Women, Participation, and Peace

Eleanor Brackenridge and Mrs. H.P. Drought campaign for the vote for women in 1916. 

The pendant says, “Votes for Women.”

In this season of Pentecost, when the Christian community remembers that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out on all persons, it is important for women not to hold back, but to come forward and share their gifts. Canada has just named the first Ambassador for Women, Peace, and Security. San Antonio, Texas, is beginning a Female Majority City Council. This month, June 2019, is the 100th anniversary of legislative approval of women’s suffrage in the US.

“Gender equality is a more reliable predictor of peace than a country's Gross Domestic Project or level of democracy," said Maryam Monsef, Canadian Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality.

“In 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1325, the first of nine resolutions to recognize the unique effects of armed conflict on women and girls, and their important role in resolving conflict and building peace. It urges Member States to increase women’s participation and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts, and to take measures to protect women and girls in conflict situations. To date, approximately 80 national action plans on women, peace and security have been adopted globally. Canada launched its first National Action Plan in 2010, and its second in 2017.” Read more HERE.

In San Antonio, Texas, Elaine Ayala wrote of the female majority and extensively quoted the first Hispanic woman on the council Maria Antonietta Berriozabal: “San Antonio joined a nation, a whole nation, of women that at some point said, ‘We can do it, too.’ ” She continued, “Invest in human capital,” exhorting leaders to connect the dots between women, children, education and economic prosperity. “To me, the biggest challenge is how we grow inclusively, democratically, with transparency, and work at not leaving anyone behind.”

The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was passed by both the House and the Senate on June 4, 1919, though it took a year for that to go into effect. The first woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, Jeannette Rankin from Montana, said “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” Her comment invites questions about the long term consequences of violence. Many people refuse to face those questions and choose short term greed and power rather than a long term commitment to the common good.

The first “Motherhouse” of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word was the Brackenridge Villa. It had been the home of Eleanor Brackenridge who is called the “Mother of Women’s Suffrage in Texas.” She was a champion of civic and social betterment.

“In San Antonio, Eleanor became a champion of civic and social improvement. In February 1912 Brackenridge was elected president of the newly organized San Antonio Equal Franchise Society. The formation of this society stimulated interest throughout the state, and delegates from seven Texas cities met in San Antonio and organized the Texas Woman Suffrage Association in April 1913. … In 1918 she was the first woman in Bexar County to register to vote. She died after a cerebral hemorrhage, on February 14, 1924. When reporting her death, the San Antonio Express called her "in many respects the foremost woman citizen of Texas."”