Voices, Votes,& Visionaries: ASHLEY HALL CELEBRATES THE 19TH AMENDMENT By Jennifer Turner, Editor & Director of Content
A school that prepared women to be leaders before they could even make their voices heard through the vote: this was the challenge Mary Vardrine McBee faced when she founded Ashley Hall in 1909, more than a decade before the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Her carefully crafted mission statement— “To produce educated women who are independent, ethically responsible, and prepared to meet the challenges of society with confidence”—was drawn from personal experience. As a young woman who had grown up under society’s opposition to the women’s suffragist movement and who had experienced unjust limitations, Miss McBee knew firsthand the struggles women faced. She was determined to have a hand in preparing the next generation: the girls who would become the leaders in a new era. In 2020, as Ashley Hall celebrated the 100th anniversary of women earning the right to vote, it also examined the 19th Amendment’s significance to the School’s legacy. Today, the vital need to fulfill Miss McBee’s mission could not be stronger, and Ashley Hall continues in its founder’s footsteps by nurturing the next generation of female leaders in Charleston and beyond.
