October 21 – October 23 @ 5:30 PM EDT. Free Online Presentations.

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Burlington Branch hosts virtual presentations by Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner on the women’s suffrage movement. Co-sponsored by VSCA, presentations are open to the public at no cost and will be recorded. Register for these virtual presentations via links below. There will be opportunities for live discussion.

WOMEN VOTED HERE — BEFORE COLUMBUS

Wednesday, October 21
7-9 PM. Zoom presentation sponsored by St. Michael’s College.

Register at: http://bit.ly/before-columbus

While white women were the property of their husbands and considered dead in the law, Haudenosaunee women had more authority and status pre-Columbus than United States women have today.  

Women of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy (the Haudenosaunee) had the responsibility for putting in place the male leaders. They had control of their own bodies and were economically independent. Rape and wife-beating were rare and dealt with harshly; committing violence against a woman kept a man from becoming Chief in this egalitarian, gender-balanced society.

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE: THE REST OF THE STORY
Thursday, October 22

2-3:30 PM. Zoom presentation at Community College of Vermont.

Register at: http://bit.ly/rest-of-the-story

I am sick of the song of suffrage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote Matilda Joslyn Gage in the 1880’s. Gage concurred. These two women had begun to think differently than Susan B. Anthony, their co-leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association, who believed the movement should concentrate on getting women the vote. We already have that right, Gage contended.  

In a system based on consent of the governed, the government just needs to protect our right to exercise citizenship, not “give” it to us. We need to look at the larger issues.

Stanton and Gage agreed. Those issues were: creating a system of cooperation, not competition; ensuring that every child born was wanted and women were the “absolute sovereigns” of their bodies; rebalancing economic disparity while gaining equal pay for women and demanding a “true” religion, one that fostered freedom and equality for all.

POWER, PRIVILEGE & THE VOTE:  FOCUS ON WOMEN, CULTURE AND HERSTORIES OF SUFFRAGE

Thursday, October 22
5-6:30 PM Microsoft Teams. presentation at University of Vermont
Register at: https://bit.ly/35POSiO

This presentation explores important influences in the US Women’s Suffrage movement that are often forgotten but are critical to the concerns of today.

Who were the women presidential candidates in the 1800’s? When in 1884, with the exception of the territories of Wyoming and Utah, it was against the law for women to vote in every state and territory in the union. What were the challenges they faced? 

How did the indigenous people (Haudenosaunee women) influence ideas of women’s suffrage and rights?

Who was not included in the US suffrage movement? What were the reasons?

As we approach the 2020 election, how can the herstories of women’s suffrage provide a lens to explore the ongoing creation of democracy in our country.

WOMAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE – IN 1872 AND 1884

Friday, October 23. 

4-5:30 PM. Zoom presentation at Middlebury College Gender and Women Studies

Register at: http://bit.ly/middleburySRW

Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to declare her candidacy for President of the United States, spent election night in jail for exposing two #MeToo-like violations in her newspaper. She was arrested under the Comstock obscenity law in 1872, a law that prohibited the distribution of any information related to contraception or sex.

While Woodhull never carried out a presidential campaign, Belva Lockwood did. Disgruntled feminists formed the Equal Rights Party in 1884 when both the Republicans and Democrats continually ignored women’s concerns. Presidential candidate Belva Lockwood declared that “It is quite time that we had our own party; our own platform, and our own nominees,” even if they couldn’t vote for them. With the exception of the territory of Wyoming, it was against the law for women to vote in every state and territory in the union. 

Lockwood never made it to the White House. “Reforms are slow, but they never go backwards,” she reflected. “Their originators may die, but the reform will live to bless millions yet unborn.” 

As we approach the 2020 election, Lockwood provides a lens through which to explore the ongoing creation of democracy in our country.

Singer-Historian: Linda Radtke

Linda Radtke will open and close all three programs with music which was essential to the movement. Each state convention of suffragists began and ended with songs. Linda, a Vermont high school teacher for 31 years now produces the VPR Choral Hour on Vermont Public Radio. A classically trained singer, Linda is a member of Vermont’s professional vocal ensemble, Counterpoint, the Oriana Singers, and the Arioso Chamber Ensemble. She also sings with a vocal quartet, Ah!Capella, sponsored by the Vermont Symphony.

Dr. Wagner is a nationally recognized lecturer, author and story-teller of woman’s rights history. One of the first women to receive a doctorate in the United States for work in women’s studies (UC Santa Cruz), and a founder of one of the country’s first college women studies programs, (CSU Sacramento), Dr. Wagner taught women’s history for forty-eight years. She served as historian in PBS’s One Woman, One Vote, and appeared as a “talking head” in Ken Burns’ documentary, Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and penned the accompanying faculty guide. Dr. Wagner’s Women’s Suffrage Anthology published by Penguin Classics in 2019, unfolds a new intersectional look at the 19th century woman’s rights movement.