Why Did The 'White House Picket'

Just one hundred years ago, women in the United States were not allowed to vote. The 19th amendment was not ratified until June 4, 1919. The 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. Women activists had been fighting decades to have such a right. There were many factors that made the 19th amendment possible such as women’s rights organizations, advocates, conventions, and marches. The women’s right movement paved the way to accomplishing the ratification of a female’s right to vote.

In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, labor was anything but easy. Factory workers faced long hours, low pay, high unemployment fears, and poor working conditions during this time. Life today is much easier in comparison to the late 1800s. Americans have shorter days, bigger pay and easier working conditions. Not comparable to how life is today, many riots sparked, and citizens began to fight for equal treatment. Along with other important events, the Haymarket Riot, the Pullman Strike, and the Homestead strike all play a vital role in illustrating labor’s struggle to gain fair and equitable treatment during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

When the time came to push for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment a group of women stood together to let their voice be heard. As Alice Paul said, "We came to be heard, not to be questioned or to be turned around. We will answer your questions and you may turn us around, but we will prove the burden of justice in our favor then you can no longer make us leave. With that we will

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 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

Remember your Ladies” (Revolutionary Changes and Limitations) is what Abigale Adams told to her husband John Adams when he was signing a new federal document. She was one of the earliest woman suffrage activists and her words towards her husband would eventually snowball into one of the most remembered suffrage movements in the history of the United States (Revolutionary Changes and Limitations). The women’s suffrage movement picked up speed in the 1840-1920 when women such as Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul came into the spot light. These women spearheaded the women suffrage movement by forming parties, parading, debating, and protesting. The most renowned women suffrage parties that were created during the 1840-1920 was the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The parties not only had similar names but similar goals: women will one day receive the right to vote. Each party had its own unique agenda of how women will receive the right to vote, the NWSA had Susan B. Anthony’s dedication, the NAWSA had Catt’s “Winning Plan” (Carrie Chapman Catt) and the NWP had Alice Paul’s perseverance to go to extremes by captivating people’s attention. Eventually the goal of the parties was reached when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. The Amendment granted women the right to vote, granting them all the same rights that were held by men. Women would have never

In the year 1923, Alice Paul, a famous suffragette, proposed an amendment to the Congress of the United States of America that would explicitly require the United States government to treat men and women equally. This proposed amendment, commonly referred to by the masses as the Equal Rights Amendment, reads as the following:

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.

During the 20th century, male and females were not being treated equally a lot of women started getting mad because they weren’t getting jobs or the right to vote as men, so it led to the Civil Rights Movement, the Equal Rights Amendment was involved, because women weren’t treated equally or given the same rights as males. The Civil RIghts Movement was when there was a lot of racism and black and white people weren’t given the same rights, it was unfair to the black because they couldn’t do so many things like vote and also there was sex discrimination. In 1923, Alice Paul, leader and founder of the National Woman’s Party, considered that ERA should be the next step in the 19th Amendment in granting equal justice under the law to both sexes, male and female, in the U.S. Alice Paul said “ We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.” A text from the amendment said “Equal of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

The women used many different tactics to earn the right to vote. The at the time did whatever tactics they new to help the situation. One of the tactics they used was to go on a hunger strike. For example the girls wouldn't eat during there lunch time, but most of the girls couldn't handle it. Alice Paul continued to proceed with the strike.but that didn't work very well because they force fed her. Another strategy was called propaganza. These girls (mostly alice paul) found a way to publish her life in prison in the newspaper. They did this by when some came to visit them they would slip the note into their pockets and then the people would find it. the last trick they use was to get people to not vote for woodrow wilson. One way

Women had to used many different tactics such as picketing and performing hunger strike to earn the right to vote in the Woman’s Suffrage Movement. To begin with, the tactic of picketing at the White House deemed successful. Women from the National Women’s Party picketed from dawn to dusk everyday and held banners that notioned to the wrongdoing of President Wilson. Even though NASWA did not approve of this Lucy Burns and Alice Paul made sure that they did had people picketing everyday. The woman showed how little that President Wilson was doing to be able for women to have the right to vote. The women stood out in front of the White House everyday no matter the weather, if it was raining, sleeting, or snowing they were out there. The women

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were two of the key cornerstones of the American Suffragist Movement. Paul and Burns led to the creation of the 19th amendment that called for equal voting rights for men and women in the United States and the Alice Paul amendment that called for total equality between men and woman in the United States. The American Suffrage Movement took place in the 1900’s. During the American Suffragist Movement Alice Paul and Lucy Burns the leaders of the National Woman’s Party made great headway in gaining support for the movement through their use of militant, but nonviolent approaches.

This new generation of activists fought with this new agenda for almost 20 years until a few states in the West began to extend the vote to women. The Eastern and Southern states still refused to give in, but this didn’t stop the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1916, Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the NAWSA, worked vigorously to get women’s organizations from all over the country together and fight side by side. “One group of activists, led by Alice Paul and her National Woman’s Party, lobbied for full quality for women under the law” (Divine). She used mass marches and hunger strikes as strategies, but she was eventually forced to resign because of her insistence on the use of militant direct-action tactics (Grolier). Finally, during World War 1, women were given more opportunities to work, and were able to show that they were just as deserving as men when it came to the right to vote. On August 18th, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, allowing women to vote. This drawn-out and arduous battle opened a new window of opportunity for women all over the country. Significant changes in both social life and job availability began to create what is now referred to as the “new women.”

Alice Paul’s radicalism played an immense role in ensuring women the due right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment, which Congress ratified the Amendment on August 18, 1920. Alice Paul known for her hunger strikes, “the iron jawed angel” that was jailed and force-fed, which gained her sympathy of the people and recognition in the government. Additionally, Paul vowed that America’s start of WWI would not intervene in the struggle for women’s equal rights. Eventually, her strategies, as well an inducement from Carrie Chapman Catt, prompted President Woodrow Wilson to construct a federal suffrage amendment, war action urgency, a stance he had formerly declined to procure. Paul was a pivotal force in the passage and ratification in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her final days, Alice Paul sustained her fight for equal rights for women until her death at the age of ninety-two in 1977. While, Alice Paul never achieved the passing of her crucial goal of an Equal Rights Amendment, Alice single-handedly concluded the seventy five-year conflict of the women’s suffrage movement. Alice Paul, along with the National Women’s Party upheld the women’s equal

On July 19 and 20 several women meet and call the meeting for women's rights at the Seneca Falls Convention. In 1850 Lucy Stone and other feminists met in Massachusetts and draw up a resolution demanding for suffrage and equality. The Second National Women's Rights Convention is held in 1851. In 1852 Susan B. Anthony sets up the Women's New York State Temperance Society, and Stanton acts as the president. In 1860 women fill in for men in the factories and stores during the Civil War. Anthony and Stanton draft a petition demanding for Congress to initiate an amendment to prohibit several states from disenfranchising any citizens on the grounds of sex in 1866. Then in 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association is formed to push for an amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Four years later Anthony and sixteen other women are arrested for trying to vote. Then in 1878 Stanton and Anthony present the Anthony Amendment to Congress . The amendment gives women the right to vote and is reintroduced each year for the next 41 years until it becomes the 19th Amendment. In 1890 17.2% of the work force are women wage earners, this meant that more than 4 million women were working. Finally in 1919 the 19th Amendment is approved by the House and the Senate. Then in 1920 the amendment is ratified and declared official (Marino, 1).