Constitution and Citizenship Day 2020: The Unfinished Work of Suffrage

San Francisco State proudly presents its annual Constitution and Citizenship Day conference. This year, we mark the centennial of the 19th amendment with a virtual project titled: “The Unfinished Work of Suffrage.” Pre-recorded sessions include two keynote presentations by Rabia Belt (Stanford) and Ellen DuBois (UCLA) and seven roundtables featuring nearly thirty scholars from eleven different universities. Topics include race, disability, religion, labor, transnational activism, the Equal Rights Amendment, and contemporary conversations about gender in the pandemic and the current presidential race.

Constitution Day Welcome

Keynotes

Rabia Belt (Stanford)

Professor Belt addresses the intersection of disability and race in the campaign for women’s suffrage. This 45-minute keynote lecture is followed by a 45-minute conversation among the roundtable participants (second video will autoplay).

Roundtable participants: Marc Stein (SFSU - History), Susan Burch (Middlebury)

Ellen DuBois (UCLA)

Professor DuBois shares “surprising facts about suffrage” in her 45-minute keynote followed by a 45-minute conversation with the roundtable participants about the 19th Amendment centennial (all one video).

Roundtable participants: Sue Englander (SFSU - History), Sherry Katz (SFSU - History), Judy Wu (UC-Irvine)

Interviews

Katherine Marino (UCLA)

Professor Marino answers questions from Dr. Aguirre about the transnational suffrage movement, specifically the pioneering leadership of Latin American feminists in the interwar period. Topics include the inclusion of women’s rights within early articulations of human rights as well as the calls by these women to include anti-colonial and anti-racist frameworks in feminist campaigns. Also discussed is the relevance of feminism to the Chicano movement of the 1960s and immigrant communities today.

Participants: Michael Aguirre (postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Inequality in America Initiative and University Nevada-Reno)

Mona Siegel (Sacramento State)

Professor Siegel discusses her book: Peace on Our Terms: The Global Battle for Women’s Rights. Their discussion addresses the activism of women in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America immediately following WWI. Their vision was one based not only on the sovereignty of independent states but also the fundamental humanity and equality of all people.

Participants: Sarah Curtis (SFSU - History)

Melissa R Klapper (Rowan University)

Professor Klapper discusses her work about Jewish American political activism, particularly suffrage, birth control, and peace work in the years before WWII. Topics discussed include unions, immigration, and religion in the early 20th century.

Participants: Rachel Gross (SFSU - Jewish Studies)

Tracey Deutsch (University of Minnesota)

Professor Deutsch highlights the demands by female consumers to recognize and regulate the labor of consumerism in this interview. Topics addressed include the gendering of poverty, unions, early consumer rights organizations, mutual aid societies, and the future of grocery stores.

Participants: Kelsey Sims (SFSU graduate)

Gill Frank (University of Virginia) + Kacey Calahane (UC-Irvine)

Gill Frank and Kacey Calahane discuss the women’s liberation movement and the gay liberation movement, the opposition by conservative evangelicals and their connection to pro-segregation forces as well as Hulu’s Mrs. America series.

Roundtable

Kamala Harris, VP pick

Participants discuss Kamala Harris’s historic VP candidacy, the racist, misogynist, and xenophobic backlash she has faced, and the context of the long Black freedom movement, including Black Lives Matter.

Participants: Mario Burrus (SFSU graduate), Rebecca Eissler (SFSU - Political Science), Amanda Roberti (SFSU - Political Science), Anantha Sudhakar (SFSU - Asian American Studies)

Gender, Race + Labor During the Pandemic

Panelists discuss how the pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on women, specifically women of color and undocumented women. Issues discussed include the so-called “she-cession,” women as unprotected frontline workers, gig workers, and domestic workers, and the long-term toll on the careers of women caretaking for family members.

Participants: Valerie Francisco (SFSU - Sociology), Karen Hossfeld (SFSU - Sociology), Julietta Hua (SFSU - Women & Gender Studies)