National Nurses United

Suffrage_FNL with art 10/5/10 4:05 PM Page 15 A Storied History t's mindboggling to think now, but women in the United States only secured the right to vote 90 years ago after struggling for more than a century to win the franchise. And it may also surprise registered nurses to know that the past, present, and future of the modern nursing profession is inseparable from the political power and advocacy represented by a woman's right to vote. Earlier generations of nurses understood this well. On March 13, 1913, nearly 8,000 women and some men marched in a grand procession down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House to very publicly demand that women have the right to vote. One section of the parade was organized by various professions, and a significant contingent of nurses, dressed in full uniform with caps and capes, marched solemnly behind a cloth banner reading "American nurses." Many prominent nurses of that era, including the noted public health nurse Lillian Wald, organized colleagues to march and could be found front and center. The suffragists weren't allowed to demonstrate in peace, however. Spectators, mostly men who were in Washington, D.C. for the presidential inauguration of Woodrow Wilson the next day, jeered, heckled, and even physically harassed the marchers. The police did little to protect them. Despite the interference, the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 was a spectacular success, completely upstaging the presidential inauguration and providing a much-needed shot in the arm to the women's suffrage movement. But the event did not happen in isolation. It was the result of thousands of women working collectively and more than 60 years of groundwork by previous generations of suffragists. The first stage of women's suffrage was led by leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the 19th century. These notable names first popularized the idea of the right of women to vote, and they attempted to win the franchise for women on a state by state level. Though a handful of western states granted women suffrage, the movement had largely stalled at the national level by the turn of the century. Around this time, younger women reinvigorated the women's suffrage movement with new energy, new ideas, and new tactics. They marked the second stage of the movement, during which suffragists such as Alice Paul and Lucy Burns pressed for a federal Con- I SEPTEMBER 2010 stitutional amendment for women to have to right to vote. Paul and her colleagues founded the National Woman's Party in 1916 and began adopting some of the more militant methods used by suffragists in Britain. The women demonstrated, staged parades, picketed the White House around the clock, held mass meetings, and went on hunger strikes. Many women were jailed for their exercise of First Amendment rights and physically abused by law enforcement and prison guards. Paul, who went on a hunger strike while imprisoned to protest conditions, was brutally force fed through tubes down her throat. The authorities even tried to have Paul committed to a psychiatric institution. The 2004 film Iron Jawed Angels depicts the strong wills, intelligence, and suffering of Paul and her generation of suffragists. By 1918, the pressure on President Wilson by suffragists was too strong and he supported the Suffrage Amendment. In 1920, by a margin of one vote in Tennessee, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution passed. Not coincidentally, many nurses participated in this stage of the women's suffrage movement. It was an era in which the effects of industrialization had come full force to the nation's urban centers. In trying to promote health among their patients and their communities, nurses realized they needed to simultaneously work on broader social issues for working people, such as poor sanitation, disease, overcrowding, poverty, child labor, and lack of educational opportunities. To improve their patients' lives, nurses understood, they needed to be active in the political arena, not only to elect lawmakers, but to publicly pressure them to act in the interests of the public. To voice their concerns and champion their causes, nurses formed professional associations and then unions—which are another form of collective democratic action. The same situation exists today for NNU's registered nurse members. The parallels between the fight for women's suffrage and the goals many of today's RNs hold dear, such as safe staffing ratios and the creation of a system guaranteeing quality healthcare to everyone regardless of income, are striking. Nurses are confronting entrenched, monied interests and must organize themselves and the public to apply the political pressure necessary to make elected officials do the right thing. But as we approach this November's election, at least one piece of the puzzle, the right of women to vote, has already been won. Let's honor the legacy of the suffragists by using it wisely. W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N AT I O N A L N U R S E 15

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