It's hard to believe that a hundred years ago
women didn't have a right to vote,
let alone be a state senator
here in Springfield.
In honor of Women's History Month,
I'd like to tell you a
little bit about a suffragette named
Alice Paul, who made tremendous changes
for us in the early 1900s.
Paul was known for creating the National Woman's Party,
which organized silent protest.
Suffragettes would stand outside the
White House holding banners with
messages directed at President Woodrow
Wilson.
She and her followers staged
hunger strikes, which gained support from
the public.
These women were attacked,
mocked, and even arrested.
In response to this public outcry,
President Wilson reversed his prior
position and announced his support for
suffrage amendment.
Alice Paul and her
followers were later released from
prison and together they waited for the
ratification of the 19th Amendment.
As Ms. Paul said, and I quote, "I never
doubted that equal rights was the right
direction. Most reforms, most problems are
complicated but to me
there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."
It's been a hundred
years, a hundred years of women fighting
for equality and for change, to be
treated fairly by our society and by government.
Let's keep fighting the good fight.
