Every week the Town Crier blog will look back at Seattle’s near forgotten Town Crier magazine to see what was happening then and talk about what’s happening now. One of the largest sections of the original Town Crier was “What People Are Doing,” highlighting things like, “The social event of Easter Week will be the Franco-Amerique card party, tea, and dansant,” and, “Mr. Paul M. Gustin left yesterday for Vancouver Island on a sketching and painting trip.” In this series we’re revisiting the old column and tying it to our community’s current happenings, asking: “what are people doing?”
Today’s entry…
Oof. Cringe-worthy. There’s a small tidbit in the April 19, 1919 edition of the Town Crier entitled “Power.” It was only nine years after the state of Washington allowed women to vote. It wasn’t until 1920 that the 19th Amendment was ratified allowing all American women to vote. It wasn’t until 1926 that Seattle had it’s first woman mayor, Bertha Knight Landis. It was quite some time before Seattle had another woman mayor.
The little “joke” in the 1919 Crier reads in full:
“I never saw a woman so full of energy,” it reads. “Nor I. Why, merely correcting her mistakes keeps two men busy.”
The many varied themes of feminism have taken the main stage of Town Hall time and again. Elaine Weiss was here recently to discuss the women’s suffrage movement. Blair Imani celebrated under-recognized leaders of modern movements with HERstory. Jill Soloway discussed desire, power, and toppling the patriarchy. Evelyn McDonnell championed women who rock. Amber Tamblyn discussed coming of age in a time of rage and revolution and Siri Hustvedt joined us with her book Memories of the Future.
For a full list of coming civics events go here.
