Voice of Her Own Playlist

American women continue to debate feminism and its relevance to their lives. They now have important careers, leadership positions, and are rewarded and enriched outside the family home, but many women are finding that even with greater employment opportunities and much increased equality, they are still struggling to “have it all.” So where should we go from here?

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The women’s movement, on the whole, has been very successful in achieving more equality for women. She now has choices. How will you choose to use your voice?

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By the middle of the 20th Century, the previous decades of women’s efforts were finally coming to fruition. Post-war American culture still appeared conservative, with constant images of women as mothers and homemakers on the new media of television. But television also showed the protests, marches, and struggles of that time. There were ERA marches, anti-Viet Nam protests, civil rights demands, and the new found concept of feminism.

There were still many women who wanted to be traditional wives raising their families, but now there were others too- women who refused to accept that the traditional role of mother and housewife was all they were destined to be. They wanted education and careers and ….more. And, of course, there were also many women who did not have the luxury of choosing whether to work or not because necessity forced them into the workplace.

But the times were changing…

By the 1960s, many changes were being realized that resulted in women’s equality in employment, education and opportunity. These changes were the result of years of women’s marches, meetings, and organizations- all demanding equal rights, civil rights, equal opportunity, and equitable pay.

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In the cause for women’s enfranchisement, South Carolina was a reluctant state.

During the suffrage movement, crusaders for the cause saw their efforts come to naught. They were able to win no concessions from South Carolina’s state legislature. SC suffragettes did finally gain the vote but only through a federal amendment- The 19th Amendment- when the state of Tennessee voted in favor, providing 36 states necessary for ratification. That was 1920- 100 years ago! Not until almost fifty years later, in 1969, did South Carolina “legitimatize” her women voters.

For South Carolina’s African Americans, state constitutional loopholes kept them from being able to exercise their right to vote. Southern politicians in that era held firm in their convictions not to allow African American women to vote. They used a variety of techniques to do so: voter suppression at the polls, poll taxes, threats of violence and legalized prejudicial practices.

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Culminating 100 years ago with the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Women’s suffrage was considered the largest reform movement in United States history. It took decades. Its participants believed that the vote for women was essential to achieving economic, social, and political equality.

However, unfortunate but long-standing cultural divides between Southern white and black women compromised South Carolina’s efforts for women’s suffrage. Therefore the period of time between Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement offered decades of missed opportunities for the women’s suffrage movement in South Carolina.

By the early 1900s woman suffrage had become a mainstream issue in South Carolina, White women organized suffrage leagues around the state, but black women were excluded from those organizations. Many Southern women continued to be conflicted by traditional values.

However, South Carolina women were among the officers of the Equal Rights Association as early as 1869, but there was little active support from the state’s women and even less from the state’s men. Delegates to South Carolina’s 1895 constitutional convention defeated a proposal to allow women to vote, with the state senator John T. Sloan, Jr., declaring that “God never intended her to be put on an equality with man in any respect.”

Finally, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed into law in 1920 without the support of South Carolina’s General Assembly…. which did not ratify it until 1969!

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The romanticized Colonial and antebellum era of South Carolina offered the version of the genteel southern lady who was placed on a pedestal where she would never soil her hands. However, that pedestal was never an option poor white women or for African American women in South Carolina. Almost all black women were enslaved, lived in poverty, and had no control over any aspect of their lives.

In reality, the Colonial and antebellum era found women with few means available to support themselves, other than dependence upon husbands, fathers, or male relatives. The limited educational opportunities for women of this era focused on skills considered appropriate for good wives and mothers.

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For thousands of years, Native American tribes were the inhabitants of this area we call home today. And despite how long ago this was, Native SC Women already enjoyed a place at the table. They were valued and recognized. They considered themselves part of an ordered universe, with men and women created equally.

While Chiefs were usually, but not always, men, they rose to power through their mother’s lineage. In fact, it was the native women who chose their husbands. And it was the women who could decide to divorce if necessary… and if they did….the men had to return to their mother’s home.

The Europeans, explorers and missionaries who eventually came to this land were shocked at the freedom and power enjoyed by the native women of the Carolinas!

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This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which finally gave women the right to VOTE, the legal right to have our voices heard! But the story behind that momentous event in 1920 started long before that and continues today.

South Carolina Women in Leadership has proudly partnered with the South Carolina State Museum in sharing that story and the struggles of women throughout our state’s history who wanted to their voices heard. A Voice of Her Own is an exhibit at the museum now; (but) SC Women in Leadership got the museum’s Curator of Cultural history) JoAnne Zeise to personally walk us through this empowering exhibit while sharing stories of the women, events and influences that have shaped our lives today.

Special thanks to Betsy Breckinridge, former TV talk show host and volunteer videographer who also helped write all the summaries of our vignettes. And to Joann Zeise, cultural history curator extraordinaire of the A Voice of Her Own: South Carolina Women in Politics exhibit for the SC State Museum and woman who delivers much wisdom through her understanding of history.

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