What Is The Role Of The Suffragettes In The Early 20th Century Suffragettes

In the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s, women were not given the rights they have today and were being mistreated, but because of a few brave women who gave up their lives to fight for what they knew was right, this all changed. Many of these women were educated and brave, but were still denied their rights. Women have suffered through this long battle to get what they knew they deserved and took time out of their lives to fight for what they believed in, which was to have a voice. Women wanted to get the same respect that men were given. The women’s suffrage movement was not only in the United States, but it was all over the world. It took the women’s suffrage movement many years to work and come through, but women were finally able to vote and have the same rights as men. Through their work in the suffrage movement, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony and many more changed the role of women in society.

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

Many women believed that the right to vote would improve their position among everybody. In Europe, the most vocal and active women’s movement was the British Women’s Movement, which was divided mainly into two groups. The first group was organized by Millicent Fawcell, who believed that women must demonstrate to Parliament that they should have the right to vote. Along with Fawcell, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia founded in 1903 the Women’s Social and Political Union. The main actions of this group was to call to attention the media and use of unusual publicity stunts to get their attention. These women used forceful tactics to get their message heard by pelting government officials with eggs, chaining themselves to lampposts, smashing out windows of department stores, and burning railroad cars. Even though these women did these daunting tasks only in Finland, Norway, and some American states allowed women the right to vote before 1914. Another topic that was important to women besides the right to vote was peace movements. A famous women became the head of the Austrian Peace Society, who was Bertha von

The movement for women’s suffrage began well before the Progressive Era, in in the 1820’s, when women joined groups that wanted reforms. This was a difficult time for women to have a voice because they were mainly seen as property and should

Champions of voting rights for women had varied strategies. Some tried to pass suffrage acts in each state, and others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts.

Women were treated unfairly from men just solely based on the fact that they are women because women were thought of as weak at the time . However, women wanted to fight and break the stereotype to show that they can more than what society makes them out to be. Events like the involvement of America during World War 1 and women role during the war is what also pushed women movement in various ways but also showing their importance in the American society. The​ ​fight​ ​and struggle​ ​took​ ​years​ ​but​ ​1900’s​ ​​ ​is​ ​when​ ​the​ ​women​ ​suffrage​ ​movement​ ​really​ ​took​ ​off​ ​for American​ ​women and by the 1920 they white women had the right to vote. The role of women changed drastically in 1920s several

In the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, women played a significant role in social reforms. During this time, women fought for women’s voting rights. It took almost two years for the 19th amendment, women’s voting rights, to get passed. The 19th amendment was later passed in 1920. Once the amendment was passed, it unified suffrage laws across the United States. Because these women fought for what they wanted and stood up for what they believed in, they made history.

The most popular Canadian suffragettes was Dr. Emily Howard Stowe. At first she created a club called the Toronto Women’s Literary Club but later it was called the Toronto’s women’s suffrage association. Soon many more suffrage movements spread over Canada. Women all over Canada started to fight for their rights. Many were imprisoned but they kept fighting to achieve their rights. Women claimed that they should get the right to vote because they wanted to bring new ideas into politics and at the same time they felt inferior to men because they were excluded. Later on, the females become more politically active in the suffrage campaigns. “In 1897, 17 of these women’s suffrage groups came together to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).” Their way of protesting was rather peaceful, holding public meetings, writing letters to politicians. Later, in 1903 in Canada, when the suffrage movements started to get bigger, “The Women Social and Political Union” was founded. The movement became much more violent and the people were called the “The Suffragettes.” But when the World War happened the campaigns stopped and the women decided to help the men in battle. They spent time raising money for the war and knitting clothes for the soldiers. After the war ended the women gained more respect from the men and attained more freedom around the house. Furthermore, the

The 1920’s era is unparalleled by the sheer magnitude of cultural change, beginning in many ways with the spread of women’s suffrage in the immediate post war years.The 19th amendment of the US Constitution in 1920 finally brought the vote to American women ( a surprising late adopter of women’s suffrage was France in 1945! ) and with it a new sense of freedom and rights of feminine self expression. As the old order of class society crumbled, there was a massive liberation in the creative arts around the developed world.

Women were trying to get the vote for many years before 1900, however this was not a serious concern and they were not doing much to achieve this. However in 1900 this all changed. The NUWSS (Suffragists) and the WSPU (Suffragettes) were set up in the early years of 1900; their goal was to allow women to get the vote. Their reason was that women were already allowed to work on city councils and become doctors, some notable ones too such as Florence Nightingale. The NUWSS believed that if women were house owners and had respectable jobs they should be allowed to vote. This is because men who were allowed to vote could be white slave owners and lunatics so why could these men vote and

The 18th century was a period of slow change for women’s rights in England. The Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution were coterminous at this point in history and brought the new thoughts about women’s rights to England in the late 1700s. In the 1700s women were not as concerned with voting as they were with divorce, adultery, and child custody rights. However, as the population of single women grew throughout the 18th and 19th century the concern for more rights for women became prevalent (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011). By 1851, 43 percent of women in England were single and began to campaign frequency and sometimes forcibly for their rights (Wolbrink, 4 Nov. 2011). Reformer

From the late 1850’s onwards the women’s suffrage movement took on a new era, with a growing crowd of followers, and two main movements the Radicals and the philanthropists of the fifties and sixties. () Both which were attributed to statesmen and philosophers: John bright, Richard Cobden and John Stuart Mill. One of the most important radicals was John Stuart Mill, whose aim was to create a “complete equality in all legal, political, social, and domestic relations which ought to exist between men and women.” He founded the British Woman Suffrage Association, who was opposed by the British Prime ministers William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, as well as by the monarch Queen Victoria. In 1867 philosopher John Stuart Mill petitioned the

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.

     Throughout the history, women were being discriminated against by ignoring or not paying much attention to them when it comes to dealing with political issues. One in particular, was the controversial issue regarding women’s right to vote. By the end of the 1880’s feminist movements did not meet their expectations due to lack of support from women themselves. “ If by the end of the 1880’s the suffragists had reached something of a stalemate, by the end of 1890’s and early 1900’s the movement had entered a completely new phase. This was largely the result of new factors in the situation: the growth of support for women’s suffrage amongst women themselves, and the increasing importance of the labour movement in British politics” (Banks, p.121). For these women, voting was becoming more like a powerful tool to be recognized in the society and understand the importance of voting and to also participate actively in the campaign. Women suffragists finally reached their goal, in which women at the present are getting more involved in politics by running for office and being leaders of the society. One good example is present senator Hillary Clinton. This former first lady is one of the top senators in the United States today. She fought