March is National Women’s History month, when Americans remember and honor the women who have made tremendous contributions to our nation, including the enduring quest for equality between women and men under the law. That history inspires the efforts of present and future leaders to ensure equal footing in our great nation for men and women alike. When recognizing the history of women’s struggle for equality, there is no richer place on which to focus than my home state of Wyoming.
In the 1800s, life on the Western frontier was fraught with danger and hardship. Everyone, male and female, had to lend a helping hand to keep family farms and ranches operating and communities together. Many women who helped settle and build the West were on the front lines of the equal rights movement. Their grit, determination and strength showed through in both their daily work and their ability to lead.
On Sept. 6, 1870, Louisa Swain cast her vote in the city of Laramie, making the U.S. territory of Wyoming the first government in the world to continuously recognize women as equals under voting laws. This recognition came in spite of the federal government’s threat to hold Wyoming’s statehood hostage to force the territory to give up its equality laws. Wyoming’s response? “We’re not coming in [to the union] without the women.” The federal government gave in and accepted Wyoming as the 44th state on July 10, 1890, leaving intact the women’s voting laws then considered radical by many in Congress.
In addition to granting women the right to vote, Wyoming had the first woman Justice of the Peace when Esther Hobart Morris was appointed on Feb. 17, 1870, in South Pass City. That same year saw Martha Symons Boies of Laramie, Wyoming, appointed the first woman bailiff in the world. Wyoming later boasted the first woman governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, who was elected to finish her deceased husband’s term from 1925-27. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Former Gov. Ross as the first woman to head the U.S. Mint, where she remained for two decades.
The pioneering spirit of these women helped lay the foundation for equality, but we do these women a disservice to stop there. To properly honor the accomplishments of our forbearers, we must build upon them. During my time in Congress, I have supported numerous measures aimed at furthering women’s equality, such as cosponsoring a bill in the House of Representatives that would address the underrepresentation of women in clinical drug research.
This bipartisan bill, called the Research for All Act, would ensure that clinical trials include both women and men and that the results include information on the different ways a drug affects women and men. In one case, a certain diabetes drug was found to lower the risk of heart disease in women while increasing it in men. Though the differences in side effects depending on the patient’s sex can be significant, research on these differences is often either never conducted or never reported. This bill would make sure that medical research reflects the needs of the entire population it is intended to help.
While this legislation represents an important step to ensuring the equal and fair treatment of women in medical research, there is much more to be done. It’s not enough to make history today. We must also encourage the history-makers of tomorrow. Women must continue to mentor and help each other to become tomorrow’s leaders. Whether in politics, medicine, law, the home and family or any other field of work or study, the contributions of women will continue making us a stronger nation.
Then, with a firm grasp on the past, the daily work of the present and the vision for an even brighter future, Wyoming’s simple and clear state motto will ring true for the entire nation: “Equal Rights.”
U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis represents the entire state of Wyoming. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
