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League Of Women Voters Recalls Suffrage Fight In Virginia

By: Tommie McNeil, Virginia Public Radio // October 4, 2012
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The Library of Virginia and League of Women Voters are hoping some historic context will awaken the state's voters, specifically female voters. 

The right to vote for women was especially hard fought. Women had no rights to property ownership or business decisions unless they were widowed, as during a lecture on the Women's Suffrage Movement, Librarian of Virginia Dr. Sandra Treadway described in a lecture sponsored by the two groups.

The best way to change that was through the right to vote, but they were opposed by political leaders and many others. Those women who fought for their rights were arrested and became public outcasts. 

"But they and those interested in women's rights were very disappointed when the 15th Amendment guaranteed that the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied on the count of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," Treadway said. "It failed to mention voting rights for women."

But Virginia women continued to organize and push for the right to vote and by 1920, the 19th amendment was the law of the land. 

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