citizens

It was 90 years ago today that the 19th amendment was added to the Constitution, legalizing women's right to vote and conferring citizenship on half the U.S. population.

The measure came late. Women's organizations had been agitating for the vote since the 1840's, but the weight of paternalism and Biblical interpretations fostered by fundamentalist Christianity slowed the momentum of progress, as they always do.

Those same forces have prevented the passage of an equal rights amendment, even to the present. Still, over the past 40 years equal rights for women, particularly in the area of equal pay for equal work, have advanced steadily, though not guaranteed by law. And there's still quite a way to go.

Echidne of the Snakes points out that even after the 19th amendment became law, many women chose not to vote "either because of local obstructions; violence in and outside the home; (or) cultural beliefs about women and politics." Then as now, the dead hand of the past pressed down on our society, as it does on all societies.

But we progress in spite of that, and 90 years of citizenship is something to celebrate.