Friday Forum: Reflecting on 100 Years Since Women Got the Vote

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which finally placed women's right to vote in the United States Constitution. Oregon was one of several western states that saw early victories in this area. How has the women's vote impacted Oregon over the last 100 years? What barriers remain? What kind of affect might the vote of women play in the 2020 election?

In a celebration and reflection of this historic anniversary, we have a wonderful panel of scholars, historians and change-makers. 


Featuring Guest Speakers:

Eliza Canty-Jones

Eliza E. Canty-Jones is Editor of the Oregon Historical Quarterly and Director of Community Engagement at the Oregon Historical Society. She produces scholarship, public programs, and organizational partnerships that advance complex and multilingual perspectives on Oregon’s past. She holds an M.A. in Pacific Northwest and public history from Portland State University and a B.A. in English from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where she was founding co-editor of SlackWater: Oral Folk History of Southern Maryland. Eliza was co-founder and served as President of the Oregon Women’s History Consortium, which created the statewide centennial project, Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote, 1912–2012
 

Shadiin Garcia

Shadiin's work centers on organizational change; culturally relevant and sustaining curriculum; diversity, equity, and belonging; educational and systemic equity; culturally appropriate research; and community driven systemic change. She served as the Deputy Director of Policy and Research at Oregon’s Chief Education Office where she helped develop a research agenda driven by culturally appropriate practices and Indigenous methodologies for improving key educational outcomes. She served as the Director of TeachOregon at the Chalkboard Project leading initiatives to diversify the educator workforce and improve teacher educator systems. With funding from Meyer Memorial Trust, she facilitates Oregon's statewide American Indian/Alaska Native Educational Professional Learning Community. Dr. Garcia serves on three boards: College Possible of Oregon, Women’s Foundation of
Oregon, and Carry it Forward.

Dr. Shirley Jackson

Dr. Jackson is a professor in the Department of Black Studies at Portland State University. She received her Master’s and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Jackson's research specializations include race/ethnicity, gender, and social movements. She is the 2016 recipient of the Society for the Study of Social Problems' Doris Wilkinson Faculty Leadership Award and has received the State of Connecticut’s African American Affairs Commission’s Woman of the Year award. Dr. Jackson has served on the State of Oregon’s Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee that developed ethnic studies standards for Oregon’s K-12 schools. She is the editor of The Handbook of Race, Class, and Gender (Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014) and co-editor of Caged Women: Incarceration, Representation, and Media (2018, Routledge/Taylor & Francis). She is currently working on several projects including a study on the intersection of gender, race, and space; a socio-historical exploration of U.S. and global themes of race/ethnicity and gender in political cartoons during WWII and the Civil Rights Movement; and a comparative analysis of the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign and the 1964 Freedom Summer Project in Mississippi. As a scholar-activist, Dr. Jackson gives presentations and interviews in the community, on radio, TV, and in the print media. She has also served as an expert witness for state and federal defense attorneys and prosecutors.

Evans, who was born and raised in Ashland, Ore., spent the last five years as the Lead Development Officer for the Forum for Youth Investment, a nonprofit think tank in Washington DC. During her tenure, Evans directed a multi-million dollar annual fund development effort and partnered with national and local foundations all over the country. Prior to her work at the Forum, Evans helped launch the Women’s Leadership Institute in Washington DC as the Interim Director of Partnerships and Advancement. While there, she secured the largest six-figure board member gift in the organization’s history and helped staff special events for a number of notable women leaders, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, NPR’s Linda Wertheimer, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. Evans also served as president of the Maxwell Women’s Caucus while completing her Masters in Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, and earned her bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College.