Women have come a long way since the early days of women’s suffrage. On July 19, 1848 a controversial resolution seeking the vote for women was passed at the first women’s rights convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanon also called for the right to exercise free speech. The move was necessary because public speaking was considered an unwomanly act. Thomas Jefferson had declared it would result in a “depravation of morals.” Ironically, that first convention was presided over by a man – James Mott, husband to suffragist Lucretia. It was not until 1920 that women earned the right to vote.
Just last month in 2012, legislators in Michigan banned a colleague from speaking on the floor. The group panicked when Representative Lisa Brown used the word “vagina” during a debate on reproductive health care. Republican Ann Richards once said Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did—only backwards and in high heels.
While some men may still think that women should not be heard or heard using certain words, this year is the real year of the woman. Women hold the keys to the 2012 election. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has said that due to many issues focusing on woman and children that women hold the key. And the battle grounds states are where it matters when it comes to women. Since the 1980’s women have been voting more than men. In 2008 10 million more women showed up at the polls than men. And in battleground states where women outvote men in the hundreds of thousands, women’s votes are crucial. The only battleground state where women don’t outvote men is in Nevada. And even there, it’s not by much that men lead women.
In Pennsylvania, women outvoted men in 2008 by 400,000. In Ohio, women outvoted men by 275,000. In North Carolina, the figures are women over men by 358,000. Currently, Romney is winning when it comes to white men. But women hold the key to this election. With the Republicans war on women from Planned Parenthood, paycheck fairness for women to calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a slut, the Republicans are not trying to win favor with women.
And November, 2012 will show the power of women regardless of the outcome. It doesn’t look good when it comes to the GOP.
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