Democratic women again used white clothing to make a coordinated fashion statement at the 2019 State of the Union address.
Borrowing from the color used by the early 20th century movement to recognize women’s right to vote, the House Democratic Women’s Working Group invited lawmakers to wear white as a sign of solidarity once more.
“Wearing suffragette white is a respectful message of solidarity with women across the country, and a declaration that we will not go back on our hard-earned right,” Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel said in a statement to CNN.
It’s not the first time the group has done this. In 2017, the House Democratic Women’s Working Group asked women members to wear white to a presidential address to Congress, as a way to show support for women’s issues. In 2018, the group asked both men and women members of Congress to wear black to the State of the Union address to show solidarity with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
The women of the #116th were asked to wear white tonight in tribute to the #suffragetes Tonight, I honor women like #AlicePaul who led the movement & women like #IdaB who were excluded from it. Kente cloth & the color white. Holding space for both #womanists & #feminists, always,” Ayanna Pressley wrote before the 2019 State of the Union.
Other prominent women have worn the symbolic color in recent years, including Hillary Clinton, who wore a white pantsuit to the 2016 Democratic national convention where she became the first major party female nominee for president. More recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore white when she was sworn into Congress last month, noting on Twitter that she “wore all-white today to honor the women who paved the path before me, and for all the women yet to come.”
