Essay on Women's Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas

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.

Women’s rights were not always a part of society as it may seem in today’s world. Suffrage can date all the way back to 1776. Women had to fight for their rights and privileges, hard and for many years. In the late 1800’s women were seen as much less than a male and had no voice. Women were arrested, prosecuted and put down for wanting more freedom and power for their gender. As you see in many suffrage ads, women were desperate and wanted so badly the same equality as men. A few women in particular stood up for what they believed was right and fought hard. Although it took far too long and over 100 years, in 1920 women were finally given the opportunity to share the same voting rights as men. History had been made.

Women’s rights is apparent in the fight for suffrage in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s . It can

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

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

In the summer of eighteen forty-eight two women Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony who founded the National Women’s Suffrage Association in eighteen sixty-nine met with a small group of people determined to give women a larger sphere of action than the laws and customs of that day allowed (Taylor 13). At this time in our country women were denied the right to vote, made to give their husbands the land and property which they may have control of, plus nearly no say in legal or professional matters. To give you an idea of what the women were up against on July thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight a group lead by T.H. Mundine wrote a declaration stating that all persons meeting age, residences, and citizenship requirements be deemed qualified electors “without distinction of sex” (Taylor 14). This motion was referred to the state of Texas and in January eighteen sixty-nine, it was rejected on a vote of fifty-two – thirteen. The motion that was shot down was not anything to major by today’s standards. It was a simple bill to allow women to have a more reasonable portion of the burdens of government (Taylor 14). As this example illustrates women had a huge wall to climb of they wanted to be even with men in societies eyes.

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

Elizabeth’s first major fight within the world of feminism was after the Civil War had ended, and slavery had been abolished. She joined with Fredrick Douglas, Susan B. Antony, and many other influential women of the time, to create the American Equal Suffrage Association. This group was created to not only secure the voting rights of American women but also the voting right for any freed slave. However, once the bill that had been created to ratify the fifteenth amendment came to the senate floor, it was discovered that although the bill included rights for colored men to vote, it excluded the word ‘sex’, therefore it did not give women the right to vote. The women’s movement of the American Equal Suffrage Association was outraged by the injustice done and they went on to continue the fight for equality without Fredrick Douglas.

These women worked countless hours and had many conferences bringing other women aboard to make changes that we as American women benefit form today. “The first Women 's Rights Convention was held on July nineteenth and twentieth in 1848”. (Roak p.587)The convention was assembled as planned, and over the two days of discussion, the Declaration of Sentiments and twelve resolutions received agreement and endorsement, one by one, with a few amendments. The only resolution that did not pass unanimously was the call for women 's authorization. The thought that women should be allowed to vote in elections was impossible to some. At the convention, debate over the woman 's vote was the main concern. Even though there is still a long way to go we have come

1) According to Woman Suffrage, Ann D. Gordon tells us that American’s women suffrage movement finally got triumph after going through all of difficulties and hardships. Also, in American’s history, there were two important women who led women’s suffrage movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. At that time, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony proposed an amendment about voting by women and working in office, and the amendment was finally approved with their efforts also because many of their followers keep doing the movement and making a good future, such as Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. However, I see there still are many places that do not allow women to vote and work outside, so I really hope could understand what I know and care now and hope you can grow up to a wonderful woman who also care about pursuing your own rights and caring

No true words were spoke than those by Ms. Susan B. Anthony, “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.” Those words are still true today. Even though Ms. Susan B. Anthony, Ms. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other activists worked hard to get equal rights for women to allow them the right to have a say in how our government is run there are still places in the world where women and even some men aren’t allowed to vote. Some of those places may actually be surprising, others maybe not so much. Even still some of the trials these women went through to end women’s suffrage and the lack of political equality is worth taking a look at even ninety-one

The women’s suffrage movement is thought to have begun with the publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792. Wollstonecraft is considered the “mother of feminism” and wrote of the sexual double standards between men and

Nevertheless, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement did cause women to doubt themselves they began to think that they were not smart enough to vote because most of them were unable to read and right. Whereas women in this generation can read and right so it is easy for them to vote and understand the ballots. Women began to express how they fell by the laws and customs of their time. (History house) explained this by saying, “Working for the emancipation of black slaves opened their eyes to the unsatisfactory nature of their own situations while providing necessary training in the techniques of political organization and action.’’

On August 18, 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment, which prohibited any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex, was ratified. This amendment represented nearly eighty years of struggle for American suffragists. Throughout this arduous journey the suffrage movement evolved alongside the women who embodied it, each generation splintering into moderate and radical factions. Since its founding in 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) had been the leading women’s suffrage organization. However in 1916, growing disillusioned with NAWSA’s moderate style and political theory, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns broke away and formed their own coalition: the National Woman’s Party. It is the purpose of this paper to illustrate that these two organizations, while different in political tactics, were equally effective in securing suffrage for women due to the combination of their independent activities.

Two political groups were crucial to the movement’s success largely because of the leadership provided by several women. These groups’ actions, structured by their leaders, had the goal of gradually changing people’s minds to supporting women’s right to vote and spreading the idea of social change. Groups worked tirelessly to educate British society about the importance of the