You've Come a Long Way Baby

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I am often amazed at how slowly women are getting some rights. The right to vote seemed to take forever, and I'm so glad to see them elected to political and other important government areas. Like that Virginia Slim cigarette commercial said: "You've come a long way baby!" Here are a few things in history that women have been up against and made a good showing: In 1869 Wyoming used giving women the right to vote as a ploy to get them to come out West. But legalization across the country did not come until 1920. However, in 1848 the Seneca Falls Convention met and 68 women attended. It declared "It is the duty of women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise." Of those women, only Charlotte Woodward lived actually to vote in 1920. Mississippi was the first state to allow women to have a property in their name. This then allowed men to protect their assets by placing a property under their wives' names. Lucy Terry Prince, a former slave, went to court against false land claims white neighbors had brought against her. The judge who presided over the case declared that her argument was better than any Vermont lawyer he had ever heard. She was the first woman to challenge the Supreme Court. She went on to be the first African American woman to publish literature and writing of poetry. She lived from 1733 to 1821. Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a justice in the Supreme Court in 1981. Jeanette Rankin was the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives in 1916.