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Frazier Museum exhibit honors suffragists as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris shatters glass ceiling

The “What is a Vote Worth: Suffrage then and now” exhibit, proudly shows the evolution of women in the US.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – “All men are created equal.”

It’s a direct quote from the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

According to the National Women’s History Museum, it was Abigail Adams who wrote to her husband President John Adams, asking him to “remember the ladies.”

It’s been a long road for suffragettes, but in 2020, we can finally say “Madam” vice president-elect.

“While I am the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” Kamala Harris, the new vice president-elect said after she and President-elect Joe Biden won the election.

Social media all blew up last night with a logo that said, “Make sure to wear shoes, ladies. There’s glass everywhere.”

Probably for the first time – a meme is correct. Not because of political standing, it was historic for all women in America regardless of politics.

“We’ve been hungry for women to break those last two – I guess the last two ceilings and we've just shattered one of them,” Tina Ward Pugh said.

Pugh is the director of Louisville Metro Office for Women. She has been advocating and marching in Washington for women’s rights since the 1980s.

Pugh partnered with the Frazier Museum to help honor and display the “What is a Vote Worth: Suffrage then and now” exhibit, proudly showing the evolution of women in the US.

“There were suffragettes back in the late 1800s and the 1900s for women for the right to vote but never themselves got to vote because they died before they had that opportunity,” she said. “It was truly historic. Ironically it came 100 years after the 19th Amendment was ratified in Congress so it's quite befitting that that she would take on this type of role.”

University of Louisville political science professor Dewey Clayton said although Vice President-elect Harris is not the first woman on the ticket, she is the first to make it this far. She follows others like Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president in 2016, Sarah Palin the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2008, Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic nominee in 1984 and Shirley Chisholm, who as an African American woman ran for the Democratic presidential seat in 1972.

“There’s an old saying that says you have to see it to be it and now there's a lot of young women who are looking at this and saying I can now do this as well,” Clayton said.

Pugh added, “It doesn’t matter what party you are. It doesn’t matter what your politics are. We now have a woman in the White House who was elected into the White House and she’s going to be at the decision-making table.”

Contact reporter Paulina Bucka at pbucka@whas11.com.  Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.  

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