The Role Of Women's Suffrage In America

It was not until the year 1920 that women in the United States of America gained the right to vote. Yet, American women always believed they were equal to the average American man; the government, including the president and lawmakers did not have the same beliefs as these women. Female civilians tried for many years to gain basic rights of any American citizen. Women’s rights were very hard to obtain, which led to a long and strong fight to achieve minimal rights. Three very important women who really made the American government realize women deserved the right to vote were Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. These three women worked individually with different tactics to help American women achieve basic human rights, including the right to vote.

As I

mentioned above, Alice Paul is one of the three key women who had a very strong impact on the development of Women’s rights in America.

By the year 1920, women were finally given the right to vote. Alice Paul came from a wealthy family, which provided her with an excellent education. Her parents believed that men and women were equal, and that women deserved the same rights as men, which really influenced and inspired her desire to help every other woman achieve the basic rights. Alice got a lot of her inspiration from none other than her mother; Tacie Paul, who regularly attended National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) meetings and would bring Alice along. This gave Alice exposure to the passionate women who were fighting for women’s rights from a young age. Alice Paul also

credits her Quaker religion for her desire to fight for women’s equality “when the Quakers were founded…one of their principles was and is equality of the sexes. So I never had any other idea...the principle was always there”(Alicepaul.org). After going to England for studies, she transformed into a militant suffragist. After meeting with England’s most

radical suffragist, Emmeline Pankhurst, Alice Paul joined her movement and helped the women in England fight for their right, putting her life on the line. Being imprisoned countless times, after seeing the same quote etched into the walls of the jail cells, she decided to bring these tactics she learnt in England back home to New York. She brought heckling, window smashing and rock throwing (Alicepaul.org ) to New York, from England. These were the strategies she had learned from the Pankhurst’s. With the strong desire to achieve equal rights, Alice joined NAWSA, where she took on the role of the Congressional Committee; Alice was in charge of working for a federal suffrage amendment. Working with NAWSA and using the tactics she brought from England, allowed her to get attention from the media and other civilians. Moving away from NAWSA, Paul started her own organization, The National Woman’s Party (NWP). She introduced these strategies to other women within the organization, which led to many protests using all the forceful, radical strategies they knew. Fighting for their rights outside of the White House, using unseen strategies, President Wilson would have not have announced his support for a constitutional amendment, allowing all American Women the right to vote. Without the use of the many new, unseen, forceful tactics that Paul brought over from England, Alice Paul would not be considered one of the greatest influences of the development of Women’s rights. Many people also see Susan B. Anthony, the greatest influences on the development of women’s rights in America.

Susan B. Anthony never got to see what her hard work and dedication provided to the other women of the United States, but she fought long and hard for the women of America. Susan was a well-known activist, commonly known for the activism for women’s rights in America. Similarly to Alice Paul, Susan’s biggest influence was her family; they were a very politically active family, which led her to her involvement in politics in her later years. After being denied the chance to speak at a temperance convention (a convention against the consumption of alcohol), due to the fact that she was a woman, she decided to really take fighting for women’s rights seriously. Anthony formed the New York State Woman’s Rights Committee. Through this committee, Anthony started petitions for women to have the right to vote and the right to own property. The New York State Woman’s Rights Committee also gave her the opportunity to travel and campaign on the behalf of all American women. When the civil war ended, more focus was put into women’s rights. With the founding of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, Anthony and Stanton were calling for the same rights to be given to all members of society regardless of their race or sex. This Association helped a lot, but not enough. Susan, went on to create the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 (The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920), during this time, Susan and Elizabeth went on to create a newspaper that lobbied for women’s rights though a weekly publication, which allowed more people to hear about these activists, fighting for their right to vote. Anthony appeared before every congress from 1869 until 1906 (United States. National Park Service) asking for the passage of a suffrage movement. The amount of effort that Susan put into the development of women’s rights and to see nothing happen was insane. Susan merged her association (NWSA) with the other association fighting for the idea; women should be allowed to vote and own property, creating what was known as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, where she lived to be the second ever president after Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Susan B. Anthony fought for women and their equality until the day she died on march 13th, 1906 (History.com Staff). Her dedication and efforts did not go unnoticed by the American government and the society of America as a whole. When the nineteenth amendment was passed in 1920, it was given the name ‘ The Susan B. Anthony Amendment’ in honour of the work that she did to help women of America get the rights they deserved. Her close friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton also had a great impact on the development of women’s rights in America.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a very knowledgeable woman, who fought for women and their right to be seen as equal to men. She was seen a very controversial activist but none the less she did her job at making women in America get rights equal to those on a man. The way Elizabeth presented herself was very controversial; she attracted attention by being very strong in communicating her thoughts about women’s rights, and used it to extend her knowledge of women and their rights out to other people. Stanton, alongside Marth coffin wright, Mary Ann M’Clintock, Lucretia Mott and Jane hunt were the founders and organizers of the first woman’s rights convention in 1848, this convention introduced the demand for votes for women into the debate. The start of this convention opened a new world of action for Stanton. With the civil war going on, the national attention was not on women’s rights, until the civil war was over, Stanton focused more on the abolishment on slavery. Elizabeth and Susan B. Anthony went on to create their first national organization, the American Equal Rights Association, which was a big step towards gaining rights for the women. Stanton worked really hard alongside the National American Woman Suffrage Association at a national level to help women across America, even though their efforts weren’t seen by the congress. During the first Women’s rights conventions, Stanton states
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no love. He was withheld from her rights, which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men--- both natives and foreigners. Having deprived her of this right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides… he has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns (Stanton, 1867)
This quote explains the knowledge Stanton had about everything she was fighting for. She explains that for every thing a man receives or has, something is being taken away from a woman. Stanton saying this at the first ever women’s rights convention allowed for people who worked with or for the government to realize that women had a lot more knowledge than they thought. It shows that women should be taken seriously and that they deserve the same rights as men. Without the development of the American equal rights association and the first women’s rights convention, American women may not have gotten the right to vote until many years later. Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought long and hard, until the day she died for every American woman out there.
All in all, these three women, Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, worked hard and put their lives on the line for the women of America. American women may not have seen the day they were given the simple right to vote when they did, if it wasn’t for the hard work, dedication and perseverance of these women.