The History Of Women's Suffrage

Women in the nineteenth century lived in a time characterized by gender inequality. At the beginning of the century, women could not vote, could not be sued, were extremely limited over personal property after marriage, and were expected to remain obedient to their husbands and fathers.( women’s suffrage movement 1) In most situations, the men would have to go to work and bring home the money, and the women would have no choice but to stay home, clean the

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.

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.

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.

The place of women changed drastically during the nineteenth century. Many factors such as the market revolution and the second great awakening impacted the way they were in the family, at work, and society. The role of women changed in a way that they were treated differently not just by society but in the house as well. They were beginning to be noticed and they fought to be independent from men, which took a long time to achieve, but they did it. Women believed they were just as able as men to work and be able to vote which is also one of the big differences during this time.

Women in the mid-1800s had nearly any rights they could not vote or hold office. If women were to get married their husband got all of the property he owned all her wages if she worked the husband could hit his wife long as it did not injure her. Women held many rallies and other events to try and get equal right. The Women's Rights Movement allowed women a chance to go to college and other schooling opportunities. Finally women got the same jobs as men they got paid the same they owned all of their property and wages.

During this time, society acted against women. Women weren’t allowed to hold a political office, nor were they allowed to vote. In addition, they were virtually submissive to their husbands because they couldn’t do anything without their husbands’ permission. Also, women didn’t have as much freedom when it came to choosing a profession (most ended up being teachers or writers). “The legal status of women was essentially that of a white child or black slave” (Hippocampus). Many women began to notice what little rights they had. Margaret Fuller, a transcendentalist and the editor of The Dial, wrote, in Woman in the Nineteenth Century, about how women were beginning to question what they truly needed in life, and why they didn’t have it. The first American feminist movement soon came underway.

The timeline of women’s suffrage is a one that spans from 1848 to 1920. The women’s rights movement in the United States started in the year 1848 with the first women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. During this convention the ‘Declaration of sentiments’ was signed by 68 women who agreed that women deserved their own political identities. This document set forward the agenda for the women’s rights movement. In the year 1869, Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Women’s suffrage Association which demanded that the 15th amendment be changed to include women right to vote. In the year 1890, The National Women Suffrage Association and the American Women Suffrage Association merged to form National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Colorado was the first state to grant women the right to vote in the year 1893, followed by Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Kansas, Arizona, Alaska, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, New York, Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma. The National Association of Colored Women was formed in the year 1896 to promote the civil rights of colored women. The National Women’s Trade Union League was established in the year 1903 in order to improve the working condition for women and also to bring their wages in par with that of men.

In the late 1800’s women were tired of being put on the back burner. Women were not able to vote, work certain jobs and some were not able to get a basic education.

Many men did not agree that men and woman could be equal and that a woman’s place should be at home, cooking, cleaning and baring children. Most of the men thought very little of women and believed that women were not as smart as them and that even they could present women better than women themselves. As there were those who did not support the Women’s Suffrage group who protested for their equal rights, there were also men who did support them and were actually involved in the America Equal Rights Association (AERA), the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), and later the National American Woman Association (NAWSA) (Isenberg) Believe it or not, but men were actually involved in the 20th century as well. Some of them began forming Men’s League for Woman Suffrage in 1910 and had about 20,000 members. The male state legislators agreed to summit woman suffrage to state voters and millions of male voters approved of

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.

Prior to the famous movement for women's suffrage in the society, women had little or no say in the society. If they happen to be working, it was gruelling things like housework that would sometimes extend over the course of the whole day, or, later on during the famous industrialization era that took place, in various factories they get paid very little and work long hours. On the other hand women had the go ahead to vote but in only some states, it was practically a big joke to think of a woman as a politician in a state. Politics were very dominated by men, and also according to the strong feminists, that was a very big problem in and also of it. The very start of the gruelling battle for suffrage is largely attributed to Elizabeth Cady

Social change in Britain has been achieved primarily through the hard work of organized political groups. These groups created events to recruit and educate supporters of social equality to join them in fighting for progress. The Women’s Suffrage Movement between 1866 and 1928 in Britain is no exception to this trend. The reason for the great efficacy of these political groups, including the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and the Women’s Social and Political Union, was the women who pioneered the groups and fought alongside them to create the change that they believed in. The goal of these political groups was finally realized in 1928 with the passing of the Representation of the People Act. However, the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain would not have been successful without the influential actions of several significant women. In addition to the overall necessity of female leadership for British Women’s Suffrage, the central efforts of Millicent Fawcett, Lydia Becker, and Emmeline Pankhurst particularly played a large role in the movement’s success.

In the 1920s women became more independent and started to slowly gain rights (“Women of the Century”). Women’s suffrage was finally granted in 1920, which was a huge step towards equality for men and women. For the first time, women were able to vote on issues that mattered to them, which was extremely important in order to gain more rights. In 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced, although it would not be passed in Congress until almost fifty years later. Despite these steps of progress, the Great Depression caused some setbacks. Due to the large numbers of unemployment, women were discouraged from “taking jobs” away from men (“Women of the Century). Some states even went so far as to pass laws prohibiting the hiring of women. World War II began quickly after this which greatly increased the number of women in the work force.