LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR
Unfinished Business,
100 Years Later
I
cast my first ballot in a presidential election during my
second year of college. I went to the precinct after school
and soccer practice and before my shift at a retail job. What
now seems an innocuous description of a day in the life of one
young woman would have been a bold statement not that long
ago — before universities opened to female students, before
competitive sports teams existed for women, before women got
paid for their labor, before the U.S. Constitution guaranteed all
Americans the right to vote.
For the longest time, women’s existence in the United
States was one of exclusion — from politics and the places men
gathered to do this work in the early days of the Republic, like
taverns and courthouses. Women were mostly prevented from
being in the public sphere. It was the great paradox of the Age
of Enlightenment, which precipitated the American Revolu-
tion, that despite the growing acceptance of self-governance,
democracy, freedom and autonomous will, half of the popula-
tion — women — could be regarded as lacking the capacity to
reason because of their biological sex and, thus, couldn’t be
granted the same rights as men.
In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention officially launched
the women’s suffrage movement. While battles over philoso-
phies and tactics led to divisions between the moderates and
radicals, in 1890 the groups reunited, making the argument
that women are both equal to men and different and should be
involved in politics. Throughout the movement, some women
were once again excluded — specifically black, uneducated and
poor women. That didn’t stop many African Americans from
mobilitizing at local levels, through a network of church and
social groups, according to a recent story in The Baltimore Sun
that highlighted the history of black suffragists.
It took seven decades for enough states to ratify the 19th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits sex
discrimination in the right to vote. Congress passed the
amendment June 4, 1919, and it was ratified Aug. 18, 1920,
enacting “the single largest extension of democratic voting
rights in American history,” according to the National Women’s
History Museum. The amendment, however, didn’t stop states
from discriminating on the basis of race, leaving millions of
African Americans in the South unable to vote because of bar-
riers such as poll taxes and literacy tests. Racist laws prevented
many Native Americans and Asian immigrants from obtaining
citizenship, meaning they too were disenfranchised.
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Despite the flaws of the suffrage movement and its after-
math, the 19th Amendment was critical in ushering women
more fully into the political process and the public sphere. The
United States was finally on its way to becoming more inclusive
and representative of all the people who call this country home.
In celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment,
Comstock’s is honoring 19 regional leaders for our annual
tribute to women in leadership. We selected these women
from more than 80 nominees, and they represent a variety of
industries, such as banking, law, education, arts, construction,
energy, health care and technology. Several of them took the
helm during the Great Recession, leading their organizations
out of that turbulent time. One woman oversaw the recovery
phase of the Oroville Dam crisis in 2018, another revived a
struggling arts organization and another is helping develop
more affordable housing in Sacramento’s central core, and
many expressed a commitment to mentoring the next genera-
tion of women leaders. In honor of the suffrage movement, we
photographed these women wearing white, accompanied with
the other colors of the suffrage flag, gold and purple.
This issue also includes coverage about how despite the
many advancements for women over the past century, chal-
lenges remain. We report on how women continue to carry the
load of caregiving both to their children and aging parents. We
write about efforts in California to close the gender wage gap.
And something we’re very excited about: The issue is created
almost entirely by women writers, photographers, illustrators,
editors and designers.
Yet, as we honor the anniversary of the 19th Amendment
on the eve of a presidential election, we need to take a somber
moment to reflect on how the voting rights of millions are
threatened as states impose more restrictive registration and
voting laws, like the 36 states with identification requirements
at the poll and the seven states with strict photo ID laws. The
U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that voter ID
laws reduce voter turnout. Two of the most populous states
in the country, Texas and New York, require voters to register
at least 30 days and 25 days before the election, respectively;
in the 2016 election, both states had among the worst voter
turnouts in the country. Minnesota allows for Election Day
registration, and it had the best turnout in 2016. The Guardian
reported that tens of thousands of Iowans were shut out of the
2020 caucus due to physical or legal obstacles, including people