Working Women’s March.
Photo: Harris & Ewing, from Library of Congress. Color: Post Emily.
Let’s learn about the 100th anniversary of the women’s suffrage* movement! Celebrate the centennial by making the flower in the iconic suffrage colors. You can also turn it into a brooch!
Throughout the American Suffrage Movement, the combination of purple, white, and gold was used as an important symbol. Pins, badges, ribbons, and sashes of these colors were worn as a sign of support for suffrage. The National Woman’s Party in the United States described the meaning of these colors: “Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose... White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose...”
As you work on this craft with your family & friends, ask these questions: why was it important for women to be able to vote? Were there any women left out of this process? (For women of color, the 1920 victory did not guarantee voting rights. Despite their fervent participation in the suffrage act, their voting rights were secured only with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.) What about the native americans? Take this time to learn about Zitkala-Sa, a member of the Yankton Dakota Sioux. “Americanize the first American!” she urged in 1921. Only in 1962, decades after her death, did Native Americans gain the right to vote from every state legislature.
