women adopted the term suffrage to sum up its goal. Suffrage was already enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, where it applies to a right so fundamental it cannot be amended away. According to Article 5, the Constitution can be amended with approval of the legislatures of three-fourths of the states, except that "no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate."

This was the first use of suffrage to mean, "voting as a right rather than a privilege." In the earlier sense of "privilege," suffrage had been in the English language since the Middle Ages. Suffrages originally were prayers. Then the meaning was extended to requests for assistance, then to assistance itself, then the assistance provided by a supporting vote, and finally the vote itself. So it stood when in 1787 the Constitution used suffrage to mean "an inalienable right to vote."

And the right to vote, not merely the condescending permission to do so, was what advocated of women's equality sought. Hence they used suffrage, either in the phrase female suffrage or simply by itself, with the understanding that suffrage referred to the vote for the half of the adult population that had been excluded. By the early 1840's there was a Suffrage Party with this as their mission.

Even beyond its legal meaning, suffrage had connotations that helped the cause move forward. The word often evokes the dual meanings of suffer: "to allow," but also "to endure pain and hardship," here for the particular sake of achieving a goal. The goal of the suffrage movement was accomplished in 1920.

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http://www.lwvmp.org/newsletter/v200503why.html





The First Wave, a group of 19 life-sized bronze statues, depicts the organizers and supporters of the First Women's Rights Convention at Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Women's+Rights+National+Historical+Park

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Declaration of Sentiments
Women's Rights Convention
Seneca Falls, New York
July 1848

“We hold these truths to be self-evident;
that all men and women are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness;
that to secure these rights governments are instituted, d
eriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it,
and to insist upon the institution of a new government,
laying its foundation on such principles,
and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” [excerpt]

http://todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com/2012/07/we-hold-these-truths.html



We are half of the voters in this country. We need to make our voices heard. 2014 is going to be a crucial election in so many ways. Silence is not an option!

It's called the Women's Vote~