These Things Can Be Done Archives

On the 100th anniversary of women receiving the right to vote, women still remain unequal under United States law. That won’t change until the Equal Rights Amendment is added to the Constitution, writes Rachel Scott Everett.

On August 26, 1970, over 50,000 women marched nationwide in the Women’s Strike for Equality. The date marked the 50th anniversary of the addition of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution: women’s right to vote.

The demonstration was considered the largest gathering for women’s rights since the suffrage protests at the turn of the century. Inspired by the rally, Congresswoman Bella Abzug (also known as “Battling Bella”) introduced a resolution to designate August 26 as Women’s Equality Day.

Today, on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in our country, women may be able to vote, but we are still not guaranteed constitutional equality.

History books often state that women were “given” the right to vote. In reality, women fought, marched, and organized for more than a century to obtain it. Even when the 19th Amendment was enacted, the right to vote was not available to all women. Laws restricted the vote for women of color, many of whom made the same sacrifices and contributions to achieve suffrage as their white counterparts, under greater hardship.

The historical documentary, These Things Can Be Done: Women’s Suffrage in Virginia, by Boedeker Films, was recently released by VPM, in association with the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, and highlights the fight for the 19th Amendment, as well as voter suppression in Virginia after the right to vote was won.

A group of contemporary “agents of change” recreate an iconic photograph of the Virginia suffrage movement showcasing the efforts and impact of female activists in the Commonwealth. Photo courtesy of Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Like racial discrimination, gender discrimination is part of the systemic inequality that has existed in our country since its founding. While women’s rights have made great strides over the years, many Americans don’t realize the U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee equal rights for women.

The moment I learned this, it was something I couldn’t ignore, much less forget. How can the U.S. be considered a world leader if all of its citizens are not truly equal? How can we succeed as a nation if this basic, fundamental right is not included in our foundational document? What can be done to rectify the status of women, including trans women, who continue to be treated as second class citizens in this country? Who is working on this issue and how does the general public not have more awareness of it?

When the U.S. Constitution was written, the majority of Americans were intentionally excluded; this institutionalized the racial and gender inequality we still experience today. The promise of equal protection in the 14th Amendment has never been fully extended to women. The late Justice Antonin Scalia summed it up best, “Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t.”

Equality advocates gather on the steps of the Virginia State Capitol on March 8, 2020 to celebrate Virginia becoming the 38th and final state needed to ratify the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights). Photo by EVERGIB.

To put this glaring disparity into context, let’s consider the facts. Currently, 168 international constitutions (85 percent) include gender equality – the U.S. Constitution does not (source: Southern Legal Counsel). That means the United States is one of just 28 countries worldwide that does not recognize its citizens as equal under the law, regardless of sex.

This doesn’t play out well in our daily lives – or our international status. In 2018, the U.S. was ranked as the 10th most dangerous country in the world for women. We tied for third with Syria regarding risk of sexual violence, harassment and coercion into sex (source: Reuters). America is also one of only two countries in the world that does not guarantee paid maternity leave (source: Evoke). And our gender equality gap costs our economy a whopping $2 trillion per year (source: Fast Company).

Given these facts, it’s no surprise that we do not lead the world in gender equality. Every year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) measures gender equality in countries around the world and America recently dropped below the top third. The Global Gender Gap Index 2020 reports that the U.S. is now ranked 53rd out of 153 countries. At this rate, America will not achieve gender equality for another 208 years (source: Equality Can’t Wait). The Constitution is supposed to serve as the supreme law of the United States. This egregious “equality gap” not only negatively impacts our justice system, but enables continued gender discrimination.

*Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi makes a statement about the revival of the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights) at a press conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. Photo by EVERGIB.*

According to Quartz, a global business news publication, most of the world’s constitutions guarantee more rights than America’s. Indeed, our national leaders spend time and money promoting gender equality abroad, but not at home. Why? Because they know gender equality is beneficial – economically, politically and socially.

Overseas, constitutional equality is served up as “American values,” but here, it’s considered too “controversial,” despite the fact that 97 percent of Americans say it’s somewhat, or very, important for women to have equal rights with men (source: Pew Research Center).

The notion of equal rights is not something new in our country. The same year that Women’s Equality Day was established, the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights), commonly known as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), was approved by both houses of Congress. First proposed in 1923 by American suffragist Alice Paul, the amendment was designed to provide legal equality to all American citizens. The text is simple:

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of sex.

The amendment immediately received wide, bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats. By 1977, it had received 35 of the necessary 38 state ratifications to be enacted. However, that all changed when a group of conservative women, led by Republican Phyllis Schlafly, organized a scrappy campaign against the ERA in defense of traditional gender roles. The recent period drama, Mrs. America, starring Cate Blanchett, offers an interpretation of this pivotal moment in our nation’s history with repercussions that remain with us today.

Further complicating the issue of the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights) is the arbitrary deadline that Congress imposed on it when it was first introduced. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to remove the ratification deadline.

Before the onslaught of COVID-19, I had the privilege, with fellow equality advocates, of witnessing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi make a statement on the revival of the much needed amendment. At the press conference, Pelosi declared that this was “not just about women; it’s about America” and that gender equality will strengthen our country, “unleashing the full power of women in our economy and upholding the value of equality in our democracy.” It can’t be overstated, gender equality benefits everyone (see the $2 trillion statistic above).

Liza Mickens (right), great, great-granddaughter of American businesswoman Maggie Walker, represents the next generation of equality advocates who must carry the torch for gender equality. Photo by EVERGIB.

On March 8, 2020, International Women’s Day, people from all over the country gathered in Richmond to celebrate Virginia becoming the 38th and final state needed to ratify the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights). Currently, this amendment is the only fully ratified amendment ever kept out of the Constitution. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, “Just like freedom of speech [and] freedom of the press, a fundamental tenet of our society should be the equal citizenship stature of men and women.”

Equality, diversity, and inclusion are American imperatives. To dismantle systemic inequality, these values must be priorities for policy makers and candidates in 2020 and beyond. It will require everyone to take action. From increasing awareness and elevating these points in conversations to voting for leaders who support and champion gender equality, each of us has a role to play in fixing our Constitution and making equality for all Americans a reality.

Empty gestures do not create the change we need: a posthumous pardon, companies that promote gender equality in the press but have not built the infrastructure to ensure equal opportunity, or another “women’s employee resource group” (where women organize everything on their “free time”) from an employer who does not support the 28th Amendment.

As with the Confederate statues coming down on Monument Avenue, we cannot go through the motions of addressing systemic inequality without meaningful change. It’s not enough to remove symbols or have a commemorative holiday. We must recognize that the fight for women’s equality continues to this day, and that it’s up to all of us – women and their allies – to keep fighting the good fight. As long as our Constitution is missing the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights), we fall short on our promise of “liberty and justice for all.”

For more information on the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights), or to join the fight for equality, visit VoteEquality.US. Internships and fellowships currently available.

Top Photo: Equality flag from Celebrate!38, an equality parade in Richmond on International Women’s Day, celebrating Virginia becoming the 38th and final state needed to ratify the 28th Amendment (Equal Rights). Photo by EVERGIB. All photos were taken pre-pandemic.

The story of Virginia suffragists has gone untold – until now. In honor of the 100th year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, Boedeker Films presents These Things Can Be Done, a documentary that reveals what was really going on with our brave, suppressed ancestors.

Exactly one hundred years ago, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote after nearly a century of protest. Virginia was not one of the 36 states to ratify it.

“Then there’s the question, well, if they didn’t ratify it, then why even talk about it anyways? But I think looking at the reasons why they didn’t are really important,” said Laura McCann, writer and producer of These Things Can Be Done.

The documentary, produced by Boedeker Films in partnership with the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, offers a one-hour deep dive into Virginia voter politics and its relation to racial injustice at the turn of the century. The film premiered on Virginia Public Media on Thursday, August 13, and in addition to being available for streaming on their website, it is being rebroadcast several times over the next week on the VPM Plus network. It’s worth it for the 1910s fashion alone.

Boedeker Films is a nonfiction media house that creates interactive content for museums, as well as long form documentaries for companies like PBS and National Geographic. When McCann and Director Jeff Boedeker recognized the opportunity to make a film in time for the 19th Amendment’s anniversary, These Things Can Be Done became their first independent venture. McCann’s goal for the project was in line with the Boedeker Films approach, which is to create engaging, informative content. In other words, better than a high school history class.

“When I was in Virginia public schools, I was like, ‘History is so boring, I don’t even care about the dates of these battles of the civil war,’ you know? You just learn these sanitized facts without really understanding the power structures that are around them,” said McCann, who has a degree in American Studies. “When I happened to take a history class in college, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, history is actually really interesting!’”

She’s particularly interested in 19th and 20th century American history, because, she said, “Everything about it has a direct impact on everything we experience now.” That’s what McCann and Boedeker hope to communicate with These Things Can Be Done, which features interviews with modern activists like Aurora Higgs, who are working to build on the suffragists’ accomplishments.

Unfortunately, the pandemic hit right when they were beginning to film reenactments, so the crew had to get creative when it came to showcasing the more historical content. The film does feature some small-scale reenactments, plus high-quality photo animations to help bring the story alive. Luckily, they had already completed all of their interviews pre-pandemic. They look really good.

As you might remember from Mrs. Banks’ jaunty song in Mary Poppins, suffragist efforts in the early 1900s involved women from all across the world and a variety of political climates. In the United States, Jim Crow laws ruled the South, making it close to impossible for Black people to vote.

“Culturally, Virginia is just different from the North,” said McCann. “You had to be in your place, you had to be more feminine, you couldn’t rock the boat too much.”

Women’s suffrage was a great triumph, but for southern states still wrestling with post-Confederate ideals and white-favoring policy, it’s an untold, messy history. For example, in Virginia, the Black community and the white community fought separate battles. The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, an organization of white women (which, interestingly, met on West Franklin Street in the heart of Richmond), used white supremacy to their advantage. They argued to policymakers that Jim Crow laws would prevent Black women from voting, therefore increasing white representation.

“It was a heightened moment of white supremacy taking hold again in the south and enacting laws to maintain that control,” said McCann.

Black women fought more privately, having not been invited to join many of the suffrage movements. But even after the 19th Amendment, they faced major obstacles. “Maggie Walker actually played a big role in trying to get Black women the right to vote, and getting them registered, and helping them pay their poll taxes and helping do things like try to organize them so there weren’t long lines of Black women freaking out all the white people,” McCann said.

The Library of Virginia has an online exhibition called We Demand, where you can do some post-movie reading about their experiences with crowded basement voter registration halls.

These Things Can Be Done also highlights the ways in which the suffragist movement in Virginia was, despite its flaws, pretty magnificent. “They created a lot of lobbying methods, like the index cards they used to track legislatures — which is a really common lobbying tactic nowadays,” said McCann.

Likely as a result of women being able to quickly mobilize themselves into a lobbying force, the Equal Suffrage League evolved into the League of Women Voters, which still works to provide voter education and registration for Virginians. McCann also recalled that women fought for many of the child labor laws in the 30s and 40s.

For McCann, it was difficult to get everything that happened during the early 20th century fight for women’s suffrage in Virginia into one hour. “There’s so many interesting things that we didn’t have time to fit into an hour,” she said. “That was the hard part – what do we focus on here? What are the takeaways?”

Ultimately, she hopes modern viewers will be able to learn lessons from the struggles women’s suffrage advocates went through in the early 20th century, and apply them to the many battles for social justice that face Virginians today.

“Learning the pros and cons of how they addressed those structural barriers helps you understand how to organize for things that we need nowadays,” she said. What better way to reflect on these issues than from the comfort of your own couch?

Virginia Public Media will rebroadcast These Things Can Be Done on its VPM-Plus TV channel (57.1 over the air, 524 on Verizon Fios, 797 on Comcast) at 8 PM on Monday, August 17; 5 PM Tuesday, August 18; and at 10 PM on Friday, August 21. It’s also available for streaming right now at VPM’s website.

Photos via Laura McCann/Boedeker Films

Women’s (In)Equality Day: Don’t Celebrate, Take Action

The Untold Story of The Fight For Women’s Suffrage In Virginia