Yeah, it was a hot August day back in 1920...not so long ago, really. That's the day Harry Burn did it to about 20 million women. And what he did that day, has kept millions more women inspired, energetic and feeling pretty good about themselves. That's because it took just one man, good ol' Harry Burn, just one moment, and bam! the "weaker sex" of the United States of America received a gift they'd never had before...the right to vote.

There's a political satire movie that came out in August, 2008, and as all satires go, it's a comedy with a serious background message. The message? The importance of each and every vote. The movie? Swing Vote . Although it didn't "do great box office" it received fair-to-good reviews. Roger Ebert, probably the USA's most revered movie critic, gave it's patriotic message a thumbs up and applauded Swing Vote's Capra-esque qualtities. For those too young to understand 'Capraesque,' Frank Capra was a movie writer and producer who gave USA audiences several beloved films that focused on citizenry, patriotism, standing up for what's right against "the establishment." The DVD for Swing Vote is available after October 21, 2008.

The August premiere of the movie is significant to all voters in USA, especially women voters. August is also the anniversary month of a real life historical ‘swing vote.' The right of women to vote. The USA's 19^th Amendment passed by only one vote... the vote of Harry Burn (Tennessee). It is noted that Burn's early votes on the topic were negative for women, but ultimately his final decision/vote was heavily influenced by his mother, who was herself a strong advocate for a woman's right to vote.

The crusade for women's voting rights began in the 1870's along with the voting rights afforded black men after our nation's Civil War. But, in a country run by white guys, allowing women to vote would take a many more decades of consideration. What a dangerous idea...women voting! Preposterous!

Inez Milholland, (photo at right) a Vassar educated woman, she suffered from chronic anemia but was committed to the women's voting issue and died in 1916 from the stresses of campaigning for women's rights. Julia Ormond plays Milholland in the film, Iron Jawed Angels.

Satirically, like the current "Swing Vote" movie noted above, and like most good political stories, the proponents of women voting knew how to use humor to their advantage. In 1915, writer Alice Duer Miller wrote the following...

Why We Don't Want Men to Vote

• Because man's place is in the army.
• Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
• Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
• Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
• Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government.

(bullet points from womenshistory.about.com)

Above: Two-time Academy Award winning actress Hillary Swank as suffragette, Alice Paul. Paul tortured and had President Wilson trying to declare her ‘insane' for wanting women to have the right to vote. The story of Alice Paul and other suffragettes in Iron Jawed Angels, which won acclaim at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and is now available for purchase on DVD.

Iron Jawed Angels airs on HBO Signature Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at 9:30AM on HBO...check individual time zones for airing schedules.

But the movement for voting rights had a long way to go from this humorous jibe of 1915. President Woodrow Wilson was so against the idea in 1917 that he tried to persuade a psychiatrist to decree that one pro-vote woman, Alice Paul, was insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized (Paul had been imprisoned for protesting in front of the White House). But the psychiatrist refused Wilson's request. The doctor admonished Wilson and "his cronies" stating "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

A Night of Terror

The night Paul protested outside the White House, she was joined by 32 other women. Wilson was vehemently against the idea of women voting and had, indirectly it is alleged, forty prison guards from the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia attack the women outside the White House for ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.' The guards' warden ordered, with alleged White House encouragement, to teach the women a lesson. They were secretly imprisoned for weeks -- no charges, no trials, (their families knew, but not the press. Once someone did ‘leak' the story to the newspapers, the women were ultimately freed.)

Some of the women's names live on...Lucy Burns, Beatrice Forbes, Anita Pollitzer, Betty Gram, Sue White, Doris Stevens, Eunice Dana Branham, Florence Bayard Hilles, Roberta Hale, Dora Lewis, Alice Cosu, Alice Paul. The women became known to their guards as "iron jawed" because of their fierce determination to NOT be force fed during a hunger strike while imprisoned.

HBO original films produced the movie Iron Jawed Angels which is now available on DVD for purchase. I encourage all families who can to purchase a copy for their own viewing, and a copy to give to their schools.

As actress Hillary Swank said, "I was really excited about the idea of making a movie that transcended time. Not necessarily about a certain era as much as a conviction of heart and what is right and what's just. That's something that we can all relate to. These are not women sitting all uptight and talking with weird accents. They're human beings with feelings and emotions. And I think that's very, very exciting and fresh ... It's one of the great, untold American stories. And it wasn't that long ago."

The movie's director, Katja von Garnier, said,"There is this cliché that women who fight for their rights can't love; they have no sense of humor, they aren't attractive. I think we are trying to break the cliché and portray women who are fun to watch, that have a sense of humor, and are smart and unconventional. Our women, they're wanted because they're smart, apart from the fact that they're very attractive.

"I think a lot of people have no idea what these women went through. In America, everybody knows about Susan B. Anthony. But, really, only a few people know about Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns. What attracted me was these two young rebels coming in and ruffling the feathers of the old ways. It's kind of Butch and Sundance trying to get the vote."

Most of us know how the "Butch and Sundance" movie ended...for these women...death did not, thankfully, occur. But torture did. Here is a video of the force-feeding scene that Alice Paul (Hillary Swank) endured.

In a note from a recent email ...

"So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because-- why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining? Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's movie Iron Jawed Angels. It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient. My friend (unnamed) , who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was angry - with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her ... all over again."

This column is written, with all the photos and videos, to help make it 'real' to men and women alike...that our right to vote didn't come to us like a bolt of "entitled" lightening from the skies above. But, like this country's very existence, our rights come to each of us through the sacrifices, and wills, and committment to justice of individual citizens... the patriots, men and women, who gave their all for the existence of the United States of America.

Now, take a look at the woman in front of you in the grocery line, or the woman next to you at a stop light, or in the opposite seat on the bus or train ... it's very possible that her grandmother worked, endured ridicule, made a sacrifice, dreamed of the impossible, to give you the chance to vote and make your voice heard in our nation's most important decisions. There were 20 million adult aged women in the USA in 1917, I don't know how many there are today. But no matter the number... use your individual ability to make your statement about what you want when election day is here.

For a different look at women's role in the current political scene, take a look here . Another interesting view of women and politics.