Exploring Their Rights And Encountering Change : Women Of The 1920s

Generations of women fought courageously for equality for decades. The ratification of the Nineteenth amendment was vindication for so many women across the country. After having spent so many years oppressed and unable to make way for themselves, women everywhere were growing tired of being unable to own property, keep their wages and the independence that an academic education gave them. The decades that ensued brought with them various female activists, men that supported them and a division of its own within the movement. The women’s suffrage movement lasted 71 years and cam with great discourse to the lives of many women who fought for the cause.

“Beginning in the 1800s, women organized petitioned and pocketed to won three right to vote but it took them decades to accomplish their purpose”(archive.com). The organized movement started at Seneca Falls, NY with a meeting called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The most influential leaders during the movements were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Suffragists and Suffragettes were trying to prove to the public that women could be doing other things apart from looking after the children and taking care of the homes. The Seneca Falls convention was organized by a group of women who had been active in the antislavery movement. The Seneca Falls Declaration called for an increase in women’s rights in these areas, as well as in education for women and the jobs available to

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

In the years of 1848 to 1920 all that was important in the U.S. was giving women the right to vote. Right to voting was very important to women because it was thought to a beginning of a world of equality between men and women. The idea of equality helped create Women's suffrage (also known as woman's right to vote). In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists mostly women, but also some men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women's rights to voting. Furthermore during the 1800’s and 1900’s “Women and Women’s Organizations” worked for broad based economic and political equality for women. Women didn’t gain the right to vote until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1919 which also helped empower some women to create the “National League of Women Voters” in 1920 to educate women about their rights and additionally it sponsored Women’s Equality Day which is held on the 26th of August to celebrate the anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Right to

Women’s suffrage, or the crusade to achieve the equal right for women to vote and run for political office, was a difficult fight that took activists in the United States almost 100 years to win. On August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified, declaring all women be empowered with the same rights and responsibilities of citizenship as men, and on Election Day, 1920 millions of women exercised their right to vote for the very first time.

Women’s Suffrage is a subject that could easily be considered a black mark on the history of the United States. The entire history of the right for women to vote takes many twists and turns but eventually turned out alright. This paper will take a look at some of these twists and turns along with some of the major figures involved in the suffrage movement.

The nineteenth amendment was passed by congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920. The nineteenth amendment succeeded in giving women in the United States of America the right to vote.

During the Reconstruction era, supporters of women’s rights employed a legislative and organizational means in their battle for equal rights and suffrage. The successes and failures experienced by the 14th and 15th amendments helped shape the landscape of the American suffrage movement that culminated in the 19th amendment. The assigned readings addresses the legislative and organizational avenues that were actively utilized by advocates of women’s rights and suffrage, albeit in slightly different ways. The two readings align well with each other, each bringing an unique perspective of a significant historical phrase within the women’s rights movement in the United States.

(Davidson). The struggle for women’s right to vote was one key factor in the women’s fight for equality. The woman suffrage movement began in 1848 throughout the years the woman suffrage supporters worked to educate the public about woman suffrage under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many other women’s rights pioneers. Even though the conference for women’s rights was held at Seneca Falls in 1848, women reformers pressed for the right to vote on the grounds for equal opportunity and simple justice. Progressive reformers embraced women’s suffrage by expressing what they felt were the practical outcomes such as reducing political corruption, protecting the home, and increasing the votes of native-born whites.

In the year of 1848, about 240 men and women combines attended the Seneca Falls Convention. They voted for decisions that demanded equality for women at work, at school, and at church. There was only one decision at the convention that met with any resistance, and this was demanding the women a right to vote. But, after hesitation and bold reformers, the decision nearly passed. After 1848, women worked for change in many areas. They fought for additional legal rights in some states and won the battle. For instance, in New York, the city passed a laws allowing married women to keep their own property and wages once they married. Although this law passed, many men and women opposed the women’s rights movements and the struggle for equal rights

The women’s suffrage movement fought for and eventually secured suffrage, or the right to vote and run for political office, for women. During the 19th century, women were steadily becoming more educated and more politically aware; as a result, they also became a great deal more concerned about their freedoms, rights, and treatment as individual persons and as a collective entirety. As a social movement, the suffrage movement mobilized through the strategic organization of activists working within both the abolitionist movement and the broader women’s rights movement. It is important to note that achieving the right to vote was not initially the women’s movement’s primary concern; gender equality was of foremost significance and has continued to be an overriding issue within the ongoing global women’s movement. Women’s suffrage began rising to prominence as a social issue “In 1848, [with] the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s convention” and “[b]y the time of the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850, [..] suffrage was becoming an increasingly important aspect of the movement's activities” (Wikipedia Contributors, Women’s suffrage in the United States, 2017). Although the suffrage movement faced many obstacles and struggled to establish public awareness and notoriety, it continued to gain momentum and traction after these critical events.

“The first gathering devoted to women’s rights in the United States was held July 19–20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York.”

Through out American history there has been an endless struggle for women. Traditionally, women were to stay at home, which was respectable at the time: clean the house, make the meals, and watch the children. However, as women began to venture out of the house, they discovered that they were being neglected of what men had. This included the right to vote, a variety of jobs, the social stature, and the moral freedom that many men experienced. Although there were some women who had already developed themselves outside of the house, such as some women writers and the even more rare ones who had gone to college, the majority of women were heavily reliant on their husbands and had easily felt the discrimination. From the 1800’s to the 1920’s, some of the first women’s right activist groups made themselves known, and had even accomplished in some of their endeavours. However, it was not until the 1920’s that the U.S truly began to see the changes in society due to women’s rights activists. The 1920’s was a defining time for women’s rights, one in which women became more independent ultimately changing their role in society.

Up until August 18, 1920, women were not granted the right to vote, like their male counterparts. The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution allows women’s suffrage, which is that an American cannot be denied the right to vote based on sex. Women’s rights activists started raising public awareness and concern for the Nineteenth Amendment, which ultimately gained the trust and secured the votes of the women of America. Women had to fight for these rights from the very beginning, and it wasn’t until ninety-six years ago that the amendment was finally passed.

From the time of the American Revolution till the 1920s women have fought to share the same political, economic, and social equality as men. On August 26, 1926, women won the right to vote threw the 19th amendment, but to actually gain this right woman fought threw violence, political turmoil, and social appeal. Women leaders got inspired with the abolitionist and other social reform movements in the years of 1830s through 1840s, but because of the Civil War, the fight for women's right became harder to fulfill. Nonetheless, as the