- The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.
- "Wisconsin Women Vote" is a special edition of "Here & Now."
- I'm Frederica Freyberg.
We're standing in Washington, D.C.
to tell a story of firsts--
from Wisconsin to Washington and back--
a story about strong women today and in history.
- Funding for Here & Now
is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
- Frederica Freyberg: The year was 1919.
After a protracted struggle against male power brokers,
suffragists in our state pushed forward
and Wisconsin became the first state in the nation
to ratify the 19th Amendment,
guaranteeing all women the right to vote.
* [1920s dance band music]
This year's 100th anniversary
of the federal passage and ratification
of that democratic right
brings us to the seat of democracy
and a story of firsts.
[door opens] - Hello, hello!
How are you?
- Wisconsin's first female U.S. Representative
and first woman elected U.S. senator in this state
is also the first openly gay woman
elected to the United States Congress.
Tammy Baldwin says,
"We stand on the shoulders of our foremothers."
We met with her
in her Washington office.
- I think about,
first of all, the idea of
role models and inspiration.
I don't know that I would've thought of
say, running for office,
if I hadn't seen women do it before
and be successful
and change the world.
So, I've had so many moments in my life where
I've read about or met a woman
who has perhaps shattered a glass ceiling,
perhaps...
perhaps it was something that was less visible,
but something that I felt was inspiring.
All of those opportunities, for me,
have spoken to me in a way to say,
"You can do it.
"You can reach for that goal.
You can reach for the stars."
And I definitely feel every day
that I stand on the shoulders of others who went before.
- You are the first female from Wisconsin
elected to the House of Representatives
and the U.S. Senate,
but also the first openly LGBT person elected to either office.
What is it like for you to be a role model
to other women and girls?
- Well, first of all, I like to remind women
that we all have the capacity to be role models.
I am lucky because
every so often, someone will write me a note
or a draw to my attention that I inspired them
in their reaching for their goals,
but we all have that capacity,
and we should recognize that and own that.
I can't tell you how touching it is
to get a communication from somebody who perhaps,
as a member of the LGBTQ community,
question whether they could
still pursue their dreams or their goals
when they came out,
when they came out to themselves,
or when they came out to others,
if it was for some reason a negative experience.
And so, there's lots of questions,
and then, when they can find an example of a leader
in whatever field they're interested in,
or just a leader 'period,'
they say, "I can do it!"
- So, I wanted to ask you,
going back to the 19th Amendment,
that you sponsored the bill creating
the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission
to recognize and celebrate the 100th anniversary.
Why did you do that?
- I think this is a really big deal.
And I think that, you know,
when we don't have a generation still living
that was a part of that movement,
it is so important to reintroduce,
especially young people,
to how recent it was, how far we've come,
but also recognizing that there's still--
there still remains work to do.
- What would you think the foremothers a hundred years ago
would think about the state of women today?
- I think that there would be, first of all,
a satisfaction
that a lot of what they predicted would happen
when women got the vote
has begun to happen
in terms of legal equality,
in terms of
the beginnings of women running for office
in larger numbers.
But I think they'd also step back and say,
"It's a hundred years.
"Ah, shouldn't there be parity
"in, you know,
"in business,
"in government?
"Shouldn't there be absolute legal equality
"in the areas where we haven't achieved that?
And shouldn't there be a woman president by now?"
- What advice do you give young women or women or girls
who would like to step up in the same way
that you have and others have?
- So, I would say, roll up your sleeves and just do it
and to recognize that
there's many opportunities to do that
that will prepare you really well
for the day that you might actually put your name in
to run for office
or be involved in somebody else's campaign.
So, it's one of those things
where, uniquely, you can be a volunteer
and get to experience all aspects
of trying to address a community challenge
or working on a campaign
or jumping in,
and depending on how old you are,
interning in an office
and seeing what goes on
and there's so many different aspects.
We're lucky we live in a democracy,
where it really is about people talking to people
and so, I felt in my own case
when I had just graduated from college,
I, you know, would drop by a county board meeting
or a city council meeting and say, "What are they working on?"
And then, I worked on some campaigns,
a school board campaign.
I demystified it.
Now, I'd studied government in college,
but there's nothing like rolling up your sleeves
and just figuring out what it's all about, firsthand.
- All right, Senator Tammy Baldwin, thank you so much.
- My pleasure.
*
- Emily Flood: So, my family has always kind of
gone to vote together,
once everyone gets home from work,
and normally, it's just my parents going out,
but this year I get to accompany them
and I've gone with them to the polls before
just to see the whole process
because it's excited me for a long time,
but to be able to go there with them
and actually be able to do it is very, very exciting to me.
- Gwen Moore: Oh, that's awesome.
When are we rolling this out?
- Another first in Wisconsin
brings us to U.S. Representative
Gwen Moore of Milwaukee.
In 2004, she became Wisconsin's first African American woman
elected to Congress.
Moore says she's proud Wisconsin was the first state
to ratify a woman's right to vote.
- Gwen Moore: I am so proud
that Wisconsin was the first state
to ratify the woman's right to vote.
Wisconsin has been so progressive in so many areas
and, of course, they were the first
to ratify women's right to vote.
I mean, it's a place where,
in our storied history,
we've been the first state
to lean into the whole question
of emancipation of slaves,
of former slaves having the right to vote,
organizing the first unions,
looking at, you know,
the first kindergarten in our state
and so, Wisconsin,
this is just yet another first in our state.
- For you, personally, what kind of drive took you
from being a single mother in college on welfare
to a member of the House Ways and Means Committee?
- You know, I'd have to attribute a lot of it
to my own mother,
who was a driven woman.
She was very intelligent.
She raised us as a single mom
but really showed
not only a strength of character
but just that intellectual prowess.
She was a prolific writer,
and she taught me skills:
writing and public speaking
and researching,
and she was very brilliant,
and she wanted me to run for office.
And then, 18 months after she died,
my predecessor in the State Assembly, Dismas Becker
called me up and said, "Gwen, I want you to run,"
and I had dreamed about it.
My mom had specifically said,
"Run for state representative,"
and so, it's sort of my destiny, Frederica.
- Other than your mother, what women have inspired you?
- Vel Phillips,
the late great Vel Phillips.
She was someone who talked me
into running for the State Senate
when I hadn't represented a single ward in the District.
She was someone who was a honorary chair
of my congressional campaign committee.
And above and beyond that, there were women I never met
like Eleanor Roosevelt.
When I think of her, I feel very, very inspired.
- Is it difficult to reconcile centennial celebrations
with how Black and white women suffragists clashed
as they pursued the vote
or how Southern states
didn't see equity among all voters until 1965?
Difficult to reconcile?
- It's reality.
It's part of the history of the United States.
You know, there's a lot of things
that are hard to reconcile
I mean, it's harder to reconcile that even Black men
had the right to vote before women had the right to vote.
And when, you know,
all of us have been in some sort of pecking order
that is totally anathema to our constitutional ideals.
- As to women seeking and winning office,
in your mind, are we there yet?
Are we to a place of equity?
- No, we're not in a place of equity,
but I do think we're in a place
where we have really energized and activated Black women.
I think
both parties, actually, in our country,
both major parties have recognized
that Black women are the most reliable voters that there are.
- What about women seeking office?
You know what they always say,
"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu"
and so, often women's rights are on the menu,
and I think it's because we have, what,
17%/18% representation in Congress,
in legislative bodies,
and we need to up that number
so that there's never a question.
- When you were first elected to office,
did you feel as though you belonged?
- Oh, my God, Frederica,
when I first got there, my first instinct
was to sort of pretend I was a man, you know,
was to, you know,
"I am not going to be stereotyped as a woman.
"I'm gonna get in there and show them
I'm just as good as the old boys."
And that lasted about a day
before I started seeing all the initiatives come down
that were disquieting policies for women and children.
And so that, that resolve slipped away right away.
I had to be a woman
and I had to be a Black woman.
- Do you feel as though you belong today?
- I absolutely think that this place
would not be the same without me.
- What advice would you give to girls or women
who might want to step up
in the same kind of way that you have?
- We need you, young women.
We need you to be at the table.
- Gwen Moore, thanks very much.
- Thank you, Frederica.
- Christy Clark-Pujara: I grew up knowing that voting
was something that my ancestors had to fight for,
that it was something that was critically important.
My dad was functionally illiterate,
but the smartest person I knew.
He always had three jobs,
and he did what he could do to help the polls.
So, he worked the polls anyway.
And so, as a child at my elementary school,
my parents were at the polls where they voted at.
And so, I always understood that,
as an African and as a woman,
voting was critical.
- The Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission,
created by Senator Baldwin's legislation in 2017,
saw as its leader another Wisconsin woman
appointed as its executive director
in the lead up to the anniversary of the ratification
of the 19th Amendment.
- Rebecca Kleefisch: Oh, that's wonderful.
Well, congratulations.
- Rebecca Kleefisch was lieutenant governor,
alongside Governor Scott Walker,
from 2011 to 2019
when Governor Tony Evers became governor.
We sat down with her at the State Capitol.
Now, you served as the executive director
of the National Women's Suffragettes Centennial Commission
in 2019
and the mission of that Commission is to ensure
a suitable observance of the 19th amendment centennial.
Why is that 'suitable observance' important?
- For women, in particular, it means
robust and extraordinary, once in a lifetime
because a centennial really is once in a lifetime.
It's not every day that we get to celebrate
100 years of ballot box equality for women in America.
- Wisconsin's first Lieutenant Governor, Margaret Farrow,
has said there will be a woman governor someday.
In your mind, has that day come?
- So, that day has not come yet,
but I sure hope to see it in my lifetime.
- Why would that be important?
- Because I am raising two little girls
and I want them to grow up
to be strong, confident women
who see other women as role models,
who know that they can achieve anything
because they were blessed enough
to be born in America with opportunities.
It would be wonderful if one day my girls grew up
and there just weren't a ton of glass ceilings left at all.
They just kinda wonder
how the glass all got on the floor.
- And when you won the race for Lieutenant Governor in 2010,
the party establishment
was reported to a favored a different candidate, a man,
and through that campaign, you were battling cancer.
Is this the essence of "Woman Strong?"
- [laughs] I suppose, I don't know.
So many people who I admire do so many extraordinary things,
and it never makes it into the paper
and it never gets reported on a TV show like this.
And so, yeah, I had to go up
against people who didn't like me.
You know, your traditional mean girls,
and yeah, I had cancer in my belly at the time,
and yeah, I was raising two little girls,
and then, after that, I had the recall,
but there are a lot of people, unsung heroes, everyday heroes,
who never get credit for the hard stuff
that they have to march through
who are inspirations to me
and, you know,
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,"
and I think that's a credit to women
everywhere across Wisconsin,
that they're going through tough stuff
and it's making them stronger and better examples
for tomorrow's women every single day.
- How does the celebration of women's suffrage,
fought and won so long ago,
eclipse partisan political division?
- I don't know.
It feels like there's practically nothing
that can eclipse that these days.
And when you ask, "How does it eclipse?"
it's quite extraordinary, I suppose,
that we can even talk about
something that has risen above politics,
particularly in a presidential election year,
but isn't it wonderful that we get to celebrate together
that it has risen above partisan politics,
and that we can all together, not just women,
but men and women,
can celebrate together ballot box equality.
- Why, in your mind, is it important for everyone,
men and women,
to exercise their right to vote?
- The right to vote is an extraordinary opportunity
to take your voice and your belief set,
and your policy ideas,
and impress them on someone you are hopeful
will take your voice and your heart, your mind
to the capital of Madison or Washington, D.C.,
and basically, embody all you believe
this state and this country can be,
but it's also, I think, a responsibility of voters
to entrust their beliefs and their hearts and mind's eye
to someone.
You gotta be represented.
- Lieutenant Governor, thanks very much.
- Thank you.
*
- Angela Lang: I think the word that comes to me
when I'm in the polling booth is 'responsibility.'
I feel like it's a big responsibility.
I'm making my voice heard in one particular way,
and then also acknowledging,
that I have work to do the day after the election day,
making sure that I'm engaging with people
on a year-round basis.
So, I feel a sense of pride and also a big responsibility
and that, when I cast my ballot,
I also know that there's a lot of people
that either:
one, don't now the power of their vote
or people that haven't been able to vote.
So, I also feel sometimes a huge responsibility that
I'm also voting on their behalf, as well.
- [excited happy cheers]
- Freyberg: In the 100 years
since women got the legal right to vote,
the number of female voters
has eclipsed the number of men who vote.
But the number of women
who hold congressional office in Washington
has not kept the same pace,
hovering around 25%.
The percentage of women in the Wisconsin Legislature
is just a couple of points higher.
Our next guest is among
just 10% of GOP women in the State Legislature
and Wisconsin's first Hispanic Republican representative.
We met with Representative Jessie Rodriguez
in her capital office.
- Jessie Rodriguez I was an immigrant child.
My parents were poor.
We lived in a very predominantly Hispanic community,
mostly for people from the Caribbean.
I think the experience of being an immigrant to this country
certainly made me more independent
and the reason that occurred was because
at a young age, I was able to learn the English language
before my parents could.
And so, right when I was eight years or nine years old,
I was able to translate for them
and I found myself thinking, "Oh, my gosh.
I can do something that my parents can't do."
And that gave me a sense of feeling that I could do anything
as long as I put the time, the effort,
and as long as I had a people around me
who are willing to help me along the way
and that definitely has been the driving factor for me.
That's been what's pushed me on, even in times
where I've feared, you know, stepping forward or stepping up
to, you know, a new challenge.
It's that belief that deep down, you know,
if you just try, try really hard, you may succeed.
- I know also that when your family left,
El Salvador was in the midst of a civil war.
When your family got here and then became citizens,
how dearly did you hold
the kinds of constitutional protections
that we enjoy here in the U.S.?
- There's a piece that was published
by the Legislative Reference Bureau last year
on the 19th Amendment.
And there was a quote,
something to the effect that these suffragists were meeting
with legislators, talking to them,
and one of them said, "They meet with us,
"they're courteous, they're nice to us,
"but our concerns are ignored
because they know that we can't vote."
And so, if you can't vote, your voice is ignored
and I think, you know,
for many people who are not exercising that,
I think they're leaving behind
something that's very powerful,
can be very powerful.
- What do you think about the women a hundred years ago
who forged their way toward getting the vote for women
and where it allowed you to be today?
- Definitely, there's more to be done,
but let's not forget what we've accomplished thus far.
I mean, those suffragists, you know, for decades,
were working together, you know,
building a coalition and trying to get their voice heard,
talking to legislators,
to their fathers because they could vote,
trying to persuade them that was important to them,
to the females, and so I think we need to remember that
because I may not be sitting here
and other female legislators
would not be sitting in our floors,
the Assembly floor, for the Senate floor,
if those women hadn't made
those courageous and compelling arguments
that women should have that right.
- Do you feel as though this issue,
right for women to vote, kind of transcends partisan politics?
- Oh, yeah, it's certainly does.
I've noticed it in my interactions with other women
from the other side of the aisle.
We have a lot that we can share
and that we have in common,
being female and being females who ran for office, candidates,
and also legislators.
And so, we can, you know,
come together and kinda share those stories
and they're very similar stories.
They have the same struggles that we had,
you know, being candidates and sometimes being questioned
whether or not you should run for office
because maybe you're a mom
or do you have-- do you know enough about politics.
- So, what advice would you give to girls or women
who would like to run for office?
- I would tell them get to know your community,
know what you stand for
because once you come to this building and you become elected,
whether it's at the local level, you know,
at the common council or even school board,
or even here in the Legislature,
you are gonna be tested in many ways
and you need to know deep down
how you feel about certain beliefs
like core beliefs
because that should be your guiding principle.
Many times people will disagree with you
and you can just tell them,
you know what, my experience and my personal belief,
whether it be religious or just a conviction, you know,
I can't support something.
And they will respect you for saying that.
So sometimes, there's a lot of pressure at times
to support certain types of legislation
that deep down,
you just don't feel that is the right solution,
it's the right answer
and you have to, you know, have those principles
in order to be able to fall back on that
and be able to speak up and say why I can't,
you wouldn't be able to support that.
- All right, well, we leave it there.
Representative Rodriguez, thanks very much.
- Thank you very much for having me.
- The question none of us today can answer
is how the state of women's rights and equality
and political participation
will look 100 years from now
when America celebrates
the 200th anniversary of the women's right to vote.
One thing is certain.
Even then, the work and the courage of the suffragists,
including those important voices from Wisconsin,
will forever be enshrined
in the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Thanks for watching.
- Funding for "Here & Now"
is provided
by the Focus Fund for Journalism,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.