Women Suffrage

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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 ...

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...utions to the suffrage movement were most effective due to their drastic approaches such as different forms of campaigning, picketing during wartime, and their maltreatment in jail to their advantage. Without the radical methods that the NWP created, there is a strong possibility that women today would not be capable of voting. NWP was the most effective because they showed society how much they cared and had a great way of gaining people’s attention. NAWSA didn’t earn as much attention as NWP because they focused more on educating people about why women should deserve enfranchisement. NWP stood strong the whole way, little by little they earned enough attention to get what they wanted. With no voice comes no change.

Works Cited

Cooney, Robert. Winning the vote: The Triumph of the American Women Suffrage Movement. California: American Graphic Press, 2005. Print.

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