22 NORTH BAY WOMAN S P R I N G | S U M M E R 2 0 2 0
The story of the anniversary of women's
right to vote and Marin's trailblazers
100 YEARS
and counting
By Judith M. Wilson
hen women took to the streets to show
solidarity and demand freedom from
sexual abuse in the 2017 Women's
March, they were following a time-hon-
ored tradition. The first major march for
women's rights took place more than
100 years ago, on March 3, 1913, when
5,000 women turned out to campaign for a woman's right to
vote in the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C.
It was amid the first wave of feminism. The activism didn't go
over well with male opponents, who showed up to taunt, jeer
and manhandle the women. Still, they persisted, and on Aug.
20, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution became
law, granting women the right to vote in all elections.
The first wave
In her biography, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt says, "You
must do the thing you think you cannot do," and such was
the case with women's suffrage. The movement got its start
W
