 Hi, I'm Jessica Villandino and I'm a reference librarian at the Ray Howard Library at Shoreline Community College. Welcome to our series, The Power of the Vote, where we commemorate 100 years of suffrage. Please join us here every Wednesday until the end of the summer quarter and we will examine different views of the concept of suffrage throughout history. And also don't forget to participate in the live chat where we will continue the discussion. Thank you. So the first speech that I'm going to read today is by Elizabeth Katie Stanton, who is one of the better known suffragists. She is credited with starting the women's rights movement and the suffragists movement over at the Seneca Falls Convention that was held in 1848 in New York. I'm going to read today her keynote address from that convention. We have met here today to discuss our rights and wrongs, civil and political, and not as some have supposed to go into the detail of social life alone. We do not propose to petition the legislature to make our husbands just generous and courteous, to seat every man at the head of a cradle and to clothe every woman in male attire. None of these points, however important they may be considered by leading men, will be touched in this convention. As to their costume, the gentlemen need feel no fear of our imitating that, for we think it in violation of every principle of taste, beauty and dignity. Notwithstanding all the contempt cast upon our loose flowing garments, we still admire the graceful folds and consider our costume far more artistic than theirs. Many of the nobler sex seem to agree with us in this opinion. For the bishops, priests, judges, barrisers and lord mayors of the First Nation of the globe, and the Pope of Rome with his cardinals too, all wear the loose flowing robes, thus tacitly acknowledging that the male attire is neither dignified nor imposing. Now we shall not molest you in your philosophical experiments with stocks, pants, high heel boots and Russian belts. Yours be the glory to discover by personal experience how long the knee pan can resist their terrible strapping down which you impose, and how short time the well-developed muscles of the throat can be reduced to mere threats by the constant pressure of the stock, how high the heel of a boot must be to make a short mantle, and how tight the Russian belt may be drawn and yet have wind enough left to sustain life. But we are assembled to protest against the form of government existing without the consent of the governed, to declare our right to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such as graceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and in case of separation the children of her love, laws which make her the mere dependent on his bounty. It is to protest against such unjust laws as these that we are assembled today and to have them, if possible, forever erased from our statute books, deeming them a shame and a disgrace to a Christian republic in the 19th century. We have met to uplift women's fallen divinity upon uneven, pedastal with man's, and strange as it may seem to many, we now demand a right to vote according to the declaration of the government under which we live. This right no one pretends to deny. We need not prove ourselves equal to Daniel Webster to enjoy this privilege, for the ignorant Irishman in the ditch has all the civil rights he has. We need not prove our muscular power equal to this same Irishman to enjoy this privilege, for the most tiny weak ill-shaped stripling of 21 has all the civil rights of the Irishman. We have now objection to discuss the question of equality, for we feel that the weight of arguments lies wholly with us, but we wish to question, but we wish the question of equality kept distinct from the question of rights, for the proof of the one does not determine the truth of the other. All white men in this country have the same rights, however they may differ in mind, body, or estate. The right is ours. The question now is, how shall we get possession of what rightfully belongs to us? We should not feel so sorely grieved if no man who had not attained the full stature of a Webster, Clay, Van Buren, or Garrett Smith could claim the right of elective franchise, but to have drunkards, idiots, horse racing, rum-selling rowdies, ignorant foreigners, and silly boys fully recognize while we ourselves are thrust out from all the rights that belong to citizens, it is too grossly insulting to the dignity of women to be longer quietly submitted to. The right is ours. Have it, we must use it, we will. The pen, the tongues, the fortunes, the indomitable wills of many women are already pledged to secure this right. The great truth that no just government can be formed without the consent of the govern, we shall echo and re-echo in the ears of the unjust judge until by continual coming we shall wary him. There seems to be, there seems now to be a kind of moral stagnation in our midst. Philanthropists have done their utmost to arouse the nation to a sense of its sins. War, slavery, drunkenness, the sensuousness, gluttony have been dragged naked before the people and all their abominations and deformities fully brought to light. Yet with a deotic laugh, we hug those monsters to our breasts and rush on to destruction. Our churches are multiplying on all sides. Our missionary societies, Sunday schools and prayer meetings and innumerable charitable and reformer organizations are all in operation, but still the tide of vice is swelling and threatens the destruction of everything and the battlements of righteousness are weak against the raging elements of sin and death. Verily, the world waits the coming of some new element, some purifying power, some spirit of mercy and love. The voice of women has been silenced in the state, the church and the home, but man cannot fulfill his destiny alone. He cannot redeem his race unaided. There are deep and tender cords of sympathy and love in the hearts of the don fallen and oppressed that women can touch more skillfully than man. The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source. It is vain to look for silver and gold from mines of copper and lead. It is the wise mother that has the wise son. So long as your women are slaves, you may throw your colleges and churches to the winds. You can't have scholars and saints so long as your mothers are ground to powder between the upper and another millstone of tyranny and lust. How seldom now is a father's pride gratified, his fond hopes realized in the budding genius of his son. The wife is degraded, made the mere creature of caprice, and the foolish son is heaviness to his heart. Truly are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation. God in his wisdom has so linked the whole human family together that any violence done at one end of the chain is felt throughout its length, and here too is the law of restoration, as in women all have fallen, so in her elevation shall the races be recreated. Voices were the visitors and advisors of Joan of Arc. Do not voices come to us daily from the haunts of poverty, sorrow, degradation, and despair, already too long and heated. Now is the time for the women of this country if they would save our free institutions to defend the right, to buckle on the armor that can best resist the keenest weapons of the enemy, contempt and ridicule. The same religious enthusiasm that nerve Joan of Arc to her work nerves us to ours. In every generation, God calls some men and women for the utterance of truth, a heroic action, and our work today is the fulfilling of what has long since been foretold by the Prophet Joel 228, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy. We do not expect our path will be strewn with the flowers of popular applause, but over the thorns of bigger tree and prejudice will be our way, and on our banners will beat the dark storm clouds of opposition, from those who have entrenched themselves behind the stormy bulwarks of custom and authority, and who have fortified their position by every means, holy and unholy, but we will set fastly abide the results. Unmoved, we will bear it aloft, undauntedly we will unfurl it to the gale, for we know that the storm cannot run from it, a shred that the electric flash will be but more clearly showed to us the glorious words inscribed upon it equality of rights. The next text that I'm going to read is by Luisa Capetillo, who is considered Puerto Rico's most famous women's rights activist and social labor organizer. She famously was arrested in 1919 for wearing pants in public, although the chargers were later dropped. I'm going to read today an excerpt from one of her plays. This is called La Opinión de Muchos Hombres y la Mía, and I will read this in Spanish. We have allowed them to enter the cathedrals for doctors in them or medicine, because it is not confirmed that they want to be a judge, mayor, chief of police, legislator. For that we have let them study, so that they want to kick us aside pretending to cover our positions and want to overcome us. I do not know how these women forget their weakness and their indiscretion. You cannot trust them at all and teach them something, because they want to replace us right away. But how will the woman imitate a man? Si no puede, si es inferior. Hasta la naturaleza la condena ser recluida durante el parto y la lactancia. Así se expresa la mayor parte de los hombres, y ese es el concepto que le merece la mujer. Albidándose de su mujer, su madre y sus hijas. Pero no hay temor que la sangre llegue a los ríos ni las discusiones turmen la placidez de el hogar. Pues la mujer no deja de serlo, porque haga política ni exponga su opinión, así sea legisladora o detective. La mujer siempre será mujer, siempre que sea buena, madre o mala, tenga esposo o amante. Es mujer y no es ser mujer solamente estando empolvada y llena de cintas y encajes. Como no deja de ser un hombre el que perteneciendo a ese sexo aprenda a cocinar, a surcir, a barrer y a coser. ¿Cuántos hombres lo hacen? La mujer no pretende ser superior al hombre, al menos esa no es la intención ni al fin de sus aspiraciones. Ella superará el hombre por su conducta y el cumplimiento de su deber. La inmensa mayoría de las mujeres no fuman ni se enbreagan. Y esta es una de las condiciones que la hará superior en todos los ramos del saber humano. De modo, no siendo intención de las mujeres a limitar el hombre, en sus defectos, sus ventajas y buenas costumbres. Como leí en días pasados que una joven solicitó el oficio de Fogonero de un vapor y luego dice el patrón, lo hace mejor y además no bebe whisky. Lo que hace es suponer que, en el futuro, la mujer será preferida y el hombre tendrá que dejar sus vicios para conseguir un empleo. Y esto beneficiará a la especie humana. La mujer es preferida para enfermera pues el hombre no puede ni sirve para eso. La mujer será preferida como médica por su cultura y buena fe. Bescurará por amor y no por no ver sufrir. La mujer será preferida como abogada por su fuerza de penetración y persuasión. Será preferida como legisladora porque sus leyes irán a corregir los abusos contra los infelices, trabajadores y deseridados. Será preferida en la política porque no se venderá y cumplirá lo que ofrece. Esto en términos general con casos de excepciones. La mujer no invadirá las casas de juegos, ni Evrya maltratará a su marido y a sus hijos. La mujer no quiere invadir el terreno del hombre para adquirir sus vicios y abusos. La mujer siempre será madre aunque no tenga hijos. Procurará corregir todo lo que perjudica a las generaciones futuras. La mujer no será guerrera aunque sabe morir como cualquier soldado bravo. Si en vez de hombre haber difulutado de todas las ventajas hasta ahora hubiera sido la mujer, hubiera surgido genios guerreros como Napoleón y Alejandro, aunque se llamarían Lucrecia, Cleopatra o Semiramis. Pero nuestra época fue decadente. Ahora empieza. Si de aquí en algunos siglos no ha variado el sistema social, es probable que la veamos. Aunque a pesar de nuestra esclavitud tuvimos a Juana de Arco, Agustina de Aragon y otras más. En la ciencia tenemos una Madame Curie y una Hipatía. En leyes una concepción arenal y otras. En medicinas muchas empezando. En el foro tenemos infinidad y en literatura varias. En todos los ramos del saber humano tenemos mujeres y en arquitectura no debemos olvidar quién hizo construir los magníficos chalets y los famosos jardines flotantes de la babilonia que hizo variar por completo al estilo de aquella época. Fue a Semiramis, emperatriz del Egipto. Igual en Francia con Diana de Poitiers, La Dubarie y otras. De modo idéntico en la música y en la poesía. En la pintura no debemos olvidar que el hombre se inspira en la Venus y la mujer no tiene ese recurso. No le gusta inspirarse en ella misma empezando porque dibujaría mal una mujer. Quizás debido a espíritu de rivalidad. Como tampoco hubo Santa Teresa en los hombres, ni María Magdalena, imitadoras a Jesús las ha habido y las hay sin caer en la exageración. En combinaciones químicas hay muchas aficionadas, lo que la mujer debe procurar superar al hombre en su conducta y en sus procedimientos. Ser dueña de sí misma. Empezando por conocer bien sus defectos y debilidades para ir corrigiendo y así mejorar la especie humana. No dejando de ser madre y ser madre es atender a sus hijos hasta que anden y lactarlos. Si hubiera un procedimiento que superará la materia lactancia y es seguro que se obtendrá. Podríamos no recomendar el lactomaterno, pero lo conseguiremos. Esto no está reñido con aquello. Gracias.