Womans Suffrage Essay

First and foremost, the fight for women’s rights is something that has occurred throughout time not only in the United States, but in every part of the world. When it comes to the United States, one cannot deny that it was an important historical event. “The struggle for women’s suffrage in the United States had occupied better part of a century” (Source 1). Truly a struggle, for it was not acknowledged by men in the past, primarily white man who had full rights in the nation. Susan B. Anthony was an important leading figure of the Suffrage Movement and contributed to the Suffrage Movement.

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.

Did you know that women in the United States did not have the right to vote until the year 1920? Exactly 144 years after the United States was granted freedom from Great Britain. The women’s suffrage movement, however, did not actually start until 1848, and lasted up until they were granted the right to vote in 1920. Women all over the country were fighting for their right to vote in hopes of bettering their lives. The women’s suffrage movement was a long fought process by many people all over the world, over all different races, religions, even gender. (Cooney 1)

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)

IN 1872 Susan B Anthony attempted to vote for the elections in New York. She

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

This photo captures American women voting for the first time after the 19th Amendment was passed on August 26, 1920. Women were always thought of less than man and were expected to stay home and take care of the children. They lacked important rights such as voting, being able to own property, and having legal claim to any money they might earn. But after about seventy years women proved that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Gaining the right to vote was a historical step for women in America that was achieved through hard work and perseverance.

Equal rights have long been sought out by the people of America and they continue to be chased after today. Several of our freedoms were originally seen by the Constitutional to be inalienable, so ingrained in what the founding fathers saw as American values that the Bill of Rights has set them in stone. Unfortunately for some, universal suffrage was not one of those rights. While voting was largely limited at the founding of America, citizens, namely white males, slowly gained the right to vote without discrimination towards age or social status. However, women remained barred from the ballot, regardless of race. Though the suffrage movement started as a woman’s social movement, it evolved into a driving force that would hold the power to put in place a nineteenth constitutional amendment.

On November 5, 1872, in Rochester, New York in a barber shop a woman by the name of Susan Brownell Anthony had the satisfaction of seeing her ballot for the presidential election be added to the ballot box. Just this one action of a woman caused a great uproar, multiple protests, an arrest, a trial that will be remembered for years to come, and a fine of $100-one that will never be paid.

In the cartoon, it states “20,000,000 American Women Are Not Self-Governed” (Doc 7). This cartoon establishes the idea of women not taking part in the process of developing their own government. This is a necessary part to uphold as the equality of women leads to the right to vote, a key point in basic American rights. Two major women that fronted women's suffrage movement were Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Lucretia Mott initially started this movement with Elizabeth Stanton, in Seneca Falls, NY. In the letter to Elizabeth Stanton from Susan B. Anthony, she asks the question, “If only now--all the women suffrage women would work to this end of enforcing the existing constitution--supremacy of national law over state law over state law” (Doc 2). The idea of women's suffrage is not a simple task, as enforcing this law is a difficult task to continually maintain within both the national and state

During the late 1700s, women were not seen as being equal to men. They were imaged as one who stayed at home and took care of the kids. No one ever imagined a woman voting. Some women actually supported the fight in allowing blacks to vote. During the time the 15th amendment passed, many women who supported Women’s Suffrage were disappointed in which they were excluded in the idea of allowing “everyone” to vote. Before the Civil War, the movement for Women’s Suffrage started to pick up steam, but had become lost due to the interruption of the Civil War. One of the acts that stood out the most for Women’s Suffrage was the Seneca Falls Conference in 1848. This was organized by two American activists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. They were the first to organize a conference to address Women’s rights and issues, and with sixty- eight women and thirty two men, they signed “The Declaration of Sentiments”, a document that was similar to the Declaration of Independence, but directed towards women’s rights. Getting suffrage for women was not an easy campaign. During 1890- 1919, many states were in a mix on their decision on suffrage for women. Some agreed with equal suffrage, others partial, and the rest wanted no suffrage at all for females as displayed in Document 6. Women’s Suffrage finally became a reality when it was ratified as an amendment (19th) in

Susan B Anthony, a real dedicator to gaining women's rights, was introduced to abolitionism by Amelia Bloomer. (Weatherford 161) Her friendship ended up with a meeting with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, her lifelong partner in fighting for women's rights. Susan B Anthony did travelling and spoke widely, and became more focused on women's suffrage. She also helped to found the American Equal Rights Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association. with Lucy Stone. In 1872, in an attempt to claim that the constitution already permitted women to vote, Susan B. Anthony cast a test vote in Rochester, New York, in the presidential election. She was found guilty,

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.

Women’s suffrage, or the crusade to achieve the equal right for women to vote and run for political office, was a difficult fight that took activists in the United States almost 100 years to win. On August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified, declaring all women be empowered with the same rights and responsibilities of citizenship as men, and on Election Day, 1920 millions of women exercised their right to vote for the very first time.

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.