Women's Equality Day

“Not voting is so last season.” ~ Kenneth Cole  

In commemoration of Women’s Equality Day, which celebrates the passage of the 19^th Amendment in 1920 that gave women the right to vote, there will be a special showing of the 2004 HBO movie Iron Jawed Angels. Iron Jawed Angels stars academy award winner Hillary Swank as Alice Paul (1885 – 1977), a leader of the women’s suffrage movement. Learn more about the history.

Iron Jawed Angels tells the story of Alice Paul and her colleagues during the last few years of the suffrage movement and their unflappable determination to convince President Woodrow Wilson, the  Congress and the state legislatures to pass the 19^th Amendment. The suffragists battle older, more conservative female activists, chauvinistic public opinion, and very powerful men. The women are eventually thrown in jail and make headline news around the country with their hunger strike. The term iron jawed angels refers to their resistance at being force fed during their hunger strike. It is their wills, however, that are made of iron and their courage inspires a nation and changes it forever.

Voter registration and voter information will be available. Candidates for public office invited to distribute information.

Monday, August 25 | 6:30 p.m. | FREE
Physician’s Auditorium, College of Charleston, George and Coming Sts.

Event Sponsors: The Center for Women, The League of Women Voters of the Charleston Area, The Women’s & Gender Studies Program of the College of Charleston, and The YWCA of Greater Charleston

Media Sponsor: Skirt! Magazine

Vote on November 4, 2008!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has!" ~ Margaret Mead

Where
Precinct (voting place) is on voter registration card. For directions, call your County Voter Registration Office listed in the Government section of the phone book or go to www.scvotes.org, click on Your Voter Registration and enter the requested information.  

How
Bring your voter registration card, SC driver’s license or picture ID. If you are not able to walk in to the voting place, send someone in to request assistance.  

How to vote absentee
Call or go to your County Voter Registration Office for an absentee ballot or go to www.declareyourself.com to get an absentee ballot. If you go in person, you can vote until 5pm the day before the election or mail your ballot so that it is received by 7pm on Election Day.  

For candidate information
Go to http://charleston.sc.lwv.org

On August 26, 2004 over 450 women of our community came to the Physician's Auditorium at the College of Charleston for a special film performance of HBO's Iron Jawed Angels to commemorate and celebrate our right to full participation in our political process. Pictured is Julie Peretta from Skirt! magazine sitting on Elvis the horse from Palmetto Carriage Works. They are a replication of Ines Millholland leading a parade of 5000 suffragists in 1913 in Washington DC. This image is emblematic of the fight for women's rights in America.

Lowcountry Women Vote had 11 billboards posted along Charleston roads in November 2003.

Click here to read the editorial "What the suffragists endured, earned too important to forget" by League of Women Voters President Kay J. Maxwell, published in The Post and Courier on August 23, 2004.

Click here to read the article "Women's coalition works to get women to vote" by Mindy Spar of The Post and Courier published on July 21, 2004.

Click here to read the editorial "New coalition wants more women to vote" by Barbara Zia, president of the League of Women Voters of the Charleston Area, published by The Post and Courier on October 8, 2003.