Margaret Downey to Tell How Women Outwitted the Church In Their Fight for the Vote

Secular Leader Urges Atheist Groups to Learn to Fight Like Women

Margaret Downey, the beautiful doyenne of the freethought movement, wants you to know that we Atheists can win our fight for freedom from religion by following the example of the brave women who fought for their right to vote in America?s late 19th and early 20th centuries.

?We can learn a lot from American women?s struggle for the vote,? says Downey, who will press her point on Sunday, March 14, at the NYC Atheists? Brunch while wearing an authentic Suffragist?s costume.

?The Suffragist movement took tenacity and strength and courage,? Downey notes. ?It seemed the whole world was against them in the beginning, especially the churches?all denominations, all religions, even the bible was quoted against them?but they persisted, marched, went to jail, chained themselves to fences, were force-fed. They never gave up. And they won. So can we.?

To emphasize the sometimes tragic, sometimes joyous story of the women?s suffrage movement, Downey will use authentic photos from the Smithsonian museum to show the 80-year struggle of Suffragists to win the right to vote. She will tell how the movement was created, how divisiveness over religion came into play, how religion prevented women from obtaining their rights and how the movement overcame the infighting that Downey claims ?occurs in every movement, including the civil rights, women?s and gay movements.?

Women Still Cling to Religion

She will also talk about why women still need to be freed from religion. In most Atheist groups, she points out, men outnumber women. Though no one knows why this is so, it is believed that women cling to religion more than men do. Ironically, Downey points out, American Atheists Inc. was started by a woman, Madalyn Murray O?Hair.

Downey will examine why this skewed male/female ratio persists in the freethinking movement and, using as her inspiration the book Women Without Superstition: No Gods?No Masters, by Annie Laurie Gaylor, Downey will explore how and why religion is still able to keep the majority of American women in thrall.

Margaret Downey is perhaps best remembered as the president of the nationwide secularists? Atheist Alliance International Inc., (AAI) the nationwide Atheist umbrella organization that organized its famously successful 2007 convention in Washington DC. That convention was so popular that it became known as ?The Woodstock of Atheism.? It was there too that the name for the four most prominent of the Atheist writers was coined as ?The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.?

Celebrate Women?s History Month

Downey has stepped down as president of AAI and is now president of what was formerly The Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia but whose name was recently changed to just The Freethought Society. She is also organizing a convention-oriented umbrella group called Unity, which she hopes will hold its first big event in 2013. Meanwhile, she is traveling throughout the U.S. teaching Atheist groups how to deal with the media.

Come, hear our lovely Atheist leader give her charming and stimulating talk about a topic that has been prophesied to someday shake up the Atheist movement.

Come and show your support for women in the secular ranks!

Come, give a hand and a bravo to Women?s History Month, and to one of our present-day heroines who is emulating the late, great Susan B. Anthony by traveling around the country giving talks.

Three cheers for the charming, energetic, fascinating Margaret Downey who, with her movie-star looks and dynamic delivery brings new meaning to the word ?Suffragist!?

EVENT SUMMARY

WHAT: ?What Atheists Can Learn from the Women?s Suffrage
Movement,? a talk by Margaret Downey

WHEN: Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 12 noon

WHERE: The Press Box Pub & Restaurant
932 Second Ave.
Second Floor

COST: Brunch is $20, which includes everything: a selection of Buffet
entrees and salad, one soft drink, coffee, tax and tip. Going back
for seconds on the wonderful Eggs Benedict is considered par
for the course.