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Women's rights in the 19th century in america
Women's rights in the 19th century in america
Women's rights in the 19th century in america
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“If a creator stands in front of a man’s house, constantly demanding the amount of the bill, the debtor has either to remove the creditor or pay the bill,” according to Alice Paul’s biographer, Amelia Fry (qtd. in Butruille). Alice Paul was a women’s rights activist that was determined to get women’s rights to vote. Paul never gave up even when it seemed impossible and nothing was in her favor. As a result, she fought for women’s suffrage by protesting day and night, rain or shine, and in cold or heat. Nonetheless, even “being jailed six times, fighting politicians, and even other suffragists” like herself, Paul continued to be forceful against the President and Congress to allow women to vote (“Suffragist and Feminist” 25). Today our society is different because of Paul’s major contribution to women’s rights. Paul is a suffragist who believed in equality among both men and women and fighting for women’s suffrage in the 1900s has impacted our world greatly today (Cornell 20). Without her …show more content…
standing up for women’s rights, women may still not have the equality that they share with men today. Evidently, most people may not know of Alice Stokes Paul.
However, she can be looked at, as another Susan B. Anthony. She may have not gotten the right to women’s vote, but without her contribution women being able to vote may not be possible. Born on January 11,1885 in Moorestown, New Jersey she was from a Quaker family. On account of that, Quakers were raised and taught gender equality. Her Quaker upbringing influenced her to help stop women’s suffrage. Throughout her childhood Paul would attend women suffrage meetings with her mother Tacie. (Joaquim 20) There, Paul got an understanding of women’s suffrage. Afterwards, as she graduated high school, she traveled to England in 1907 to continue her studies where she met British suffragists fighting for women’s rights to vote (20). Paul then developed a deep understanding of women’s suffrage and decided to stand against it. She became a women’s rights activist that shared her teachings and helped women’s suffrage come to an
end. For instance, Paul has made significant changes to today society without people actually knowing who she is. She made vital contribution to society after her time in England. Paul came back to America with Lucy Burns in 1910 and founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association (Salter 16). Paul and Burns worked vigorously to spread the message about women’s suffrage. There constant pushing and fighting for women's rights to vote paid off in the end. However, in 1916 Paul and Burns had conflicts with the other suffragist and established a new association, the National Women’s party (16). Moreover, Paul is a major contribution the the Nineteenth Amendment. In the absence of her work, and without the struggle she went through for women’s rights, women being able to vote may not be possible today. Paul fought nonstop for women’s rights to vote and finally on August 18,1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified (“Suffragist and Feminist” 25). Nevertheless, Paul did not want to stop there. In addition to the Nineteenth Amendment, Paul soon wrote an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) which stated “Equal rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any States on account of sex” (25). Even though it wasn’t passed, she was a key figure in advocating the Equal Rights Amendment. Paul’s changes to her society have strongly influenced our society today.
Alice Paul was a Quaker who had strong views about women’s rights. However, she thought that the NAWSA and Carrie Chapman Catt’s plan was too conservative. She broke away from the association to form a more radical group, the National Women’s Party (NWP). The NWP pushed for a Constitutional Amendment at a federal level and focused on President Woodrow Wilson (Alice Paul 1885-1977). To raise support for the cause, Alice Paul conducted public events such as marches. These events were often talked about in the media thus raising awareness for women’s suffrage (The Women’s Rights Movement). Alice Paul wasn’t alone in her efforts. Lucy Burns, also a member of the NWP, organized political campaigns, and was the editor of the Suffragist (Lucy Burns). Paul, Burns and the Silent Sentinels picketed in front of the White House (Alice Paul 1885-1977). They were often harassed because of their progressive beliefs. That however didn’t stop the suffragists from protesting day after day. They held banners and
Susan B. Anthony believed that women should have the same rights as men. She fought for this right in many different ways, but she is most famous for showing civil disobedience by voting illegally. Unfortunately, Anthony fought all her life for women’s rights, but her dreams were not fulfilled until 14 years after she died (“Susan” Bio).
For many years people fought and struggled for change to make the world a better place. People struggle for change to feel equal by actively fighting for human rights, they urge people to abide by the rule of law to accomplish these equal rights, and they fight for a change in the future to ensure that the work they have done is not destroyed by the younger generations. Thanks to the hard work of our ancestors, the freedom that we are granted benefits many people around the world today. If it were not for their struggle we would not have some of the privileges we have today, such as the right to vote. Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells are both exemplary examples of advocates for the women’s suffrage. They marched and protested for the right to vote which eventually led to the 19th amendment. It took a very strong leader to accomplish this goal, a person that believed in the rule of law and a change for the future. These women are just two examples of people who were self motivated for a change. Many other people struggled for a change in what they believed in,and if they fought hard enough their efforts
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
Women throughout the suffrage act were faced with many challenges that eventually led into the leading roles of women in the world today. Suffrage leaders adopted new arguments to gain new support. Rather than insisting on the justice of women’s suffrage, or emphasizing equal rights, they spoke of the special moral and material instincts women could bring to the table. Because of these women taking leaps and boundaries, they are now a large part of America’s government, and how our country operates.
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
After the success of antislavery movement in the early nineteenth century, activist women in the United States took another step toward claiming themselves a voice in politics. They were known as the suffragists. It took those women a lot of efforts and some decades to seek for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her essay “The Next Generation of Suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch and Grassroots Politics,” Ellen Carol Dubois notes some hardships American suffragists faced in order to achieve the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Along with that essay, the film Iron-Jawed Angels somehow helps to paint a vivid image of the obstacles in the fight for women’s suffrage. In the essay “Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II,” Ruth Milkman highlights the segregation between men and women at works during wartime some decades after the success of women suffrage movement. Similarly, women in the Glamour Girls of 1943 were segregated by men that they could only do the jobs temporarily and would not able to go back to work once the war over. In other words, many American women did help to claim themselves a voice by voting and giving hands in World War II but they were not fully great enough to change the public eyes about women.
Susan B. Anthony was born February 15,1820 in Adams Massachusetts, She was the daughter to a cotton mill owner, who was a liberal Quaker. Susan's father taught her the ideas of self-support, self-discipline,principled convictions, and belief in self worth. Reform was very active in the Anthony home, both Mother and Father were strong believers in temperance and women's rights. Fighting for civil rights was in her blood. Susan's father even employed teachers in his own home. Growing up Susan had only known the Quaker life style were men and women spoke equally.
Susan B. Anthony was an equal rights activist and one of the founders of feminism. She was fined $100 for voting illegally in the 1872 election. She was outraged by this, and traveled the country speaking on women’s suffrage and equal rights. Though women weren’t given the right to vote until 14 years following her death, she delivered a powerful speech, now known as “Women’s Right to Suffrage” to express her anger with the lack of rights in this country. She argues that “we that people” isn’t just inclusive to white men, and that both men and women should be given equal opportunity. Today, Ms. Anthony’s words still echo into the hearts and minds of fourth wave feminists, like myself, and inspire them to continue fighting against inequality
One of the most important women, and often most forgotten, during women’s suffrage is Alice Paul. She was the first woman to earn her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and also earned a law degree at American University. She founded the National Women’s Party (NWP) in 1916. The way she fought for women’s rights was very different than how the women in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) fought for it. Although, in the end, they congratulated Alice Paul and the work she had done to get women’s rights. She had raised $750,000 in less than 10 years in the fight for the 19th amendment, which in today’s society would be $9.9 million. She also created the idea of lobbying, which is still actively used in modern politics. Her efforts and drive are what make her one of the most important women to study in women’s history. She is often never even mentioned during history classes when students are being taught about women’s suffrage. Teachers and professors usually stick with the more ...
Whether it is the Ancient Greece, Han China, the Enlightened Europe, or today, women have unceasingly been oppressed and regarded as the second sex. Provided that they have interminably been denied the power that men have had, very few prominent female figures like Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen, or Jeanne d'Arc, the French heroine, have made it to history books. Veritably, it was not until 1792 when Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women addressed the issues of gender equality, that some started hearkening the seemingly endless mistreatment of women. New Zealand was the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1892. The United States did not endorse this until 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified, which states “The right of citizens of the United States votes shall not be denied or abridged… on account of sex.” This, however, was not the end to women’s plight. For the majority of the 20th century, America’s idea of a good woman was a good mother and a good wife. In the 1960s and 1970s, a movement that would later bring fundamental changes to the American society was spreading rapidly throughout the country: The Women’s Liberation Movement. With the increasing number of educated women, gender inequality received more attention than ever before. Hundreds of women came together to fight domestic violence, lack of political and economic development, and reproductive restrictions. One of these women was an ordinary girl from Ohio named Gloria Steinem who would later become a feminist icon in the United States. Steinem contributed to the Women’s Liberation Movement by writing about feminism and issues concerning women, co-founding Ms. magazine, giving influential speeches— leading he movement along with...
While the women’s suffrage movement was none violent and mainly carried out by organized meetings, lobbying congressman, and picketing protests, the women that participated in it could do nothing to stop the violence of their oppressors from coming to them. In January 1917, the National Women’s Party, led by suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, began to picket, six days a week, in front of the white house for their right to vote. At first largely ignored, they became under frequent attack with no help from the police. Then starting th...
It was Theodore Roosevelt, who stated that, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care”, conveying the idea that with no voice comes no change. In the morning of August 26, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, which centralized mainly on the enfranchisement of women. Today, they have the legal right to vote, and the ability to speak openly for themselves, but most of all they are now free and equal citizens. However this victorious triumph in American history would not have been achieved without the strong voices of determined women, risking their lives to show the world how much they truly cared. Women suffragists in the 19th century had a strong passion to change their lifestyle, their jobs around the nineteenth century were limited to just children, family, and domestic duties. It consisted of a very low rate of education, and job opportunities. They could not share their opinion publicly and were expected to support their male family members and husbands during the time. Women knew that the way to enfranchisement was going to be tenacious, and full of obstacles along the way. Therefore a new organization was formed, The National American Women Association (NAWSA), representing millions of women and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as the first party president. This organization was founded in 1890, which strategized on the women getting education in order to strengthen their knowledge to prepare for the suffrage fight. NAWSA mainly focused on the right to vote one state at a time. In 1917, a member named Alice Paul, split apart from NAWSA because of the organization’s tactics and major goals. Due to this split, many other suffragists from NAWSA bitterly divided into a new organization named, National Women’s ...
The film shows Paul and her cohorts fighting for equality in Washington, DC. When Paul first arrived in DC, she was under the watchful eye of the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). As Paul fought on, her values no longer lined up with NAWSA, which led to the suspension of her congressional union. In retaliation, Paul relentlessly continued her efforts by starting the National Women’s Party (NWP). The National Women’s Party solely fought for the passage of a constitutional amendment that would grant all United Stated citizens the right to vote. Although the opposing sides often came to a head, Alice Paul makes a great case when she says, “women don’t make the laws, but they have to abide by them”(von Garnier, 2004, part 2). With much determination and a lot of fight, the amendment was finally passed through Congress in
The definition of sociology is the study of society. Social criticism is the practice of analyzing a literary work by examining the cultural, political and economical context in which it was written or received. Alice Walker’s work demonstrates this type criticism very well; from The Color Purple to Everyday Use, or any of her earlier short stories. The majority of her work reveals the struggle of African Americans in society, especially women. Furthermore, her stories mirror a lot of the social characteristic that were taking place in America, from the 1940’s on; thus, making Alice Walker the epitome of sociological criticisms.