Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/197973
Suffrage_FNL with art 10/5/10 4:05 PM Page 13 "I'm here to show unity," said Katya Salguero, a pediatric oncology RN at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, Calif. "As nurses, we share the same values. Meg Whitman does not represent our core values. She would take us in the opposite direction of where we need to go. There's so much that still needs to be done for patients." Salguero spoke about how ancillary staff on her unit have been cut and that managers are not considering acuity when making patient assignments. That day, the RNs first learned about the history of the women's suffrage movement and about its overlap with the modern nursing movement. Most were not surprised to find out that RNs such as Lavinia Dock and Lillian Wald, who were pioneers for their profession, for public health, and for numerous labor and social justice causes, also participated extensively in the fight for women's suffrage. NNU nurses then marched in the street toward the Capitol along with allies from unions representing teachers, firefighters, ironworkers, and longshore workers, among others. Together, they finally rallied on the Capitol steps. "Nurses' values were commonly the same as the suffragettes' values: caring, compassion, and community," said Malinda Markowitz, RN and a copresident of CNA/NNU, to the crowd of marchers. RNs converged on Sacramento, Calif. Aug. 26 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of women's right to vote and declare their support of candidates who share nurses' values. "I think the suffragist movement is about showing how solidarity can get things done," said Lynn Lucas, a stepdown neurology RN at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, Calif. Lucas looked regal in a high-necked blouse and long skirt. "It's the same for nurses. What we want is to protect the safety of our patients through ratios." The event was also an opportunity to highlight how California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman dishonored the legacy of women suffragists by failing to vote for most of her life and how her policies did not have the best interests of women at heart. The large signs some of the marchers carried said it best: "Women vote for women who vote." SEPTEMBER 2010 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 13