To the young girls out there, the title refers to a feminist ad campaign for smoking a specific cigarette brand aimed at women. For girls of the Boomer generation, we liked the spirit of the wildly sensational magazine ads: an old heirloom photo depicted a 19th century woman washing clothes on a scrub board or performing one of a dozen menial housewife chores, her long hair pinned up, neck collar tight, corset cinched ’neath a long-sleeved blouse, long skirt, black hose. Then in another ‘vintage’ photo, the lady is scolded and scorned for sneaking a cigarette break. In the foreground of the ad was a large color photo of a 1970s’ model: a take-charge woman donning a pant suit or maxi dress, windblown hair, slinky blouse unbuttoned to reveal tan skin, lips glossed and a devil-may-care smile, her long cigarette held loosely between the forefinger and middle. The ads were alluring to young girls figuring out if they wanted to smoke or not.
But today’s blog is not about the filthy habit and deadly consequences of smoking cigarettes. For us American women, the year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guarantees women the right to vote. American women had protested for almost a century prior, so engrained was the societal concept that female humans were possessions who change their last names when married, do not work outside the home, are to give birth time and again regardless of health or die trying, do not wear the pants in the family, are to be seen and unheard. Basically, it was the old man adage that women are subhuman with tiny brains, fickle, dainty, silly beings incapable of taking seriously the election of governing leaders. Indeed, we—society as well as American women—have progressed a very long way.
And yet … every day we learn of a fellow woman or girl who has been abducted by one or more men, a mother who’s missing, a wife vanished—only to learn later of foul play or rape or both. Then there is the Me, Too movement, Bill Cosby prison sentence, Harvey Weinstein trial, and the recent realization that Hollywood was and has always been from its inception a Boys Club where the casting couch was the only way for a want-to-be actress talented or not. Did you know that silent film star Mary Pickford warned America’s young girls to stay away from Hollywood? She lovingly advised them to stay home with their families rather than risk their lives and reputation to go to Hollywood in search of a movie career. But throughout the country in communities large and small, the silver screen with larger-than-life humans was too captivating for many a naïve, stubborn and adventurous gal.
The women in white
The women’s suffrage movement of the early 20th century is captured in early moving pictures and black-and-white photographs. The marching women were called suffragettes and chose to wear white clothing to stand out in the era’s drab photographs. They looked like angels. Some states and regions permitted women the vote prior to the Amendment but only if she were a widow and a land owner. More and more women protested, for decades mind you, and were unrelenting until the ultimate boys’ club, the U.S. Congress, granted the vote to all women. To be clear, the American right to vote had to be guaranteed nationwide by constitutional amendment. Isn’t that just incredible and practically unbelievable to all of us alive today?!? My grandmother would have been 19 the year women were granted the right to vote in any and all government elections. The vote was about power, and white men made sure everyone was not going to have it or obtain it with ease. Throughout the 20th century, it took several acts of Congress to guarantee every single American citizen, including women of color, the basic democratic right to vote.
Ever since 1920, the great American century kept blowing and going as women little by little gained more freedom of choice beyond voting, like a college education, independent housing, banking, careers, even marriage and the role of wife or housewife and eventually the choice of motherhood. Another anniversary for women to celebrate this year is The Pill, the most popular contraceptive first widely prescribed in 1960. Shoot, even Loretta Lynn sang its praises. Then the sex revolution was in full swing right up to the tennis match dubbed Battle of the Sexes at a time when FM radio played every day Helen Reddy’s empowering pop anthem “I Am Woman.” Women always knew they could be anything they wanted to be … if it just weren’t for men standing in the way.
Now 100 years after the women’s vote, we have more women in Congress than ever in U.S. history and have had a couple of chances to elect the first woman vice president and president. (Pssst. Hillary Clinton was the first woman elected president by popular vote.) Still … there’s the daily news, overshadowing all we’ve accomplished since the days of yesteryear, our grim reality, revealing how much work there is to do so ALL males, not just men in general, treat women and girls with respect and as equal human beings. Young women can’t go jogging alone? Women can’t leave an abusive husband or boyfriend? Women have to always carry a weapon and be on the lookout for an attacker? Women can’t wear anything they want or don’t want to wear? A woman can’t live by herself? Women are still asked by male employers if they have children?
So, we women have the right to vote. That’s been great and cause for immense social progress in the past 100 years. By now we certainly can work at most any job, including the military, and pursue our individual aspirations. But even so, women must always remember to never flick the figurative cigarette, appear too carefree, in control and self confident in the presence of some men, not all but some, a few even—and those not always easy to distinguish. We can live our lives freely but only to a certain extent, more so when young. When it comes to the two sexes, that’s the way it’s always been and strangely enough to modern minds still is.