Amicus Curiae lecture highlights the bravery and persistence of women

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Wedged between Women’s Equality Day and Constitution Day, the Fall 2024 Semester’s first Amicus Curiae lecture ended on a confrontational note after the questions following a women’s rights lecture were only asked by men.

“The three questions that I got were from men,” Elisabeth Griffith said at the end of the evening. “You all, of the opposite sex, need to practice standing up and asking your question because I think they would have been just as good.”

Griffith had just finished her one hour discussion on that very thing: women rising up and saying something.

Her discussion focused on her book, “Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920-2020,” which highlights two of the biggest obstacles in female history: voting and reproductive rights.

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She noted that the idea of Lady Justice didn’t really reflect the reality of early communities.

“In western art, justice has long been depicted as a woman,” Griffith said, “which is curious, since women have been legally invisible for a millennia.”

From the beginning, Griffith argued, men have dominated in every aspect. These ideals spilled out into the colonies and in present-day America.

“From forever, men were more powerful than women and weaker men, and that male muscle evolved in political, legal, economic and religious authority over women, over weaker men,” she said. “Women were subordinate. Women were grouped with the infant, the infirm and the insane.”

Likewise, there is no mention of women in the United States Constitution. She said that the phrase “We the People” didn’t exactly include everyone.

It wasn’t until 1756 that the first female voter was recorded. Lydia Taft cast her ballot favoring financial support towards the French and Indian War.

After this, laws started excluding women from the voting picture.

Most are familiar with Susan B. Anthony, the woman who voted and led 14 other women to also vote, despite the fact that it was illegal. Not only were the voting staff arrested for allowing the women to establish their thoughts into the government, but Anthony was as well. She was found guilty of voter fraud and was ordered by the court to pay $100, but she refused to pay. The judge of her trial stopped her case from further courts.

Anthony died before being legally pardoned from her charges. Former President Donald Trump excused them in August 2020.

Women finally received the legal right to vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. The Voting Rights Act of the Civil Rights Movement didn’t come until 1965.

But, Griffith said, the battle for women’s rights didn’t end with the ballot. Women’s suffrage continued with the fight for accessible birth control and abortion rights.

“They couldn’t afford more children; they were constantly pregnant,” Griffith said. “Birth control was intended to stop abortion.”

Following the founding of the American Birth Control League in 1921 – now known as Planned Parenthood – the FDA approved the first oral contraception pill for married women.

The famous 1973 court case Roe v. Wade legalized abortion across the country. The Supreme Court found abortion was under the 14th amendment with the right to privacy.

Now that Roe v. Wade was overturned in the summer of 2022, Griffith said the country has gone back to what it knew.

“We are back to putting women without autonomy, without authority,” she said. “They’re back in the category of the infirm, the infant and the insane if they are not in charge of themselves.”

Griffith also said, even though she believes women have been set back in more ways than one, there are so many “little things” to celebrate, like the ability to wear pants.

“So many of you are wearing trousers,” she said. “Trousers were life-saving for women. It allowed them to be physically active; it allowed them to climb. So that’s a social change that we’re never going back.”

Patricia Proctor, founding director of the Simon Perry Center, said that this lecture reminded her of her grandmother.

“I think of that amendment on a personal level because, when I think about it, I think about my grandmother,” Proctor said. “When she was born, women didn’t have the right to vote.”

“By the time she was old enough, she could vote,” she went on to say.

A new semester also brought new elements to the lecture series. With the Campus Self-Defense Act in effect, the Brad D. Smith Foundation Hall had police and a metal detector present for security. The hall is exempt from the law, meaning it remains a gun-free facility.

The series also welcomed in a new sponsor: the university’s Drinko Academy, led by Montserrat Miller.

Next up in the series is a focus on the United States Constitution. The Sept. 17 lecture will feature author and historian Denver Brunsman.

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