The Women 's Suffrage Movement Essay

The first meeting to discuss women's rights took place in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York. It was there that Elizabeth Cady Stanton proposed equal suffrage for women. At that meeting, they drafted the Declaration of Sentiments which illustrated the oppression American women were facing. Although countless, courageous women would sustain this fight, it would be 1920, 72 years later, before Congress ratified the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote (Timeline of Women's Suffrage). The defining moment in this long battle occurred in 1917 when Carrie C. Catt gave her magnificent speech on women’s suffrage to Congress. Catt’s use of ethos, pathos, and logos, helped persuade Congress to pass the 19th amendment.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. The primary goal of the organization is to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the Constitution.

Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton knew that they were being discriminated against because of their gender, and they refused to take it. "In 1869, however, a rift developed among feminists over the proposed 15th Amendment, which gave the vote to black men. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others refused to endorse the amendment because it did not give women the ballot." (Grolier). Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association to work for suffrage on the federal level and to press for more extensive institutional changes, such as the granting of property rights to married women. (Grolier)Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), one of the main leaders in the women's rights movement, she worked for over 50 years to help women achieve the right to vote. She gave speeches to make her views known to everyone. On January 18, 1892, she spoke before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. The speech was highly favorable, both within and outside the woman suffrage movement. (Solitude of Self)Susan B. Anthony registered and voted in the 1872 election in Rochester, NY. As planned, she was arrested (Susan B. Anthony Petition)

Women’s suffrage in the United States began in the nineteenth century and continued into the twentieth century until the nineteenth amendment was passed in 1920 to give women the right to vote. Women’s rights activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony protested the fifteenth amendment that was passed in 1869 because the amendment unfairly did not include women. While Anthony and Stanton protested this proposed amendment other activists such as Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe fought against the women’s suffrage movement by saying that if African-Americans got their right to vote women would gain theirs soon after. The conflict that arose from the two sides butting heads gave way to the formation of two organizations, the National Women’s Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. The National Women’s Suffrage Association fought for women’s right to vote at a federal level, they also fought for married women to have the same rights as their husbands in regards to property. The American Woman Suffrage Association took a slightly different approach by attempting to get women the right to vote through much simpler means of the state legislature. The women involved in these movements finally got their day in Washington on January 12, 1915 as a women’s suffrage bill was brought before the House of Representatives but

The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s. American women were beginning to question what historians called the “Cult of True Womanhood.” Historians believed that the only “true” woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family ("The Fight for Women’s Suffrage." par 2). An important motivator to opposing this way of thinking was The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. A group of activist, manly women, gathered in New York to discuss the problems of

Before the start of 1848, all women were subordinate to men. They stayed in the figurative background tending to their husband's every need. Due to this, they were always treated with less respect, and women had to tend the home and were not allowed to work. Women have tolerated gender discrimination for decades until the Summer of 1848 during the Seneca Falls Convention. The convention sparked the seventy-two year dispute over women’s rights. Although protests did not start full-force until the 1900s, the dispute begun to flare to life. As noted in research, “ The Susan B. Anthony Amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878. There it lay, regarded with fear and loathing, for almost 40 years.” This Susan B. Anthony Amendment, hence the Nineteenth Amendment, was already made and put before congress, but the discrimination denied it from being discussed but only for a brief time. However, events

In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott made a decision that would make history and held the Seneca Falls Convention, America's first women's rights convention and first step towards gender equality. During the Seneca Falls Conventions, the attendees, many of which were leaders in the reform movement, crafted a list of grievances dubbed the "Declaration of Grievances" modeled after the Declaration of Independence but where the Declaration of Independence states all men are created equal, the Declaration of Grievances starts the second paragraph announcing, "we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal." (Danzer et al.). Among the grievances listed in the document were women's rights to an education; unequal property rights; rights regarding their children and the right to vote which was met with conflicting opinions among the group. Despite agreeing on all other topics, "some members felt that it was too presumptuous to ask for such a concession since it might undermine the rationale for voting, which was grounded in the representation of property rights" ("Seneca Falls Convention, 1848.") but ultimately, the grievance was narrowly voted into the

Stanton and Anthony created the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in the wake of the Civil War.

Of all the issues that were in the middle of reformation mid 1800’s, antislavery, education, intemperance, prison reform, and world peace, women’s rights was the most radical idea proposed. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was a rally held by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with the common goal to eventually achieve equal rights among all citizens. Frederick Douglass, who became an acclaimed activist in the African American Equal Rights movement, accompanied the movement. Moreover, The Declaration of Sentiments was a document that reflected the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, reiterating the sentiment from the Bible that “all men [and women] are created equal.” Concurrent to the publication of this document, for the first time, women insisted that they were men’s equals in every way. The Declaration of Sentiments was pivotal in Women’s history, although it was not given credit until the late 20th century. However, immediately after the Declaration of Sentiments was published, women and activist groups were inspired to take action towards rights for all underprivileged American citizens. The convention took place in a small town in upstate New York, which was home to four of the five people who organized the gathering. (DuBois, 1999, p. 45) This was the first time female equality was discussed in a public place. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was one of the most important events in women’s rights history.

No true words were spoke than those by Ms. Susan B. Anthony, “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.” Those words are still true today. Even though Ms. Susan B. Anthony, Ms. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other activists worked hard to get equal rights for women to allow them the right to have a say in how our government is run there are still places in the world where women and even some men aren’t allowed to vote. Some of those places may actually be surprising, others maybe not so much. Even still some of the trials these women went through to end women’s suffrage and the lack of political equality is worth taking a look at even ninety-one

During the 1850’s the women’s rights movement in the United States continued to build, but lost momentum when the Civil War began. After the war ended, the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were drafted and ratified; protection to all citizens - with the term “citizens” defined as male, and suffrage for black men, respectively. The drafting of the 15th Amendment caused animosity with women’s rights activists and led them to believe that this was their chance to push lawmakers for truly universal suffrage. They “allied

Before the Civil War even started, women were already fighting for their rights. Many started out as abolitionists, but eventually joined the movement for women’s suffrage. The movement continued to grow throughout the 19th century, while at times uniting with the anti-slavery movements in order to fight for the ultimate right of voting. When the 14th and 15th amendment were passed after the civil war, the women were blindsided when only black men were granted the right to vote and they were not even mentioned. Immediately after these amendments, a great divide between the women’s suffrage movement and abolitionists. Although it was necessary for the black men to secure their rights, because if they do not they might not be able to attain them

In 1848, a Woman’s Rights Convection was held at Seneca Falls, to discuss the need for an equal social status between men and women. The declaration written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton stated, “Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority, it is pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak, and teach, as she has an opportunity, in all religious assemblies”. The document stated many lines that demanded the need for equal rights amongst women. The convention was the first real step of progress in equality for women. The women were able to voice their opinions for all women and show their courage and power against men.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,”, but the Declaration did not extend “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to slaves or women. The two most controversial reform movements which strived for the racial justice and the equality of the genders in the United States are abolitionism and the woman’s rights. Sally G. McMillen was narrated this historical story of Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 was a dramatic movement of a group of women who strived for the Women's rights. The four remarkable women are Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony, who active in abolition and women’s right movements, intended to call attention to unfair treatments of women.

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.