Sam Dunaway | News Editor

On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified to prohibit the government from denying voting rights based on sex and allowed white women the right to vote. Nearly 100 years later, the Oregon 2020 Kickoff event at the Oregon state capitol began the commemoration of women’s voting rights.

“The vote is an opportunity to become a part of our own destiny,” expressed republican leader of the Oregon state Senate Jackie Winters. Winters was just one of the important public figures in Oregon that discussed the importance of the vote; others include Eliza Canty-Jones of the Oregon Historical Society, former Oregon governor Barbara Roberts, Judy Margles from the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and Willamette University Professor Emerita Linda Tamura.

Western history professor Kimberly Jensen explained the historical context behind the ratification. Voting rights for women were placed on the ballot a total of six times in Oregon, more than any other state, and was finally passed in 1912, eight years prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

“It was because of grassroots activism, diverse communities, and the men who voted to share the vote with women in 1912,” Jensen explained. Clubs and organizations helped to educate women on policies and legislation prior to voting. Several women became candidates for office as soon as suffrage was achieved.

Jensen expressed that, “Just as we commemorate the determined work of other Oregon women to achieve and use their voting rights, we acknowledge their part in achieving civic progress as we also understand that we must fight to protect and maintain those civic rights that they worked so hard to gain.”

Roberts, the first female governor of Oregon, reflected back to the time when women in leadership and political positions were few and far between. But now, Roberts explained, Oregon has come a long way. With five women elected to Congress, four female Secretaries of State, three women mayors of Portland and two female governors.

“We weren’t satisfied, though, with being the token woman on the school board or city council or Ways and Means Committee, or the lone woman on a court bench. We’ve worked and we have won majority status on those school boards, those city councils, and those court benches,” Roberts added, “Our votes are a value asset. We should use our votes wisely and be informed voters. And we must always remember that democracy is not a spectator sport.”

In addition to the speakers, the event included fourteen Western students that had the opportunity to capture a piece of history and create a lasting online exhibit centered on women’s voting rights. As part of Jensen’s Nineteenth Amendment Centennial in Historical Context: Oregon and Beyond class at Western, the honors students created research projects that shed light on the women’s suffrage movement and various aspects of the time period.

While the research topics ranged from international suffrage in the Philippines to Oregon legislator Sylvia Thompson, others discussed women’s suffrage closer to home. In her project titled “Normal School Extracurriculars,” sophomore Rachel Bayly explores how being involved in extracurricular activities at Oregon Normal School, now Western Oregon University, provided college women with the skills to be successful teachers and activists after leaving school. This, Bayly explained in her documents project, “gave young women from rural and working-class backgrounds an opportunity to contribute to the positive changes being made in society during the early 1900s.”

When asked what she hopes others take away from this work by students, Jensen replied: “I hope students and community members will gain knowledge about the diverse Oregon women who were part of the struggle to gain the vote, the continuing barriers to voting, and the other activist projects in which Oregonians engaged and continue to work to achieve social justice. Grassroots activism and inclusion have been keys to success in Oregon and the nation.”

For more information, view the class’s online research documents at oregonwomenshistory.org and learn more about the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment and women’s suffrage.

Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu

Photo by: oregonencyclopedia.org, Sam Dunaway