“W” is for Women

Although women constitute a majority of South Carolina’s population, they have had to overcome many of the same barriers to equality as have women across the nation. By the 21st century many barriers were gone but women still lagged on many indicators, including education, employment, income, and health care. This may be attributed in part to the state’s conservative culture, in which change comes slowly and women have been seen first and foremost as wives and mothers. Nonwhite women have also had to overcome racial discrimination. Like most American women, South Carolina’s lacked the right to vote until passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United State Constitution was passed into law- without the support of South Carolina’s General Assembly. Today women account for more than 56 percent of the state’s voters.