On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, the DBL Law Women of Excellence will launch “Because Of This, I Am This,” a public awareness and education campaign recognizing the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment becoming law. The 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote.
According to DBL Law partner Betsy Weber, the firm has a history of hiring, promoting and supporting women, including the 2012 launch of its Women of Excellence (WoE) initiative. The WoE initiative supports the firm’s female attorneys by sponsoring activities and events for professional women, encouraging its female attorneys to serve as community leaders, and recognizing the need for flexibility for all attorneys to achieve work-life balance while exceeding client expectations.
“As professional women in law, we wanted to highlight this important anniversary and honor the courageous suffragists who fought for women’s rights,” Betsy remarked. She added: “We chose the tag line ‘Because of This, We Are This,’ to recognize the relevance of our right to vote to our chosen occupation as women in law. We practice law because we believe that every person has the right to fair and equitable treatment.”
The Importance of August 26th
In 1848, suffragists began organizing to fight for women’s equality, demanding the right to vote during the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. For the next 72 years, women lobbied, marched, picketed and protested, trying to get the issue to ballot. Finally, on May 21, 1919, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. The U.S. Senate followed with its approval two weeks later, and then the 19th Amendment went to the states, where it had to be ratified by 3/4ths of the then-48 states in order to be added to the Constitution. More than a year later, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment. And on August 26, 1920, history was made when Tennessee Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby issued a proclamation declaring the 19th Amendment and part of the U.S. Constitution ratified, giving American women the right to vote.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, the number of female voters has exceeded the number of male voters in every presidential election since 1964. Women, who constitute more than half of the U.S. population, have cast between four and seven million more votes than men in recent elections.
About DBL Law
DBL Law is a full-service law firm with offices in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Louisville.
