National Nurses United

CE_Sept 10/5/10 2:57 PM Page 18 against entrenched opposition with virtually no financial, legal, or political power, despite the lofty words of the Constitution. Without firing a shot, throwing a rock, or issuing a personal threat, women won for themselves rights that men have launched violent rebellions to achieve. Women won the vote; they won it as painstakingly and deliberately as any political campaign is ultimately won or lost, often by the slimmest of margins. For example, the successful California referendum on suffrage in 1911 was won by a margin of one vote per precinct. In the House, suffrage passed the first time by exactly the number needed, with supporters coming in from hospitals to cast their ballots. In the Senate, it passed by two votes. Ratification in Tennessee, the last state, passed the legislature in 1920 by a single vote, at the very last minute, during a recount. Suffrage Leaders The selected list of suffrage leaders and supporters that follows is by no means comprehensive. It's intended to give a flavor of the remarkable depth and variety, which marked the nationwide suffrage movement, and to encourage further interest. The most well known of the suffragists include Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul, Carry Chapman Catt, Sojourner Truth, Alva Belmont, Mary Church Terrell, and Frederick Douglass. The Silent Sentinels Within their own ranks, suffragists mourned the death of a promising and popular young leader, Inez Milholland Boissevain. How long, they asked, would women have to sacrifice their time, their resources, and their very lives to win what was rightfully theirs? As a tribute to Boissevain, the Congressional Union organized a beautiful memorial service on December 25, 1916 under the dome of the national Capitol; the first time a woman had been so honored. Purple, white, and gold banners draped the great hall. Amid hymns and stately pageantry, suffragists, trade unionists, prison reformers, and peace activists paid tribute to Boissevain's short, remarkable life. On January 9, 1917 a delegation of 300 suffragists called on President Woodrow Wilson to insist that he support woman suffrage, but he only restated his opposition on states' rights grounds. He told the women he wanted no more of their delegations. What Alice Paul called a "perpetual delegation" began the very next day. Suffragists began an ongoing picket demonstration in front of the White House, and the Congressional Union creatively organized special days featuring women from different states and professions. Of note, there were 168 "Silent Sentinels" arrested in 1917; pioneering nurse activist, educator, and patient advocate Lavinia L. Dock was among the first! The protests lasted until June of 1919, when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate. During those 18 months, more than 1,000 different women picketed every day and night except Sunday. Women's Voices for a Vote: Arrested, Jailed, Abused, and Undeterred members of the national woman's party (nwp) took some of the most militant actions in the struggle for suffrage in the early 20th century. NWP members who had been imprisoned in the Occoquan Workhouse went on a hunger strike to draw international attention to their cause. Beginning in early 1917, it's been widely 18 N AT I O N A L N U R S E reported that there were approximately 500 women arrested on trumped-up charges in connection with non-violent suffrage demonstrations; of those 500, 168 served jail time. Police often failed to protect the peaceful suffragists from the physical assaults of reactionary passersby, and prison authorities verbally harassed, berated, dragged, shoved, isolated, chained, and brutally force-fed many of the women detainees. In 1917 Lavinia Dock, Katherine Morey, Annie Arneil, Mabel Vernon, Maud Jamison, and Virginia Arnold were arrested while peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights during a picket for suffrage. A bogus charge of "obstruction of traffic" was listed on the arrest warrant. The judge found them guilty and ordered them to pay a $25 dollar fine. Rather than pay the fine, they chose to spend the night in jail. They protested, saying, "Not a dollar of your fine will we pay. To pay a fine would be an admission of guilt. We are innocent." The Nurse Leaders "The nurses are naturally interested in public health, sanitation, prevention of disease, care of children... What class of citizens would be most useful in helping these causes – having equal powers to take them up? Surely women and mothers, if their status was equal to the status of men." Lavinia Dock Since the mid-nineteenth century, the movement of women into the public and political spheres had been gaining in momentum and popularity. Unique contributions that helped shape the informed outrage and passion for women's rights and civil rights were made by nurse activists who were also deeply engaged in the struggle for improvements in nursing education and the establishment of professional associations to control standards of practice. They expanded the role of nurses to include an understanding of caring beyond a warm interaction between the nurse and individuals in need of care to embracing a social responsibility for their holistic welfare. Lillian D. Wald (1867-1940) "Reform can be accomplished only when attitudes are changed." Lillian Wald After completing her nursing studies and post-graduate training in New York City, Wald moved to the College Settlement House, which was run by a group of women professionals inspired by England's Toynbee Hall. Wald found herself surrounded by reformers and feminists and she came to envision settlement work as a place where women could demonstrate their ability to enlarge their sphere of activity into the life of the surrounding community. Henry Street Settlement was the result of that vision and it became a center for nursing services, lectures, and classes on New York's Lower East Side. Primarily concerned for the welfare of women and girls, she recruited and attracted social workers, allies of female trade unionists, and active suffragists. Together, the "Wald Circle" as they came to be called, became the catalysts for protective legislation for children at the national level. Wald's leadership and participation in labor strikes, worker reform, immigrant rights, and other social movements made her the target of attacks by Henry Street's wealthy conservative donors. While applauding her idealism, they often scorned her methods. The close relationship among Henry Street's residents and friends was a common feature of the emotional bonding among 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 SEPTEMBER 2010

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