The 19th amendment is a reminder that the right to vote is unfinished business | Moira Donegan
The centennial raises discomfort among feminists in part because of a long overdue examination of the partial, fragmented and compromised nature of the amendment
One uncomfortable reality of history is how much even seismic events are shaped by the personalities of their principal actors. The vanities, prejudices, nostalgias, misguided affections and petty rivalries of historical figures can at times play a greater role in the unfolding of events than we would like to admit, and there are moments when reckoning with the human failings of long-dead individuals can cast a pall on even their most noble achievements. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the ongoing, palpable discomfort of feminists over how to how to mark the centennial of the 19th amendment, the constitutional triumph that removed sex-based restrictions on voting rights.
The discomfort arises in
