Why Did a Campaign for Women’s Suffrage Develop in the Years After 1870?

Revised Thesis: The women’s suffrage movement opened many doors for the women of America and allowed them to achieve many objects they had never before thought of including: economic roles, political positions, and a place in social society.

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

Women’s suffrage was a major discussion point in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and many people had very strong feelings about whether or not women should be allowed to vote. People for women’s suffrage believed that allowing women to vote would open new doors for the government and lead countries in the right direction. However, the people who fought against women’s suffrage believed that women were too weak, emotional and irrational to make beneficial decisions that had their government and country’s best interest in

This document became a huge first step forward towards women’s suffrage. Unfortunately, this victory was short-lived due to the newspapers printing derision articles about the convention and tarnishing their exposure of equality.

January 29th 1866 brought forth another momentous moment in the history of Woman's Suffrage. The 'Petition for Universal Suffrage'. Ms Anthony and her fellow women did their best to gain the much needed support but based just the part of the petition shown there were only twelve names. No other information is given wither there were more names and that was just one page of it or if that truly was it. But with Ms. Anthony and the other activist did that perhaps was just one more stepping stone towards their final goal. (Rutgers)

Women’s Suffrage is a subject that could easily be considered a black mark on the history of the United States. The entire history of the right for women to vote takes many twists and turns but eventually turned out alright. This paper will take a look at some of these twists and turns along with some of the major figures involved in the suffrage movement.

The Woman’s Suffrage Movement gave women the right to vote, without the Woman’s Suffrage Movement women today would not be able to vote or have a role in politics. Before the 20th century, women were nothing more than child bearers and housewives. The mind of a women was considered delicate and inferior. Women were opposed and ignored when they were bold enough to voice their opinions.

“Because of countless millions of women, who planned, organized, lectured, wrote, marched, petitioned, lobbied, paraded, and broke new ground in every field imaginable, our world is irrevocably changed. Women and men in our generation, and the ones that will follow us, are living the legacy of women’s rights won against staggering odds in a revolution achieved without violence” (para.1)

Women bearing the weight of unfairly biased ideals set by the society standards of the 1800s led to the reformation called the suffrage movement. Each woman endured the impossible guidelines of how a gentlewoman should conduct herself. Set in a time period in which one’s reputation meant prosperity or ruin, the public view meant everything. The suffrage movement of the early 1800s was influenced by the first industrial revolution. Reformation was not widespread until a majority of women joined the second industrial revolution. The taxing demand of working and sustaining the household, pushed women to their limit and they were no longer subdued by imaginings of a perfect life. Equality rights were not immediately seen from the first generation of women in the 1800s. The later oppressed generations of women pushed for equality and were successful. The right to vote and hold positions in office was the goal of the women’s suffrage movement. Without any political rights, the reform took longer because men had to vote for their cause. Decades later in the 1920s, the nineteenth Amendment was passed for women’s legal right to vote. The suffrage movement marked the twentieth century with one of the first victories of democratic civil rights. The controlling restraints of society’s idealistic views of how a woman should tend to her household and not expand beyond her civil duties led to

On January 29, 1866, this was the first petition presented in Congress out of the hundreds sent. Anthony’s and many other suffragists signatures surprised Congressmen and gave them a sense of the power of the crusader’s movement in suffrage. This petition enabled society to recognize the commencement of the fight for women’s voting rights.

On the other hand, women started to fight for their rights at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenty century “the changes came in part because of practical problems of maintaining property, inheritance, and settlement in new states and territories” (Lowi 109) since women at that time could not own property. The women suffrage movement was created and with this many women and men contribute to the “National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) [which] was formed in New York, and it immediately began an effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow women to vote” (Lowi 109). It wasn’t until 1919 that “Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote… the amendment was ratified by the states,

Women in the 1800s weren't in the same societal level as men, but were treated as

The initially documented example in American history where a lady requested the privilege to vote was in 1647. Margaret Brent, a homeowner in Maryland, desired two votes in the recently framed frontier get together to present her vote and the vote of Baltimore 's ruler, whom she held power-of-attorney. However, in the long run, he overruled her requests. Due to New Jersey 's constitution of 1790, female homeowners were lawfully allowed the right to vote because it thoroughly specified that all citizens who adhered to all property and residency prerequisites can cast their votes. Unfortunately, the previously mentioned law was repealed in 1807 by the state legislator. Aside these particular conflicts, Seneca Falls Women 's Rights Convention is hands down the earliest and the first established women 's suffrage movement.

During the 19th and 20th century, a large number of feminists commenced and carried on different acts that supported the initiation and continuation of the Suffrage Movement and the advancement towards a more diverse world. Men of the time overpowered the women and so it resulted in the women, feeling forgotten and ignored despite all the work they have done for and with men, standing up for themselves and making multiple attempts to be granted the same and equal rights as the men. The results were not always positive, though, even though large amount of effort was put in for complete liberty. For example, Ontario's lawmakers did not approve of women's equal rights even though numerous petitions and bills were submitted to them for over 40

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.