Women's Right to Vote

For the longest time, women’s role in society was very narrow and set in stone. Women weren’t given the chance to decide life for their own, and there was a very sharp distinction of gender roles. Women were viewed as inferior, weak, and dependant. They were expected to be responsible for the family and maintainance of the house. But as the 19th century began, so did a drastic change in society. Women started voicing their opinions and seeking change. Trying to break away from this ideology called “cult of domesticity” was a lengthy, burdensome, and demanding struggle.

August 26, 1920 was perhaps one of the greatest victories of the century for women. Now when the polls open women and men stand next to each other and cast a vote that holds the same importance. Every person should remember the time and effort it took to get here as they approach the poll booth. There was a struggle to over come and that struggle was won. The landmark acceptance of the Nineteenth Amendment changed the way of life in American forever.

The struggle to achieve equal rights for women is often thought to have begun, in the English-speaking world, with the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). During the 19th century, as male suffrage was gradually extended in many countries, women became increasingly active in the quest for their own suffrage. Not until 1893, however, in New Zealand, did women achieve suffrage on the national level. Australia followed in 1902, but American, British, and Canadian women did not win the same rights until the end of World War I.

With the advancement of suffrage to equal pay, over the last century, women’s rights have progressed immensely. Through historic marches and demonstrations across the United States, women protested for their equal place in politics and social progress. Despite the fear-mongering components used in achieving these rights, women’s rights are still thoroughly debated within society today. Over the last century, incredible and unreachable goals have been fulfilled for women, such as the right to vote and a sense of equal state in the “Free World,” and can only improve in the years to come.

To what extent was the National Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 the start to women’s suffrage?

Women’s rights in America in late 1800’s women’s right to vote women in medicine and the equal rights for women are the 3 main points that were big in the 1800’s.

In the years of 1848 to 1920 all that was important in the U.S. was giving women the right to vote. Right to voting was very important to women because it was thought to a beginning of a world of equality between men and women. The idea of equality helped create Women's suffrage (also known as woman's right to vote). In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists mostly women, but also some men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women's rights to voting. Furthermore during the 1800’s and 1900’s “Women and Women’s Organizations” worked for broad based economic and political equality for women. Women didn’t gain the right to vote until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1919 which also helped empower some women to create the “National League of Women Voters” in 1920 to educate women about their rights and additionally it sponsored Women’s Equality Day which is held on the 26th of August to celebrate the anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Right to

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.

All through American history women have frequently asked and ordered the right to vote. Roughly, they were prohibited. One of the first recorded noting of the request for women’s voting advantages were from Abigail Adams, who was the first lady of the second president. She asked her spouse in a letter to not ignore the right to vote for women. She primarily said that if women cannot vote, then they would not have a reason to pursue the new legislation acts.

People had different opinions on women’s suffrage depending on various reasons such as their socioeconomic status, race, gender, and politics. Among the guests Mr. S. invited to his dinner party, John A. Moon and J. B. Sanford are opponents of the women’s suffrage. In his speech in House of Representatives, Moon expressed his concern about allowing the colored women to vote. He argued that the colored women’s suffrage would increase the number of uneducated voters, which could produce problems the society had to deal with. The other opponent, Sanford claimed different opinion to go against the women’s suffrage. Sanford described woman as being passive and dependent on man. He argued that woman did not need

“Remember the ladies”, wrote boldly by the soon to be First Lady Abigail Adams to her husband John Adams in March 1776. Abigail Adams’s words were one of the first noted mentions in the United States foreshadowing the beginning of a long suppressed battle towards women’s suffrage. The fight for women suffrage was a movement in which women, and some men included, pleaded for equal rights regarding voting and women’s voice within the political realm. Women’s suffrage was not a matter of instant success; it endured a prolonged time to achieve. It was not until August 1920, about 14 decades later after Abigail Adam’s words, that the 19th amendment which had provided everyone the right to vote regardless of a person’s “sex”, had passed. Although the 19th amendment nationalized equal voting rights in the country in 1920, many states ratified this amendment in even later years. The lengthy period and long complex battles towards victory were the result of many obstacles between suffragists and anti-suffragists; obstacles which hindered the movement’s progress and which are not limited to: traditionally accustomed values, religion, split arguments within the movement, and other national political setbacks. If these setbacks were handled differently in a more urgent manner, women suffrage might have achieved earlier than 1920 or in a shorter amount of gruesome activism period.

Zoe, its interesting that you mention that the change was hard because of the many “differences that were present within the community of women’s suffrage”. Although, as women they shared many inequalities there were many inequalities to pin point at and come to a clear conclusion of which problem was most important. It prohibited women from become more organized. As some women fought for one thing others fought for another. Evidently, there were many differences and for this reason the women’s movement had a different meaning to women from different social class and race. The typical housewife that enjoyed taking care of her husband children and home was a luxury enjoyed by middle class women. “The problem that has no name persists in women

Women's Suffrage Not for Ourselves Alone is a film based on the lives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the most important women of the nineteenth century worked against all odds for the rights of women. Admitting I was not familiar with Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, which to that I am extremely grateful that this course included women’s history in the curriculum. I served in the military which is a male dominated field and I can say with absolute certainty that the rights of women are still being oppressed. Many historians credit these remarkable women with the largest social transformation in United States history by paving the way to make the U.S a more democratic institution.

In the history of the United States of America, the people have always been revered and lead by great men. However, most people do not recognize that behind those great men, there have always been even greater women. In the 239 years since America has been established, women have only had voting rights for 95 of them. In 1920, women were finally given the right to vote. The reason, however, is a big question. Was it because of their efforts in World War I? Was it the movement of women's rights that changed the nation forever? Or was it the embarrassment that countless other countries had given them rights long before "The Greatest Country" in the world ever thought to?

Women's Right to Vote due to Their Contribution to the War Effort In 1918 a major milestone was reached in the fight for women's equality rights, this was women being granted suffrage by the government. During the physical endurance of the four years of the war, women proving themselves equal to men, they were rewarded the vote. The Electoral Reform bill was passed which granted voting rights to all female property owners over 30. Some historians say women were never given the vote; it was hard fought for and won.