Ohio has played a significant role in our country’s history on many levels — from the Underground Railroad to conquering the skies (and space). It’s no surprise the Buckeye State played a significant role in the women’s suffrage movement, too.

Beginning as early as the 1850s, women’s rights conventions were hosted here. In Akron, Sojourner Truth gave her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech during the second Ohio Women’s Convention. Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren served as the treasurer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and as the first female vice-chair of the Republican National Committee. The Ohio Women’s Rights Association was founded in 1853.

But it wasn’t until June 16, 1919, that Ohio ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Because state lawmakers were not then certain the amendment would be ratified and implemented in time, they also passed a bill ensuring Ohio women’s right to vote in the upcoming presidential election of November 1920.

That’s just a part of what Ohioans did for women’s suffrage more than 100 years ago. So, back in 2019, with the creation of the Women’s Suffrage Monument Commission in Ohio, state officials were prepared to do something to recognize that. After all, nationwide fewer than 8% of public statues depict real women. It was time for that to change.

But in 2020, state lawmakers decided to put in place a requirement to wait five years before erecting any new monuments on Statehouse grounds. We are, then, now well past time to start work toward a women’s suffrage monument in Ohio.

An event Thursday in Columbus featuring Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin got the ball rolling on a fundraising campaign for the monument, expected to be completed by 2026. Organized by the Capitol Square Foundation and the Women’s Suffrage Monument Commission, the goal is $2 million.

What a wonderful time for such an opportunity to be presented to Ohioans (and anyone else). It is an effort well worth supporting, and one of which the Buckeye State can be proud.