Arizona teachers do not have a union
that can legally bargain for a labor agreement. But they have a First Amendment
right to speech and assembly. Organizing under the banner #RedForEd, thousands of angry teachers flooded the
Arizona capitol yesterday demanding a 20% hike in pay and benefits.
The most interesting part of the movement
is that is that women are predominantly its leaders, organizers, and protesters.
That’s because 76% of teachers are women, according to Department of Education statistics.
But what does this mean
more generally?
For perspective, consider
the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S.
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton organized the first women’s rights convention in the world: the Seneca
Falls Convention in 1848. These women were also intensely committed to abolishing
slavery. Women from several countries met in England in 1840 at the World
Anti-Slavery Convention.
In time, their efforts bore fruit. On August 26, 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment became part of
the U.S. Constitution. It states: “The right of citizens of the United States
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of sex.”
The last push for women’s voting
rights took a radical turn. In 1916, Alice Paul formed the National Woman's
Party (NWP). A subset of this group— the Silent
Sentinels— were arrested in 1917 while picketing the White House. Some went on
a hunger strike.
Today, a large segment of women are politically
energized. They reject the emerging political culture of disrespect, vulgarity, sexual exploitation, legal protection of assault weapons— and they won’t stand anymore for their own marginalization.
The West Virginia teachers strike succeeded against long odds. Arizona teachers—a
group not ever perceived as radical— are threatening to walk out of classes
until their demands are met. Oklahoma teachers are following a similar course.
If #RedForEd is successful,
it might be as transformational as the suffrage movement a century ago.
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