What New Jersey in 1807 teaches me about the fight for gender equality

Earlier this week, for Women’s History Month, I had the privilege of speaking to the team at Vouch (sponsored by Women@Vouch) about how to manage ourselves through conflict at work. I spoke about the neuroscience of emotions, the stress cycle and what we can do manage ourselves when we’re in conflict with others. (If you’d like to bring me in as a speaker, reach out to [email protected]!)

And in honor of Women’s History Month, I zoomed out from the micro of interpersonal relationships to the macro of international conflict: how it affects women globally, and what we can learn from the journey of women getting the right to vote. (This is where New Jersey will come in.)?

As a woman in business, I know that empowering, educating and training women is good for them, for the communities they live in, for the businesses they’re part of, and for all of us as a society.?

During times of conflict and crisis, gender-based violence doubles - from 35% of women affected to more than 70%.? We also know that in times of crisis and conflict, violence against men & boys also increases.?

Women are also part of the rebuilding post-conflict. And post-conflict, according to GlobalHumanRights.org, there are 4 things we can do to promote gender equality:

1. Prevent violence against women
2. Provide access to healthcare
3. Enshrine women’s rights into law
4. Enable economic wellbeing

In preparation for my talk, I did a deep-dive into the history of enshrining one specific right into law: the right to vote.?

The History of Women's Voting Rights in the US & Globally

In my head, 1920 was the year that women in the US received the right to vote through the 19th Amendment.?

Yet in 1797, just 21 years after the founding of America, New Jersey (of all states!) gave women the right to vote.?

And only 10 years later, in 1807, New Jersey rescinded the right to vote from women, limiting it to free, white males.?

For the next 112 years, the right to vote was argued and legislated at the state level, with 15 states giving women the right to vote, and some states giving women a partial right to vote, by allowing them to vote in the presidential election.

15 states. One by one. Two steps forward, one step back. Until the 19th Amendment.

Out of curiosity, I wondered when other countries gave women the right to vote, including notable ones both because of their place in history and/or population:

• In the UK, women over 21 get the right to vote through the Equal Franchise Act
• When India declares its independence in 1947, they also give women the right to vote.
• China gives women the right to vote in 1949.?

What I learn from New Jersey of 1797 and 1807

Like many others, I’ve watched with dismay as the Dobbs decision undid 5 decades of progress in women’s access to healthcare & reproductive rights.? And the lapsing of the 1994 ban on assault weapons in 2004 has led to an unprecedented uptick in gun violence in America, where gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children in America, surpassing car accidents.

Yet the long history of women’s voting rights in America reminds me that progress is not a continuously upwards trajectory: it is a story of two steps forward, one step back.? New Jersey, 1797. New Jersey, 1807.?

Martin Luther King Jr said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Ruth Bader Ginsberg famously paraphrased this and added on her own wisdom to the end: “if there is a steadfast commitment to see the task through to completion."

The 19th amendment was the culmination of centuries of advocacy, by women and men, who held a steadfast commitment to gender equality.

I am (and we are) incredibly privileged to live in this moment in human history, where women have the right to vote, where women can get credit cards and mortgages without needing a father or husband to co-sign, where women leading businesses is a fact, not a hypothesis.?

And, humanity still faces massive global challenges that need every human being to be educated, empowered and equipped.?We are not done.

I am committed to seeing this task through in my lifetime, in small and big ways, for the generations of women and men that come after me. I ended my talk with an invitation, which I’d like to extend to you:?

What is one step you can take to advance gender equality, locally or globally?

A couple suggestions:

1. If you’re unclear on how women globally live, I encourage you to read Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
2. Donate to a local, national or international organization that supports gender equality and women’s rights. If you don’t know of one, that’s the first step to take!
3. If you’re struggling to manage conflict in your own life, I highly recommend Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High or Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication

Tiffany is a speaker, coach and startup executive, who teaches on Mindful Management for Stanford's Continuing Studies program and writes on longform essays on identity on Medium & publishes a newsletter on business/management/life on Substack. Reach out [email protected].