Kentucky legislators pause to honor Suffrage, women's struggle

The 90th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in the United States will be celebrated by the Kentucky Commission of Women with its Votes for Women event.

The celebration will be held Thursday, Aug. 26th, 2010 at the State Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky at 10:30 a.m. After Congressional approval, on the first day of the 1920 Kentucky General Assembly, the Commonwealth ratified the 19th Amendment by a margin of 72-25 in the House and 30-8 in the Senate.

This vote made Kentucky only one of four Southern states to adopt the federal amendment, which went into effect after Tennessee followed suit and became the 36th state legislature to ratify the proposed amendment. During August 2010, Kentuckians celebrate the occasion.

According to Lindsay Orange, communications director for Kentucky's House Republican Leadership, "Women from various backgrounds overcame cultural boundaries to fight against this discrimination with pride and unity. Activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott began the 70-year struggle by women to secure the right to vote, and this mission was carried through here in Kentucky by women, such as Lucy Burns, Dora Lewis and Alice Paul."

During this struggle, women worked in unity, protested, and were jailed and beaten by opponents of equality. However, they overcame and did earn the right for women to vote in the United States.

The New York Theological Seminary is dedicated to the ongoing struggle for the equality of women. Accordingly, the seminary's Women's Center was instituted in order to advance the ongoing discussion regarding sexual equality through not only study but activism.