Sunday Stamps | V Is for Vote

Stamp (and first day postmark) issued in 2020 the U.S. Postal Service, which commemorates the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

And this is no the first time I have chosen this topic for Sunday Stamps.

When preparing this post, I received this postcard with a related stamp: on top, a stamp issued in 1970 for the 50th anniversary of the 19th Amendment:

The other stamp was issued in 1975, when the UN declared International Women's Day.

Sunday Stamps | U is for UN Women

Planet

The United Nations Postal Administration marks 2025's International Women’s Day, celebrated annually March 8, with six stamps. Each one shows an illustration depicting a certain theme that is displayed in text running up the left side of the stamp: Planet, Power, Sécurité ('Safety'), Prosperité ('Prosperity'), Frieden ('Peace') and Zugang ('Access').

Power

I received two of them on the front and back of this postcard sent by Bryon.

And a third one on another postcard:

Prosperité (='Prosperity')

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Sticking to women on stamps for this A-Z round of Sunday Stamps. See more U-stamps!

Women Belong in All Places

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.

Card sent by Phillip (the USA), with a quotation by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the USA.

The stamps honouring her were issued on 2nd October, 2023.

I got this postcard on 8 March 2024.

Empowered Woman

"The first thing about empowerment is to understand that you
have the right to be involved. The second one is that you have
something important to contribute. And the third piece is that
you have to take the risk to contribute it."

Mae Jemison is an American engineer, physician and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space in 1992.

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission, launched in September 2016 and returned in September 2023. The stamp shows a capsule containing a sample of the asteroid Bennu parachuting down to Earth.  

Sent by Phillip (the USA).

We Are Still Fighting Today

"Nothing was given to minorities or women.
It took some fighting to get that equal opportunity,
and we are still fighting today"
Annie Easley
Computer programmer, mathematician and rocket scientist

Portrait of a Girl, c. 1638-1642
Diego Velázquez

Frida Kahlo, c. 1926
By Guillermo Kahlo

Mail sent by Phillip (the USA), Laura (the UK) and Catherina (France).

Celebrating International Women's Day

Good Housekeeping, Norman Rockwell, 1942

The Jury Holdout, 1959
By Norman Rockwell

This Norman Rockwell work was the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 14 February 1959. 

Rockwell might have gotten the idea for his February 14, 1959, cover from a movie released two years earlier. 

In 12 Angry Men, Henry Fonda played a dissenting juror who eventually persuaded the other 11 men on a jury to vote with him. As in the movie, this deliberation has taken hours, indicated by the crumpled ballots on the floor and the cloud of smoke overhead. 

What made this cover more than just a reprise of the movie is that Rockwell’s holdout is a strong-minded woman, holding fast to her principles, at a time when women jurors were still a rarity in some states, and not permitted in some others.

(Text taken form here.)

Inspiring Women from Austria

Self-Portrait as a Tehuana, 1943
Frida Kahlo

By Elga Fernández Lamas

Postcards sent by Bryon (the USA), Heleen (the Netherlands) and Josep (PC).

Everything Is Pussyble

Altered card I sent last year, to celebrate the International Women's Day.

Women on Envelopes

Envelope drawn by Heleen (the Netherlands), recreating this stamp.

Big collaged envelope sent by Imma (PC).

Back of an envelope sent by Julia (the USA).

Women Envelope

I think the 8 March is the right day to show this wonderful (big!) envelope sent by Fabienne (France), so beautifully drawn and collaged, that shows only women on stamps.

Find A Woman on a Stamp

Three years ago, I complained here* here about how difficult is to see women on stamps. At least, if they do not belong to at least one of the following categories: queens, princesses, moms, symbols, muses, or, in fewer cases, artists.

I thought that maybe it was just my impression. Sure, my so-called collection is made of the stamps I receive on letters and postcards, so it is everything but representative. To prove that I am wrong and things are changing, I had the idea of taking all the stamps issued by Spain last year and simply... count them.

Man**, it was soooo disappointing!

Out of 92 single stamps issued by Correos last year:

• 19 were dedicated to men (including one stamp with two famous men, and one stamp dedicated to the artistic work of several men). Among those men you can find kings, writers, explorers, thinkers, artists, foreign men, etc.
• In three more stamps (total: 22) recognizable men were depicted.

Now for women. Any guess?

• 2 stamps (no mistake here) were dedicated to women: the actress Amparo Rivelles and the singer Rocío Jurado. 
• In 2 more stamps (no mistake here either), two women appears: the queen Isabella I of Castile (see the stamp above), on a stamp dedicated to the medal, not the woman; and the Virgin Mary***, on one of the Christmas stamps. Not exactly, errr... contemporary models. Because we cannot count the astronaut Laika as a female... or can we?

The fact is that they dedicated more stamps to religious (7) and military (3) matters, for instance, than to women. Actually, even dinosaurs appear on more stamps than women.

Probably you are thinking that mine is a strange country... But no: I assure you that in Spain, as everywhere, more or less half of the population are women.

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* Updated post
** Notice the irony, please.
*** Let's be egalitarian, though: in 2017, only Saint Joseph will appear.

Women on Stamps

**UPDATED**

This is was a post for Sunday Stamps. The theme is was Women on Postcards, because of March being Women's History Month. This celebration is quite unknown in Morocco and Spain; but we celebrate more or less the International Women's Day on March 8.

My collection of received stamps is very little, so no representative at all. But anyway: when I started to search among my received stamps the ones featuring women... I discovered is you are more likely to appear in a stamp if you are a bird or a flower than if you are a women. OMG. But don't desperate, women of the world. We have still some possibilities. Postal services will be happy to dedicate a stamp to us if we become...

1) Queens & Princesses. This is the easiest way. There aren't postal services who can't resist issue stamps with queens; and they look for your better picture! 

Netherlands / UK / UK

Denmark

A little inconvenient is that sometimes you need a prince (who will also appear on your stamp, of course). This stamp dates from 2004, and it was issued on the occasion of the marriage of Letizia with Felipe.

Spain

2) Moms. 

The UK

For instance, in Spain we have a Mum on a stamp almost every Christmas. 

Spain

3) 1 & 2.

Canada
In fact, this stamp is dedicated to the baby...

4) Symbols. As you have noticed, the postal services like to emphasize the symbolic role of women. So congratulations if you are a symbol, because you might appear in one or several stamps (this is more likely to happen if your country has no queen).

France

Portugal

Italy

5) Muses. Marianne, shown in the last stamp, belongs also to this section. If you have inspired a masterpiece, it is probably that you will appear on beautiful stamps. Women are very useful to show the work of... men.

The Netherlands / Austria / Denmark

The first one is a picture by the famous Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (Woman in blue reading a letter). In the second one you can appreciate Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez. And I am sure you recognise The Little Mermaid created by Edvard Eriksen who happens to be a man, as well as Vermeer and Velázquez. Sometimes, like the Danish one, you will be also a symbol. So category 6) is 4 & 5. 

7) Cartoons. Maybe because, as symbols, cartoons are harmless. don't take me wrong: I do like these stamps, as most of stamps on this post. But, for once, I would like to see a real superwoman on a stamp. 

The USA

8) Artists. Maybe I am being unfair: not just muses but also some artists appear on stamps. It is difficult if you are a scientist (except for Marie Curie and a few more exceptions). But if you are an author, an actress or even a singer, they would give you a chance. Here you can find a lot of examples:

The Netherlands
Belle van Zuylen and Hella Haasse

The USA
Edna St. Vincent Millay and Harriet Beecher Stowe

The USA / Spain
Katharine Hepburn and Rachel Weisz
(but the second stamp was issued because of the film, not the actress)

Portugal
Hermínia Silva

9) International Women's Day. Sometimes postal services remember that women exist on March 8. 

Italy

France

10) Anonymous Working Women. International Women's Day used to be known as International Working Women's Day. Anonymous... because if you have a name, as you have just seen, it is far more difficult that you appear on a stamp.

USA / Malaysia

Brazil / The UK

Hungary

I wish you a happy Women's Day and I wish us the same number of women on stamps as men on stamps. Thanks for reading this long post.

March 8

Sent by Tanya (Belarus).
Postcard to commemorate March 8, International Women's Day.

And stamps related to this topic from Italy and France: