The Development of a Campaign for Women's Suffrage in 1870 Essay

During the 1900s, many women were beginning to stand up for themselves and no longer wanted to be inferior to men. Prior to 1918, women were disrespected and under - valued in society. There was a change in attitudes towards women as the image of the "New Women" began to arise. They were becoming involved in various different jobs, having the ability to be better educated and get involved in politics. However, this view that the "New Women" was the only factor that contributed to women getting the vote is untrue. Women began their own campaigns in order to get the vote. This included

Women’s rights were not always a part of society as it may seem in today’s world. Suffrage can date all the way back to 1776. Women had to fight for their rights and privileges, hard and for many years. In the late 1800’s women were seen as much less than a male and had no voice. Women were arrested, prosecuted and put down for wanting more freedom and power for their gender. As you see in many suffrage ads, women were desperate and wanted so badly the same equality as men. A few women in particular stood up for what they believed was right and fought hard. Although it took far too long and over 100 years, in 1920 women were finally given the opportunity to share the same voting rights as men. History had been made.

Before the Suffragettes, women were not able to vote and the move for women to have the right to vote really started in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. Fawcett strongly believed that women should have the right to vote but also believed in peaceful protests, patience and logical arguments. She felt that if any violence occurred then men would believe that women could not be trusted and therefore should not have the right to vote. She also made the argument that if women were made responsible for sitting on school boards and paying taxes that they should be part of the process to make the laws and should have the same rights as men. A main argument of hers was that even though some women who were wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who were able to vote but women still could not, regardless of their wealth and social class. However, the progress of Fawcett was very slow and although she converted some of the members of the Labour Representation Committee (The Labour Party) but the majority of men felt that women would not understand how parliament functioned and therefore should not take part in the electoral

The battle for suffrage was a long and slow process. Many women tried to initiate the fight for suffrage, like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. “These were the New Suffragists: women who were better educated, more career-oriented, younger, less apt to be married and more cosmopolitan than their previous generation.” (pg 17) Eventually, in 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified; allowing women to vote, but it was not any one person or event that achieved this great feat. It was the confluence of certain necessary factors, the picketing and parades led by Alice Paul, militaristic suffrage parties and the influence of the media that caused the suffrage amendment to be passed and ratified in 1920. But most importantly, they successfully moved both

They did not have the right to vote nor were they able take action in anything. They also did not have a say in anything surrounding them. Government decisions were only taken by men. As years went by, women felt the need that they had to have a say in stuff. Today nearly fifty percent of the population in the United states are Women according to census. Considering that the average woman takes part of governmental elections, it is no surprise that women have such a big influence in the government side. An investigation into the terrific events surrounding the famous Women 's suffrage movement, one of the most important events for women will clearly show the

Ironically, many women were deeply opposed to women gaining the right to vote. They were comfortable with their positions as socialites, completely dependent on men. "Women were considered sub-sets of their husbands, and after marriage they did not have the right to own property, maintain their

In the summer of eighteen forty-eight two women Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony who founded the National Women’s Suffrage Association in eighteen sixty-nine met with a small group of people determined to give women a larger sphere of action than the laws and customs of that day allowed (Taylor 13). At this time in our country women were denied the right to vote, made to give their husbands the land and property which they may have control of, plus nearly no say in legal or professional matters. To give you an idea of what the women were up against on July thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight a group lead by T.H. Mundine wrote a declaration stating that all persons meeting age, residences, and citizenship requirements be deemed qualified electors “without distinction of sex” (Taylor 14). This motion was referred to the state of Texas and in January eighteen sixty-nine, it was rejected on a vote of fifty-two – thirteen. The motion that was shot down was not anything to major by today’s standards. It was a simple bill to allow women to have a more reasonable portion of the burdens of government (Taylor 14). As this example illustrates women had a huge wall to climb of they wanted to be even with men in societies eyes.

They couldn’t have a public voice and once a man married a woman he got all her rights (legal concept of coverture). If a woman wasn’t married most of the time she had to give her earnings and control to legal affairs to male relatives. Woman started becoming abolitionists and even though they were part of the start of the anti-slavery movement, in 1830 the rise of an organized movement to abolish slavery in the United States. Women found they now couldn’t do anything to help. That led abolitionist women to begin to defend their right to speak in public and discuss thoroughly during petition drives. All throughout the 1850’s more and more people joined the women 's rights movement, and it was in the abolition movement that women first learned to organize, to hold public meetings, and to conduct petition campaigns. As time went on state legislatures began to act favorably to woman’s influence and petition efforts for reforms in property law. By 1860 fourteen states passed a form of women’s property laws, for example New York legislatures passed the Married Women’s Property Act. The law gave married New York women all economic rights they demanded, but still refused the women the right to vote. May 1866, the eleventh women’s rights convention was held. At the convention, they decided to create the American Equal Rights

The Women’s Suffrage Movement of the 1920’s worked to grant women the right to vote nationally, thereby allowing women more political equality. Due to many industrial and social changes during the early 19th century, many women were involved in social advocacy efforts, which eventually led them to advocate for their own right to vote and take part in government agencies. Women have been an integral part of society, working to help those in need, which then fueled a desire to advocate for their own social and political equality. While many women worked tirelessly for the vote, many obstacles, factions, and ultimately time would pass in order for women to see the vote on the national level. The 19th Amendment, providing women the right to vote, enable women further their pursuit for full inclusion in the working of American society.

A number of women in the United States and Europe became frustrated with apparent prejudices against women in the 1830s. The women came together by focusing on a specific goals to help their quality of living. It made it hard for women to establish family and marriage laws because women couldn’t divorce and be included in property laws, which men had complete control over women. Rights/laws for women did not make any progress until the late 1800s and early 1900s. Divorce and property rights were at the surface of the women movement. The first right to be granted to women was nursing. Some middle and upper class women were being hears, as they began to gain access to higher education and some occupations mainly filled by men. Amalie Sieveking

During the rise of women’s rights movement in the time period of 1940 to 1975 they have been discriminated by inequalities of gender roles. Although women were proving to society that they work just as hard as men, they still were not treated as equal. In World War 1 and 2 a majority of men were gone due to the war so women took over but were still rated as less than a man. Along with this the the nineteenth amendment came to place giving women the right to vote. This was their time to accomplish more things that they wanted which is to be able to decide and do things and not be left out based on their sex.

make 120s, or 60 pence, a day. It was reasons such as this that women

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

Throughout the nineteenth century, the role of women began to change. Slowly the role of women went from strict domestic work, to having their own say in their own reform groups. After the American Revolution, women began to have a say in what went on during their everyday lives or the lives of their children and husbands. A woman having her own say was something new for men to have to deal with, but they were willing to listen. Women do not get the right to vote nationally until the 1920s, but the start of their suffrage and political movement begins in the nineteenth century with the changing times of the Industrial Revolution and life after the American Revolution.

California women and men worked tirelessly to strengthen the women’s suffrage campaign from 1893, when the state legislature passed an amendment permitting women to vote in state elections, through the final passage of the amendment in 1911. The strength of the movements themselves, passionate support overcoming harsh opposition, pushed by the people and the organizations championing for the women’s vote were the main contributing factors which accumulated in the eventual passage of Amendment 8. Since California women have begun to vote, there have been many advancements and setbacks in the other women’s rights movements, including the Nineteenth Amendment and the Equal Rights Amendment.