Zack Lynch is author of The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World (St. Martin's Press, July 2009).
Last night I attended a fundraiser for She19, a recently formed movement focused on getting more women to vote. Why? Check out these astounding stats:
• 22 Million unmarried women who were eligible to vote did not cast ballots in the election in 2000.
• If unmarried women voted at the same rate as married women, over six million more voters would have gone to the polls in 2000.
• 16 million unmarried women were not registered to vote in 2000.
• 56% of all women not registered to vote are unmarried.
• 46% of all voting-age women are unmarried.
The 19th amendment, ratified in 1920, guarantees all American women the right to vote. The fight for the amendment’s ratification took many years and composed of a variety of methods of protest. Woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, went to court, and practiced civil disobedience. Fierce opposition including verbal and physical abuse and imprisonment often confronted supporters.
Click here for a summary of that struggle or click here to buy a very cool t-shirt to help support the movement and to look very cool.