Women's Suffrage

On Monday I voted for the first time - sadly no one interviewed me and asked me the favourite question of ALL news channels : "So how are you feeling right now?" ? "Aap abhi kya mahsoos kar rahe hain?Wahan ka 'mahol' kya hai?" LOL! - i was totally prepared to give a freaky answer like "Man this rocks - look I got free purple nail-polish! Dude nothin' beats this!" Wonder how those journos would react if they got some totally insane answers to their questions - ah anyways getting a wee bit serious...so this was the first time I voted. Got a voter's ID and all. Went to St.Louis with my folks to put in my vote - nopes I ain't telling you who I voted for - secret ballot remember? All I shall say is that I didn't vote for the jerk who's people called twice daily reminding us he's from the same "caste" as us and even cooking up some cock-n-bull story of how he's a great friend of Mr.Shrivastava!

After having voted we had gone to by Aaachar from this store near our place and considering that aachars don't interest me I got thinking - of the days when women didn't have the right to vote. They had to fight for that right, ofcourse, and many women were a part of the Women's Suffrage Movement. A "Declaration of Sentiments" was formulated in the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, followed by a difficult uphill struggle for all the rights due to women. The draft, among other things stated thus :

"Now, in view of this entire disenfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, -- in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States."

Women's Rights Conventions were held regularly from 1850 until the start of the Civil War. Eventually, winning the right to vote emerged as the central issue, since the vote would provide the means to achieve the other reforms. But the campaign for woman suffrage met such staunch opposition that it took 72 years for the women and their male supporters to be successful. The right to vote was finally won in America in 1920.

I found an extremely interesting article on the internet, written by one of the women who fought for the right to vote : Do You Know?--Voting facts about women (1918) - Carrie Chapman Catt

Another interesting read, for those who want to trace the Women's Movement : The Women's Rights Movement 1848 - 1998

Finished yet another play yesterday in the bus... Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink - had wanted to read it since last year when Dr.B lectured us on post-modern techniques...it had seemed interesting and it was! Oh yeah I got the green signal for the Udaipur trip from Ma - totally cool. I'm so incredibly glad my folks understand stuff and don't act like most others would at the very idea of a male-female friendship! Merci Bon Dieu - I truly realise the value of what I have!

I guess now I shall blog after getting back from Abad and Udaipur - Bon Voyage A Moi!