Women are dominating national headlines currently as demands for equality and respect have given way to the #metoo and #timesup movements. But as the ubiquitous protest sign reads: We can't believe we're still protesting this shit.
Women's fight for equality is nothing new: A hundred years ago, brave women gathered to march and demand their right to vote and, unsurprisingly, Bay Area ladies were on the front lines. Take a look at the women's suffrage movement in San Francisco during the 1800s and early 1900s.
Suffragists were creative in making sure they stood out and had their voices heard. The seven-seater Packard known as the Blue Liner could often be seen along the roads of Northern California, transporting speakers and singers to pro-suffrage events. In 1911, as nearly 10,000 tourists gathered in Santa Rosa for the annual state convention of the fraternal organization Native Sons of the Golden West, women activists, along with their Blue Liner, gathered in a storefront just across the carnival's ferris wheel and staged a scene to draw the in crowds. One organizer, Louise H. Wall (pictured above), recalled: "Into the pretty town of Santa Rosa we made one of these forced entries. It was during the week of the Native Sons' celebration and both the Golden Sons and the Golden Daughters assured us, with leaden emphasis, that suffrage was entirely out of place. But we felt that where so many thousands of idle people were gathered was exactly the place for us."
