Hats Off to the Suffragists and Gender Equality

Patriot Week yesterday honored the First Principle of gender equality, suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the 1848 Seneca Falls Statement, the 19th Amendment (granting women suffrage), and the Suffragist Flag.


When America declared independence and explained that “all men are created equal,” we left out better half of our people. Not only were women prohibited from voting, they had nearly no legal rights. However, suffragists and women rights’ activists drew upon the principles of equality, unalienable rights, and the Social Compact to point out that unless women were enfranchised and granted equal civil and political rights, that the idea of equality would be mockery.

After decades of struggle, the 19th Amendment was adopted on August 26, 1920. Although the struggle for gender equality has not yet ended, there have been tremendous strides across the economic, political, and cultural arenas.

Unfortunately, the struggle for gender equality has hardly begun in other areas of the world – such as Saudi Arabia and Sudan (where a women was recently imprisoned for wearing pants, and others are lashed for the same offense). Hopefully America’s beacon of light will enlighten the darker realms of the world.

For more on our First Principles and Patriot Week, visit http://www.patriotweek.com/  and http://www.americassurvivalguide.com/.