90 Years After Women's Suffrage, We Still Have a Ways to Go
By Mike Connery on 08/26/2010 @ 04:33 PM
Today commemorates the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Constitutional amendment, which granted suffrage to women in 1920. In 1971, the US Congress declared August 26th Women’s Equality Day to mark the occasion and “call attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality.”
Ninety years after being given the right to vote, women are still not wholly equal. They are vastly underrepresented in the workplace and in the government. New York State, where Susan B. Anthony spent most of her life, once pioneered women's rights. Now, we rank 24th in the nation in the number of elected representatives who are women.
Here in the state senate, just 10 senators out of 62 are women - only 16% in a state where women make up 52% of the population.
It's time to put an end to this era of inequality.
This year, the New York Senate Democrats are running 10 women candidates - if each of them defeated their opponent, we would double the number of women in the State Senate.
Our women candidates have strong records for creating jobs and strengthening local economies, and are ready to clean up Albany and put New York's economy back on track. To highlight just a few: Susan Savage, who is running against Hugh Farley in District 44, helped bring $400 million in new investments and created close to 3500 private sector jobs in Schenectady. Mary Wilmot is tuned in to the needs of working parents of upstate New York and is ready invest in green jobs. As the former Regional Director for the Governor and the New York State Senate, she is familiar with the issues plaguing the government of New York.
These are precisely the kinds experience we need to bring change to Albany. Our women candidates are prepared to shake up the State Senate and put an end to the decades of dysfunction. New Yorkers deserve better a stronger voice and a more transparent, effective government, and these women candidate stand ready to deliver it.
Help us do better for women and, ultimately, for the state of New York.
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