Feminists For Choice

The women’s suffrage movement was characterized by many outrageous acts, but one of the most radical had to be a speech that was given by Sarah Walker Fitzgerald. The content of the speech wasn’t so radical – she was simply demanding that women be given the right to vote. What made this speech so scandalous was that Fitzgerald delivered it in her bathing suit.

Fitzgerald majored in political science at Bryn Mawr, where she founded the Student Government Association. This set the stage for Fitzgerald to become one of the first women elected to the House of Representatives after women finally obtained the vote. She served as an officer of several suffrage associations, and was a popular speaker on the suffrage campaign circuit.

In 1912, Fitzgerald argued that women were not equal to men, but that they should be given the right to vote in order to uphold the value of fairness.

The Government touches upon every phase of our home life and largely dictates its conditions while at the same time the woman is held responsible or them and is working with her hands tied behind her back . . . she asks the vote in order to do her woman’s work better.

For More Information:
Susan Walker Fitzgerald Papers at Bryn Mawr Special Collections
Wikipedia