Today.Az » Voice of Diaspora » History of Azerbaijani and US women’s rights to vote discussed at US Congress Library
09 June 2011 [17:36] - Today.Az
The history of how Azerbaijani and US women got the right to vote was discussed at the US Congress Library in Washington DC on June 8.
The event, that was hosted with the support of the Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations as well as the US based Karabakh Foundation and the help of the Sewall Belmont House and Museum, featured the most memorable and incredible moments of election rights of US and Azerbaijani women.
Jennifer Kravchik, Director of the Museum, said she was recently introduced to the history of Azerbaijani women rights, and when she found out that Azerbaijan gave its women the voting right earlier than the US, she decided to research this issue more and make a presentation.
Kravchik mentioned that it was the First World War that changed the world in terms of women rights – sending their sons to the battlefield, the women didn’t want to stay aside from the politics and worked in all the spheres of industry. In the US the gender issues were severely fought for in 1913-1921, and at that time miles away from the US Azerbaijanis created the first Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, and gave its women the right to vote in 1919 – way before the US and UK.
Unlike Azerbaijan, where in Soviet Union times women didn’t have enough rights equality, in the West, and particularly, in the US the women movement continued developing and earned impressive points in the politics, businesses and social life, Kravchik added.
“The conference was a lot of new information for me, - Joshua Williams, an American University student, said. – I was surprised that not only the Azeri women got the voting right so early, but they had even their own newspaper that would talk about women rights and gender movement development – Ishyg.
/APA/
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