Suffrage In Western Civilization

For the longest time, women’s role in society was very narrow and set in stone. Women weren’t given the chance to decide life for their own, and there was a very sharp distinction of gender roles. Women were viewed as inferior, weak, and dependant. They were expected to be responsible for the family and maintainance of the house. But as the 19th century began, so did a drastic change in society. Women started voicing their opinions and seeking change. Trying to break away from this ideology called “cult of domesticity” was a lengthy, burdensome, and demanding struggle.

Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

Over the past five hundred years or so in america as the overall majority in Mankind, women comprise of the largest group in the world, but they are a vital asset in every aspect of our society. Woman and women's rights are tied hand in hand with american culture, which entails in these rights that they're dependent of social status, race, and geography in america like civil rights in the south. There were different types of economic changes for the different types of ethiniticities in America in which there were different of turning point that women won over their sufferage through their racial discrimination, these included the native american women, hispanic american, african americans and the chinese american women of the united states.

Another problem with the voting system was the lack of a private vote. Employers could influence the way their employees voted by threatening to punish them if they failed to vote for their preffered candidate. This problem was fixed in 1872, when William Gladstone's government passed the Ballot Act which guaranteed a secret system of voting. Although the immediate results of the reform act were not earth shattering, the country had taken, as Lord Derby said, "a leap in the dark." Strikes, union advances, and labor organization were powerful forces for change in the final years of the century. William Gladstone was elected as Prime Minister of England for the second time in 1880 and the most important legislative action that took place during his second ministry was the Reform Act of 1884. The reform act was rejected the first time it was presented to the House of Lords, but accepted the second time because it was accompanied by a redistribution act, which had the following implications. "(i) seventy-nine towns with populations smaller than 15,000 lost their right to elect an MP; (ii) thirty-six with populations between 15,000 and 50,000 lost one of their MPs and became single member constituencies; (iii) towns with populations between 50,000 and 165,000 were given two seats; (iv) larger towns and the country constituencies were divided into single member constituencies" (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PR1885.htm). The actual Reform Act of 1884

Also, voters and politicians now nominated candidates, rather than the political party leaders in Congress. This and other events led to a more democratic society.

The book, Beyond Suffrage; Women in the New Deal, presents the role of women in the 1930’s in a much different light than many people think of it. The goal of this book is to enlighten the reader as to what role women played in politics during the New Deal. Because of it’s broad view I have taken several specific examples from the book and elaborated on them in order to give you a better understanding.

One basis of political democracy in this period was the challenge to property qualifications for voting. It began in the American Revolution but culminated in the early nineteenth century. After the Revolution, no new state required property ownership to vote, and in older states, constitutional conventions in the 1820s and 1830s abolished property qualifications, partly because the growing number of wage earners who did not own much property demanded the vote. In the South, however, where large slave owners dominated politics and distrusted mass democracy, property requirements were eliminated only gradually and disappeared quite late, by 1860. The personal independence required of the citizen was henceforth located not in owning property but in owning one’s self, a reflection of this period’s individualism.

Women's Failure to Gain the Right to Vote between 1900 and 1914 In the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, women's suffrage was never far from the headlines due to the constant bombardment of publicity stunts pulled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her Suffragettes. Using all within their power to gain attention, the Suffragettes believed in using direct persuasion, and if necessary, violent protest to remain in the public eye, pulling stunts from chaining themselves to the railings of the houses of specific members of Parliament to smashing the shop windows on Oxford Street. At the other end of the spectrum were the Suffragists, who based their campaign entirely on their

The Framers of the Constitution purposely left the power to set suffrage qualifications to each State. Suffrage means the right to vote. Franchise is synonym for the right to vote. The electorate is all of the people entitled to vote in given election. The right to vote was limited to white males that owned property in America in 1789 when Constitution can into effect. Today, the size of the American electorate is greater than 230 million people. Nearly all citizens at least 18 years of age can qualify to vote. The history of American suffrage since 1789 has been marked by two long term trends. The first growing federal control over suffrage and second the elimination of voting restrictions.

During the late 19th century, women were in a society where man was dominant. Women not having natural born rights, such as the right to vote, to speak in public, access to equal education, and so forth, did not stop them to fight for their rights. Women's lives soon changed when Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony played a prominent role to help bring about change.

go to the House of Lords and pay also to get the divorce, which was a

What if you’ve been given a million dollars to spend, what would yo do with it? During the Progressive Era(1900), there were a lot of issues with Conservation, Women’s suffrage, Child Labor, and Food Safety where people were upset with the U.S. and the way they had to live, So on 1913 there is an opportunity to distribute $1,000,000 amongst three sectors. There’s an opportunity to distribute/donate to Conservation since the U.S. would pollute their land and cut trees which cause major environmental/natural issues. To add on there’s a chance to distribute/donate to women’s suffrage since during the 1900’s the U.S. had unequal rights for women, and women weren’t able to vote which causes major issues/Civil Unrest between the women of the U.S.

Between the 1830s and 1840s, organized, interlocking, and complex political machines mainly existed in large urban cities in the United States. The emergence of political machines is linked to 3 causes: near-universal white male suffrage, industrialization-induced urbanization, and the absence of a systematic social welfare system. Prior to the 1830s, voters were well-established merchant and were required to have property ownership; but most states revised their voting requirements after the 1830s, allowing males who had no property ownership to vote. With that, every male American citizen (excluding blacks) could exercise their voting rights, regardless of their social or financial status. So, political machines emerged to draw the support and votes of this newly enfranchised people.

Furthermore, it encouraged the election of Indian members to office by ensuring that covered jurisdictions could would use single-member districts, as opposed to at-large elections, when electing members to office. Therefore, by 1965 all United States citizens were given the right to vote, and the federal government undertook precautions to ensure that states could not disenfranchise people based on their race, religion, or gender.

At the time, political machines grew more powerful by helping people that needed services. They secured votes by providing services such as jobs and basic necessities. They also developed relationships with businesses and real estate owners. Once the political machines gained their power, they maintained it through