Monday, August 18, 2008

Votes for Women!

Today is the 88th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women in the United States the Constitutional right to vote. British women had to wait another eight years, until 1928, to gain the same rights.



Women have been enfranchised for less than 100 years, and there is still great need for social change. It is extremely important for everyone to exercise their right to vote. I am lucky to be able to vote in two countries, but voting in US elections from outside the US can be tricky. Helpfully, the Federal Voting Assistance Program website allows you to register to vote, print absentee ballots, and find out how and where to return them. I'm doing it early this year to avoid a repeat of a certain panicky evening four years ago in a central London FedEx office, posting my ballot along with several other anxious expat Americans.



There is no excuse for not voting, especially in an election as important as the upcoming one. Hurrah for suffragettes! We owe it to them to make our voices heard.

4 comments:

brie aku sefakor said...

is there even such a thing as a stress-free fed ex evening?

we've got a primary election coming up in september. of the eleven positions to be filled:
(1) offers the choice of 4 candidates
(2) offer the choice of 2
(4) offer the lovely choice of 1 candidate
and (4) offer no candidates at all.

yay for the electoral process! way to step up, kids.

Rima Staines said...

Isn't it amazing that it was only 80 years ago women got the vote in the UK.
When I worked at a museumin London, we used to tell the story of Emily Wilding Davidson... and her terrible death.

Hope you're well and busy Christa
x :)

Mmm said...

Yes, kudos to all the brave women who ploughed the ground for you to vote. I can't believe people don't vote when for most countries that would be a priviledge few know.

G said...

I'm very grateful for what the women before me fought to achieve... and I think of them each time I vote. But you are so right... there is still much to strive for.