Bergman Memorial Lecture: 100th Anniversary of Women's Right to Vote

Details

• Moderator & Panelists

  Moderator

  Professor Miranda McGowan
  USD School of Law

  Panelists

  Hon. Cathy Ann Bencivengo
  U.S. District Court
  Southern District of California

  Dora Rose
  Deputy Director
  League of Women Voters of California

  Taina Angeli Vargas
  Co-Founder & Executive Director
  Initiate Justice

• MCLE: Materials & Suggested Readings

  USD School of Law is a State Bar of California-approved provider of MCLE credit and certifies that this activity is approved for 1 hour of general credit.
  
  Summary
  On the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, it can be difficult to imagine that the road to women’s suffrage in the United States was actually quite long and circuitous. As in current day social movements, suffragists employed a number of different strategies in their fight to make American women’s right to vote the law of the land. As far back as the 1860s, women’s suffragists even opposed passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments because the Reconstruction Amendments placed the word “male” in the Constitution for the first time, in extending the vote only to African American men. Later, the movement attempted a state-by-state approach, fighting for inclusion of women’s voting rights in state constitutions. Another approach, a legal strategy known as “the New Departure,” brought the issue to the courts. Women voted illegally and then turned to the court with the argument that citizenship itself conferred a right to vote on both women and men. Yet in 1874, in Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court held that the privileges of citizenship did not include the right to vote, setting back women’s suffrage for many years. Finally, the suffrage movement turned to the passage of a Constitutional amendment, with a legislative fight that spanned decades. Even after the amendment passed, opponents fought its ratification until the Supreme Court held in Leser v. Garnett that the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution had, in fact, been constitutionally established.

  Books
  Jean H. Baker, ed. Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited (Oxford University Press 2002)
  Copley Internet JK1896.V67 2002eb (USD users only)

  Elaine Weiss, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote (Viking 2018)
  CL Book Stacks, JK1896.W45 2018

  J.D. Zahniser and Amelia R. Fry, Alice Paul: Claiming Power (Oxford, 2014/2019)

   

  Articles
  Jack M. Balkin, How Social Movements Change (or Fail to Change) the Constitution: The Case of the New Departure, 39 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 27 (2003).

  Sandra Day O’Connor, The History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 49 Vanderbilt L. Rev. 657 (1996).

  Nancy Gertner & Gail Heriot. The Nineteenth Amendment: Common Interpretation and Matters for Debate
  
  Reva B. Siegel, She the People: the Nineteenth Amendment, Sex Equality, Federalism, and the Family. 11 Harvard L. Rev 947 (2002).

  Adam Winkler, A Revolution Too Soon: Woman Suffragists and the “Living Constitution.” 76 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1456 (2001).

  Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
  Congressional Voting 1878-1919

  • 18 Cong. Rec. 980-1003 (1887) (failing to pass S. Res. 5 in the Senate by a vote of 16 ayes-34 no)
  • 51 Cong. Rec. 5088-5108 (1914) (failing to pass S.J. Res. 1 in the Senate by a vote of 35 ayes-34 no.  Approval required two-thirds of the senators present and voting).
  • 56 Cong. Rec. 762-810 (1918) (passing H.R.J. Res. 200 in the House by a vote of 274 ayes-136 no).
  • 56 Cong. Rec. 10,976-88 (1918) (failing to pass H.R.J. Res. 200, falling two votes short, 53 ayes-31 no).
  • 58 Cong. Rec. 77-94 (1919) (passing H.R.J. Res. 1 in the House by a vote of 304 ayes-90 no)
  • 58 Cong. Rec. 615-35 (1919) (passing H.R.J. Res. 1 in the Senate on by a vote of 56 ayes-25 no)
  • Text of H.R.J. Res. 1

  President Wilson's Address to the Senate of the United States, Asking for the Passage of the Federal Woman Suffrage

  • Only the third president to address the U.S. Senate in the Senate Chamber, Woodrow Wilson, a converted suffragist, plead with senators to immediately pass the Susan B. Anthony Amendment on Sept. 30, 1918.

  Approval and Ratification

  • On June 4, 1919, the 19th Amendment was approved by Congress, 41 Stat. 362
  • On August 26, 1920, after the ratification of Tennessee, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified that the 19th Amendment had become a part of the Constitution. 41 Stat. 1823

  Cases

  • Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1874) – Supreme Court ruled the 14^th Amendment did not give women a right to vote as a privilege of citizenship.
  • Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130 (1922) - After a suit was brought to nullify its ratification, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been constitutionally established.
• Bergman Memorial Lecture on Women, Children and Human Rights

  The Jane Ellen Bergman Memorial Lecture Series on Women, Children and Human Rights is the result of a gift from Dr. Barbara Yates, a longtime professor at the University of Illinois and a friend of the late Bergman. According to Dr. Yates, Bergman was “an ordinary citizen who chose to devote her professional life to public service. As a nursing administrator, public health educator, and family therapist, she developed an abiding interest in the human rights of common people, especially the plight of women and children, in a rapidly changing world.” This series is a lasting tribute to Bergman and an opportunity for USD students, faculty/administrators, and community members to hear distinguished lecturers discuss issues concerning women, children, and human rights.

• Thank You to Our Partners

  

  USD

  • Alumni Association
  • Center for Public Interest Law
  • Children's Advocacy Institute
  • Department of Political Science & International Relations
  • Department of Sociology
  • Honors Program
  • Law Alumni Board of Directors
  • Office of Law Alumni Relations
  • Pardee Legal Research Center
  • School of Business
  • School of Leadership & Education Sciences
  • School of Law
  • USD Votes
  • Women's Commons

  USD Student Organizations

  • Appellate Moot Court Board 
  • College Dems
  • College Republicans
  • Immigration Law Society
  • La Raza Law Students Association
  • Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA)
  • Phi Alpha Delta
  • Pro Bono Legal Advocates (PBLA)
  • Society of Changemaker Organizations
  • St. Thomas More Society
  • Student Bar Association
  • USD Law Democrats
  • Women's Law Caucus

  Community Organizations

  • 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative
  • American Association of University Women Del Mar-Leucadia
  • American Association of University Women San Diego
  • California Lawyer Association
  • California Women Lawyers
  • Girl Scouts San Diego
  • Initiate Justice
  • KPBS
  • Lawyers Club of San Diego
  • League of Women Voters of California
  • League of Women Voters of North County San Diego
  • League of Women Voters of San Diego
  • National Association of Women Judges
  • National Charity League, Inc., San Diego del Norte Chapter
  • San Diego County Bar Association
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
• ABA 19th Amendment Traveling Exhibit

  USD School of Law is hosting the American Bar Association's (ABA) 19th Amendment Traveling Exhibit - 100 Years After the 19th Amendment: Their Legacy, and Our Future. In honor of the anniversary, the ABA's Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress exhibit tracing the movement that not only secured passage of the 19th Amendment, but also its influence on subsequent movements related to equal rights. 

  

  The 19th Amendment exhibit features archival images and artifacts, mainly from the Library of Congress, and details the story of the battle for ratification, its catalyst role in promoting democracy, and the challenges