Follow us on social

What the fight for women’s equality teaches us about the fight for peace

What the fight for women’s equality teaches us about the fight for peace

The 19th Amendment was ratified 100 years ago today, a milestone that reminds us that women and women of color should have more of a voice is US foreign policy making.

Analysis | Washington Politics

Today is Women’s Equality Day, which this year marks the 100th anniversary of the successful campaign by a group of sophisticated and dedicated women to write, lobby, and campaign their way into voting rights for women. The tactics that they used to change the prevailing political elite perception of the time — that women could not be trusted with the vote — are instructive for our efforts today to change attitudes about the centrality of militarism in U.S. foreign policy and the idea that we cannot have security unless we dominate the world militarily. 

The National Woman’s Party employed marches with spectacle, banners and constant picketing at the White House, color coded clothing and identifiable purple and gold sashes (similar to the symbolism of red “MAGA” hats today), research and persuasive writing, hunger strikes and a state based ratification campaign. They worked in parallel with the National American Woman Suffrage Association to pursue their legislative strategy, pioneering lobbying tactics that are still used today. Led by Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Carrie Chapman Catt, the movement was strategic, methodical, dogged, creative, and bold in pursuit of the 19th Amendment and its ratification.  

It was not inclusive. The movement excluded Black and brown women from the leadership and even the marches. Despite the undeniable historical significance of Women’s Equality Day, many women of color recognize that the civil rights that were granted to white women on August 26, 1920 were not extended to their foremothers. It would take more than 30 years for all Asian American women (and men) to obtain their right to vote, more than 40 years for African American women (and men) across the country to be able exercise their right to vote, and more than 50 years for Spanish-speaking Latina women (and Latino men) to win supporting reforms that ensured their meaningful enfranchisement.    

One hundred years after the adoption of the 19th amendment, women (and men) of color across the nation continue to fight for women’s full suffrage, against voter suppression, racial injustice, and systemic inequality — using many of the tactics that the Woman’s Party used: marches and rallies across the country, White House protests, recognizable symbols and slogans of a growing movement. As with the (partial) women’s suffrage movement, these efforts are growing political power at the local, city and state level. They have not yet resulted in national level reforms, but seem inexorably to be moving in that direction. Most critically, they appear to have finally changed white American consciousness about structural racism and the legacies of slavery in ways that have not previously happened. 

Efforts to achieve a fundamentally new paradigm in America’s engagement with the world — one centered on diplomacy rather than military dominance — are of critical relevance to the continuing movement to realize full democratic participation for everyone in the United States. To fully address structural sexism and racism, we need to end runaway military spending, we need to end the casual bombing of (usually Black and brown) people in far off lands, and we need to make clear that the overflow of combat weapons and combat tactics into our police forces is not acceptable.   

One of the ways we build on the multi-racial alliance that has emerged for racial justice and honor the 100th anniversary of the suffrage movement is to work for peace and  ensure that those  who make decisions about whether to bomb or whether to buy more aircraft carriers at the expense of domestic priorities represent Americans from different walks of life.  

Women were not at the decision making table 100 years ago. Today women — and particularly women of color — are at the table, but they are underrepresented in foreign policy and national security making. Having served as one of few Black women in a senior staff position on U.S. foreign policy issues in the Senate, Algene knows first hand the importance of having more diverse perspectives in the room where the bills get written. That is why she founded Catalyst Global Strategies, a strategic advisory firm focused on foreign policy and national security, and launched the Minority Leaders podcast, to ensure more minority voices are at the table. 

And Lora came to the Quincy Institute to be part of a broad based effort to challenge militarism by making clear the centrality of a less militarized economy and foreign policy to a peaceful America. 

On this Women’s Equality Day, Responsible Statecraft is showcasing the perspectives of women only on its pages, that are all  too often male dominated. We invite essays by women of all colors and political perspectives that explore strategies for advancing a U.S. foreign policy where peace is the norm and war the exception.

Happy anniversary.  Now let’s get back to work!


|Women suffragists cover a billboard to advertise their Washington, D.C. parade. Nation-wide demonstrations were held in May 1914 to support the Federal Amendment enfranchising women. (Photo: Everett Collection via Shutterstock.com)
Analysis | Washington Politics
Trump and Keith Kellogg
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump and Keith Kellogg (now Trump's Ukraine envoy) in 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Trump's silence on loss of Ukraine lithium territory speaks volumes

Europe

Last week, Russian military forces seized a valuable lithium field in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the latest success of Moscow’s grinding summer offensive.

The lithium deposit in question is considered rather small by industry analysts, but is said to be a desirable prize nonetheless due to the concentration and high-quality of its ore. In other words, it is just the kind of asset that the Trump administration seemed eager to exploit when it signed its much heralded minerals agreement with Ukraine earlier this year.

keep readingShow less
Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?
Top photo credit: Palestinians walk to collect aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?

Middle East

Many human rights organizations say it should shut down. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed hundreds of Palestinians at or around its aid centers. And yet, the U.S. has committed no less than $30 million toward the controversial, Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

As famine-like conditions grip Gaza, the GHF says it has given over 50 million meals to Palestinians at its four aid centers in central and southern Gaza Strip since late May. These centers are operated by armed U.S. private contractors, and secured by IDF forces present at or near them.

keep readingShow less
mali
Heads of state of Mali, Assimi Goita, Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani and Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, pose for photographs during the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou//File Photo

Post-coup juntas across the Sahel face serious crises

Africa

In Mali, General Assimi Goïta, who took power in a 2020 coup, now plans to remain in power through at least the end of this decade, as do his counterparts in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. As long-ruling juntas consolidate power in national capitals, much of the Sahelian terrain remains out of government control.

Recent attacks on government security forces in Djibo (Burkina Faso), Timbuktu (Mali), and Eknewane (Niger) have all underscored the depth of the insecurity. The Sahelian governments face a powerful threat from jihadist forces in two organizations, Jama‘at Nusrat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin (the Group for Supporting Islam and Muslims, JNIM, which is part of al-Qaida) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP). The Sahelian governments also face conventional rebel challengers and interact, sometimes in cooperation and sometimes in tension, with various vigilantes and community-based armed groups.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.