NEW PALTZ – Monday marked the 93rd anniversary of the women’s right to vote nationwide. New York adopted it three years earlier.
New Paltz Town Supervisor Susan Zimet is founder and president of VoteForWomen2020, a non-profit organization to commemorate the year 2020 when the women’s right to vote will be 100 years old.
Zimet noted legalization was for more than just voter rights.
“A man could take our children away from us and give it to the woman down the street, give it to a man down the street and a woman had no claim to her own children,” she said. “A woman couldn’t own her own house. If her father died and left her money, the husband could take the money and drink it away. If a man wanted to beat his wife, she had no recourse. She was his property.”
Zimet said women of today “have no clue” as to what their sisters of 100 years ago had to endure.