Amid the pandemic of 2020, women are among the essential frontline workers who have risen to the forefront of our awareness. First responders, doctors, nurses, assistants, nonmedical staff have put their own lives at risk to hold people together when many stresses are pulling people apart.
Even from home, women and men have mobilized swiftly for family and community health and safety You name it, we did it…to stabilize our world despite massive daily change. There are probably more heroes and sheroes than we can count these days!
LPF’s Women’s Path of Hope timeline honors women from biblical times to 2017 who took action for social change. The Path includes pioneers of the US Suffrage Movement in 1848 who organized a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Against all odds, they fought to get the 19th amendment passed so that women could have the right to vote.
This year we celebrate the 100th Anniversary since these courageous women succeeded in their goal. The US Constitution was amended on August 18, 1920, granting women’s suffrage. It was a hard-won victory. Later, after many more years of effort, women of color won their equal access to voting as well.
Our ELCA website tells of other anniversaries being celebrated in 2019 and 2020: “50 years of Lutheran women being ordained in the US, 40 years of women of color being ordained, and 10 years of LGBTQIA+ individuals being able to serve freely.” These pastors had to overcome many barriers too, and often still face them. Yet they kept on, following their callings to serve.
It’s intriguing to reflect how women of faith today are like women of long ago, and the suffragettes of the last century… how in our own spheres of influence, we seek to change the world around us too. Some women become known, while others are unsung to this day.
LPF’s Forgotten Heroines blogs will tell about some of these women pioneers for suffrage. May their achievements inspire us today as we strive in our time for equality and justice!
— Lily R. Wu, New York City
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