Celebrate 100: Women's Right to Vote

What did Arizona’s Josephine Brawley Hughes, Carrie Chapman Catt, Pauline O’Neill and Frances Willard Munds have in common over 100 years ago? They all were part of earning women the right to vote in Arizona years before the 19th Amendment became law nationwide in 1920. The stories of these pioneering Arizona suffragettes will be featured at “Celebrate 100: Women’s Right to Vote!” a special community dinner celebration marking the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The public is invited. Sponsored by the Southeast Valley, Ariz., Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the festivities will begin at 5 p.m. Feb. 17 in the San Tan Ballroom at Cottonwood Country Club, 25630 S. Brentwood Dr. in Sun Lakes. Keynote speaker Dr. Melanie Sturgeon, President of the Arizona Women’s History Alliance, will highlight the personalities instrumental in pursuing the vote, covering details that range from suffragists’ milestones and saloon men’s resistance to the political impacts on the Mexican American, African American, and Native American communities of Arizona. Fundraising at the dinner will support college scholarship awards for high school senior girls in the Chandler Unified School District. Since 2010, the Southeast Valley Branch of AAUW has funded these annual scholarships based on need, leadership and extra-curricular activities."