Help Thompson join the national celebration of the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in America! From May through October, actors, musicians and scholars bring history to life in our own backyard.
Leader
Ginny Flood
Location
785 Riverside Drive Thompson, CT 06255
With the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919 and its ratification in 1920, the right to vote was confirmed for women in the United States, giving them an equal voice in determining the fate of the nation. The Thompson Historical Society and Thompson Together, along with other local groups, are recognizing this milestone by organizing Six Months of Suffrage, a series of arts and humanities educational programs and events that will remind us of the importance of voting. As a presidential election year, we feel that message to be especially relevant in 2020. Kicking off in May of 2020, the program includes performances by historical interpreters, concerts, and interactive lectures. All activities will incorporate voter registration drives, in honor of the spirit of the Suffragettes.
We believe that the commemoration of the work of the Suffragettes is more than a historical curiosity.Taking note of this centennial of the expansion of the franchise, we hope to illustrate that the struggle for full representation in American democracy is ongoing, and is in fact fundamental to the preservation of our
radical experiment in self-governance. Each of the events and performances planned during Six Months of Suffrage hopes to demonstrate the relevance of our shared history, in a manner that is accessible to all residents of Thompson and our surrounding towns.
Our volunteer committee formed in late 2019, in response to the call for statewide celebrations of the American centennial of women's suffrage. After several months of dilligent planning, we are pleased to announce the following calendar of events:
Donations received through IOBY will be applied to performers' fees and expenses; materials for the sash-making workshop; promotional and informational handouts to offer throughout the series of events; a number of subsidised admissions to No More Pink Teas at Roseland Cottage (our only ticketed event); and advertising expenses for print and radio.
It can be easy to lose the lessons of the past. In 21st Century America, it may appear that the hard work to gain equal rights for women has largely been done. Women have access to the workplace, and the voting booth. Women can own their own property, manage their own money and live independently. A contemporary American citizen could be forgiven for asking why s/he should care about the protest movements of an earlier century. As Faulkner famously said, however, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past". It is well-documented that women in the workplace, on average, earn 77-cents to the dollar, when
compared to a man's wage for the same work. Women remain under-represented in high-earning professions, and over-represented in lower-earning service jobs. Some arguments for these discrepancies would be familiar to the Suffragettes: women choose less challenging jobs because they aren't "tough"
enough; women will lose interest in work once they become mothers. The past isn't even past, indeed.
In our program of events, actors, authors and musicians have the opportunity to remind us that the work of expanding democracy is constant. From the time of the founding of the nation until the ratification of the 19th amendment, over half the population was excluded from the ballot because of their biology. By telling those stories, and illustrating the specious justification of that exclusion, we can see how efforts to erode ballot access remain unjust in our own time. To further emphasize the importance of participation in the political process, we will be actively promoting voter registration at all of our events. If we are able to make the connection between the programs on the stage and the exercise of the individual right to vote, then we will have accomplished not just
our own goals, but the goals of those Sister Suffragettes as well.
