The right to vote, as a woman in America, is a privlege I have taken for granted. I have never, as Carrie Catt pleaded shortly after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, particularly 'prized it.' In fact, I have never really given it much thought. I suppose it has to do with seventy-five years turning into a sense of entitlement. I have been concerned with other issues of freedom, that women now have the luxury of pursuing, such as social, cultural, and spiritual consciousness raising. That's not to say, I haven't been involved in some political way with other issues, like abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and World Peace. But, I have moved from a less active participation in the "Women's Movement" to a more personal journey.

Perhaps, that 'luxury' of pursuing other freedoms, is the best part of the prize. Those hundreds of thousands of American women who fought so long and hard for suffrage, have given to us generations of daughters that have followed, the power to move into being people, first. They have enabled us to move beyond the symbol of political freedom to the core of what it means to be 'equal' in our own minds and hearts.

Saturday, August the 26th, 1995 marked the 75th anniversary of the Susan Anthony Amendment, which gave every woman in America the Constitutional right to vote. To commemorate this event in a personally meaningful way, I did some extra reading on the Suffrage Movement in America. It's a fascinating story of courageous women whose determination and passion puts me to shame, while making me proud at the same time. The shame comes from realizing the sacrifice these women endured for the empowerment of their gender, while I too often sit back, knowing the battle isn't over. The pride comes in being a woman.

The story is as exciting and tense a drama as has ever been told. After nearly a century of organization, and forty-two years after being introduced into Congress, the final moments unfolded in Tennessee's Legislative Hall late in August, 1920. The deciding vote for the ratification that would make the amendment the law of the land, came down to a mountain boy by the name of Harry Burn.

Harry's mother had written him a letter imploring him to vote for suffrage, and to let his views be known immediately. This was a problem for Harry, who's district was strictly anti-suffrage. A vote to table the ratification resulted in a tie, ending young Burn's chances of being non-committal. When it came down to the moment of truth, Burn listened to his mother, and became the deciding vote for suffrage victory.

According to Olivia Coolidge, in her book Women's Rights, Burn later realized, "an opportunity such as seldom comes to mortal man to free seventeen million women from political slavery was mine" and "I knew that a mother's advice is always safest for a boy to follow, and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification."

"God bless Mrs. Burn," I say.

That vote was the culmination of efforts that started in 1848 in Senaca Falls, New York, with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the "Declaration of Women's Rights." It is an impressive declaration that could, I believe, even arouse a fury in Phyllis Schafley's heart. Taken from, "The History of Women Suffrage," Vol. 1, I found the most poignant part to be one in which the nature of the oppresion of women was described: "He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life."

It is clear, that Stanton and Anthony, were reaching to the heart of the matter. Only by gaining the right to vote, would women be able to even start reaching for self empowerment. Acceptance of such insight, however, did not come easy. After devoting their entire lives to political freedom for women, neither Stanton, nor Anthony, lived to see suffrage become a reality. Anthony, however, did steal a glimpse of that reality, when she cast a ballot in the Rochester, New York election of 1872. She was prosecuted for voting illegally.

Although, at times, I'm sure, exciting, there is no question that these women sacrificed greatly as they canvassed the nation, speaking, organizing and picketing for suffrage. They continued to work for women's rights well into their old age, still canvassing the country into their seventies and eighties, working for the cause. They enjoyed some respect, but endured a lot of ridicule. They never abandoned their mission to improve the quality of life for all women by making them contenders in our democracy.

They passed their passion on to another generation of women, and the new breed of suffragettes made the most of the groundwork laid by their leaders. The battle for the vote gained much needed political power when several states were won as woman suffrage states. It was under the direction and leadership of two women employing two different strategies that finally forced the Susan Anthony Amendment to a vote.

Alice Paul was a brave, gutsy woman. She concentrated her campaign in Washington D.C., much to the chagrin of President Woodrow Wilson. She made it a point to get in the President's face about half-hearted promises he had made for a federal suffrage amendment when pressured by state Democratic Party elections. Seeing Wilson backstroke, Paul upped the ante. Picketers posted themselves outside the White House for months, chaining themselves to its fences, and displaying some unpleasant posters. They were arrested, and jailed illegally and in squalid conditions before attention was brought to both the President and to the public about what was going on.

Paul's touch was rough. She challenged and humiliated the President, perhaps into action. It fell to Carrie Catt, organizer of the Woman Suffrage Party, to soften Wilson up, while setting up the greatest victory of all. She won suffrage for New York State in a brilliant succession of political moves. By then, the suffrage movement had real power. Women could vote in the most influencial state in the nation.

It was a combination of Paul's dramatics, Catt's savvy and the First World War that brought the suffrage dream to it's finality in Tennessee seventy five years ago. But of course, it was much more.

It was all the women who sacrificed more than we can imagine for thier cause. Today we tend to take those sacrifices largely for granted. Feminine empowerment has evolved from the right to vote to the struggle for women to find equality in all aspects of their lives. That struggle for equality won't be over until women are able to translate it into self acualization.

The 'cause' has not yet been won. Women today are in the process of recovery from years of oppression. They must remind themselves that they are indeed equal under the eyes of the law, and must push that to it's logical conclusion. They must believe themselves to be of equal value in the world, in countries and cultures that holds fast to antiquated patriarcy.

As we near opening day of the United Nation's World Conference on Women on September 4th, in Beijing, there is much to keep in mind. According to a report released last week by the International Labor Organization, in every country in the world, women are paid less than men for the same work. The ILO report further found that women are still tied to traditional "female" jobs such as teaching and human services, and are grossly underrepresented in decision- making and managerial positions, even in the most highly developed countries.

The results of a survey sponsored by the Alan Guttmacher Institute finds that 40 to 60 percent of women worldwide still have trouble having the number of children they want, when they want them. The report's findings cited poverty, early marriage and childbearing, low levels of education, and "profound inequality between women and men," limits women's ability to take advantage of, or contribute to, social and economic progress.

It is thrilling that women from the United States have the opportunity to be leaders in the World Conference on Women. And that they go with the gift of being full citizens of democracy that our Suffragettes earned for us seventy five years ago.

And, although as women, we may take the right to vote for granted, it is good to remember the responsibilities that go with that privlege and continue to work for the enrichment and betterment of all women in our world.