Pong Juathes

This is the story of a Thai woman suffragist known as Kanitha Wichiencharoen. She was a lawyer and woman’s rights advocate. She was born on November 4, 1922, and died on May 13, 2002. She is most famous for her work in helping women’s rights in Thailand. She established the first shelter for women in Thailand and wrote legislations to protect women’s rights. She also established Mahapajapati Thera College, which was the first College to train Buddhist nuns in Southeast Asia. 

She was one of two daughters and her father was a well-known lawyer who served as a senator during his country’s transition to a constitutional monarchy. Her parents encouraged both her and her sister in their education. She began hers at St Francis Xavier Convent School and later attended St Joseph Convent School, before enrolling in law school at Thammsat University. 

After working for two years as a counselor with women who had suffered abuse and discrimination, she moved to Washington, DC, to study international law at the American University and attended Columbia University in New York City. She then moved to Switzerland and studied international relations at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in 1949. Returning to Thailand, she worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and continued to be involved with the women’s rights movement.

Abigail Scott Duniway was an American advocate for women’s rights, a newspaper writer and an editor. She was born on October 22, 1834, died on October 11, 1915, and was buried at the River View Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. She was from the state of Illinois near the town of Groveland. Her parents were John Tucker Scott and Anne Roelofson Scott. She was one of the survivors of nine siblings. She grew up around the family farm and attended the local school there in her hometown. 

In March 1852, her father decided to move to Oregon following the Oregon Trail. It was such a long journey that her mother strongly opposed the idea because it might pose a danger to the family. But in the end, the decision was made to move to Oregon. Two people died along the way including her mother and her youngest sibling named Wille. 

Her main purpose was to help women in the United States gain the right to vote. She was famous for being one of the biggest leaders in the state of Oregon. Although she worked mainly in Oregon, she did help out Miss Susan B. Anthony a lot in Washington Territory. 

Duniway helped Anthony by editing the newspaper The New Northwest, which began in the year 1871. Duniway and Anthony then embarked on a 2400-mile tour through Washington and Oregon states, and later helped establish the Washington State Equal Suffrage Association. In total, she worked in three regions : Washington, Oregon and Idaho. She died in Portland in 1915 at the age of 81. 

Duniway became involved in the movement in the late 19th century. Dating back to around 1871, she began actively working in support of women’s rights in Oregon as a leader of an organization that evolved into the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association. Known as an exceptional lecturer, she then traveled to Washington as a partner to Susan B. Anthony. Together, they would tour the Northwest and keep promoting the women’s suffrage movement in that state.

I learned many things from working on this suffrage project. One suffragist came from Washington State, the other from my own country of origin. At first, I didn’t know that women suffered a lot throughout the history of the world but realized that this dates back to the very old times of society. I just learned that in the United States, women didn’t get the right to vote until very recently and that they were treated as inferior to men. To study and know about the people who fought for women’s rights was very fascinating. They started off as individuals who wanted to make a change and they finally did it, which has actually motivated me a lot. 

Abigail Scott Duniway, one of the women I chose for this project, had a rough road on her way to success. She lost her mother and her sibling. And she had to endure many more hardships throughout her life but she managed to overcome all of it. As for the suffragist of my country, she’s also a very important figure in Thailand. She studied in the United States to be a lawyer but she changed paths, supporting her fellow women in need instead. She provided them with shelter, food and comfort. In conclusion, women were mistreated in the past and they suffered. But it has changed and I’m happy that it did because it makes everyone happier and makes the world a better place to live. The hard work and sacrifices of these women paid off immensely.