One hundred forty-eight years ago, Susan B. Anthony read the Declaration of the Rights of Women at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Exactly one hundred years after the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, the reading took place in the midst of the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Spread out over 285 acres, pavilions displayed achievements such as Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and the Statue of Liberty torch. You can see a scale model of the Exposition at the Please Touch Museum in the Centennial Innovations exhibit on the lower level.
The United States has always had a complicated relationship between foreign and domestic policies. Basically, the government wants to display strength and leadership throughout the world. On the home front, states contradict themselves by granting and then removing rights. New Jersey was the first state to allow women to vote, only to rescind that right seventeen years later. When world power is directly tied to GDP, or gross domestic product, the United States risks losing ground when we limit the ability of women to be productive members of society.
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Works Cited
“19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote (1920).” National Archives, 8 Feb. 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment.
Cohen, Jennie. “The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment.” HISTORY, 23 July 2024, https://www.history.com/…/the-mother-who-saved-suffrage….
“On This Day, the 19th Amendment Joins the Constitution.” National Constitution Center – constitutioncenter.org, https://constitutioncenter.org/…/on-this-day-the-19th….
Schons, Mary. “Woman Suffrage.” National Geographic Society, edited by Jeannie Evers et al., 30 Oct. 2024, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/woman-suffrage. Accessed 7 Nov. 2024.
“Special Topics: Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights | WyoHistory.org.” Wyoming Historical Society, https://www.wyohistory.org/…/womens-suffrage-and-womens….
Sullivan, Missy. “Wyoming Grants Women the Right to Vote.” HISTORY, 8 Dec. 2023, https://www.history.com/thi…/wyoming-grants-women-the-vote.
