It has been ages since we last talked so much has happened, I hope you will be overjoyed to hear I have found a place to live and a job in Washington. It wasn’t easy when I first moved here they still had not passed the law for women to vote or do much of anything at the time. I took me ages to find someone who would employ a woman like me I finally found a job making parts for guns, tanks and other weapons, they need us to make them because of the war that was going on around the world , it was a very tiring job and I was treated terrible. The men were off fighting the war they needed every available at the time even women.During my time living in Washington I got word of a organization that fought for women’s rights called the National Woman’s Suffrage Association or NWSA they had secret meetings every tuesday and thursday night in an old town home on capitol hill.
The house was owned by Alva Belmont the major funding for the organizations but she lives in England so they just use it for meetings. I decided to partake in the meetings to make a difference in the world the meetings gave me clarity of what was happening around the world to women. The meetings started off by standing and reciting the pledge of allegiance and going around and saying our names because there were new people in the group each week.In the meetings we spoke of what was happening around the world or right next door and we discussed how we would go about reacting to these women who were struggling around the world without a voice. One day we decided to plan a protest on the white house because we were not getting anything done so we decided to take the matter straight to washington. It was a cold November night for us a we stood outside the gates of the white house and demanded that we get our rights but some other women decided to take it a little too far and damage some property. All of the 33 women that night including me were arrested and put into an Occoquan workhouse where the guards were told to brutalize us and force feed us food because we wouldn’t eat. One of the women in the cells was thrown so hard that she started bleeding and fell unconscious .
We were clubbed and tortured one of the women Lucy Burns was beaten and her hands were chained above her head to cell bars and they left her there all night. At the end of november we were released most of us were okay but we were left with emotional scars that would never heal. A year or two had passed and we were back to picketing and trying our hardest to get the vote for women, I managed to keep my job and found a small apartment to live with the help of the NWSA even though we were trying to get the vote for women.
With the war going on we had to slow down the pickets and the protest to go and work and make parts for weapons or go in as nurses.I decided to go help make parts as that was my job anyway we had no health care and we barely got paid.Finally after many years of protest we did it mom we got the nineteenth amendment ratified on August 26, 1920 and we are now allowed to vote.
There was a huge celebration all of our group form the NWSA threw a huge party that lasted for about a week consisting of congratulations and visits from people like Susan Anthony and Alva Belmont. After we got the right to vote it took forever to make men see us as equals and they still don’t to this day. I ended up having to get a new job after the war ended so I decided to go to school and get a degree in Living in Washington is really great and a good experience for me being on my own but I really miss home and the wildflowers I use to run around in as a kid, I wish you and dad were here with me so I could have someone to talk to other than some girls in a meeting, they are really nice and all but they don’t get me like you and dad do. Even though I miss you I plan on visiting and writing every day from now on
