Women's Rights Dbq

As we all know, Wyoming played a special role in suffrage. Wyoming, also known as the Equality State, was the first state in the nation that allowed women to vote. Eventually, almost all of the Western states gave women the right to vote. Unlike the West, all Eastern states, except Kansas, didn’t allow women to vote. Most women, before the ratification of the 19th Amendment, were expected to stay at home and take care of the things there. Men didn’t think that women should have to be worried about politics. Until in 1920, when that was changed. Most states were quick at ratifying the 19th Amendment, but others took nearly 60 to do so.
There were many people that were supporters of suffrage. Some of these include
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth

Cady Stanton. Susan B. Anthony believed that women are equal to and should be given the same rights as men. She also believed that the government needs women to vote. She says, “There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.” Elizabeth Stanton fought for equality just like Susan B. Anthony. They were also both against the 15th Amendment which allowed black men to vote, but not women. Another person that was important in suffrage was William Bright. He took suffrage very seriously, and he wrote, “I knew it was a new issue, and a live one, and with strong feeling that it was just, I determined to use all my influence.” He was the one, in fact, to introduce the bill in Wyoming to give women the right to vote. He believed that his wife was more eligible to vote than some men when he said, “I believe my wife is as good as any man and better than convicts and idiots.” He wanted to do all that he could so that women could have the right to vote. There were many others that helped with suffrage, but these are just a few of them.
Suffrage in the United States started in the 1820’s and had been an ongoing fight, until August 18, 1920. On this day, the 19th Amendment was ratified, and women were given the right to vote. The road to this accomplishment was not an easy one. In 1848, activists for ending slavery and women's rights joined forces at the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. There, Frederick Douglass, a former slave, abolitionist, and writer, gave a speech supporting universal voting rights. Finally, the 19th Amendment was ratified, but some states it took nearly 60 years for them to ratify it. On March 22, 1984, Mississippi was the last state in the United States to ratify the 19th Amendment.
Wyoming was a supporter of women’s rights and suffrage, but why?

There are many reasons why. C. G. Coutant, a historian, wrote, “One man told me that he thought it right and just to give women the vote. Another man said he thought it would be a good advertisement for the territory. Still, another said that he voted to please someone else, and so on.” Some people like C.G. Coutant wrote, believed that it was just right to let women vote. They thought that women should have just as many rights and the men. Another reason the bill was passed was that some thought that it might bring more people, especially women, to the territory. In 1869, there were nearly 6,000 men and only around 1,000 women, so some of the men thought that more women would come if they were given the right to vote. Some thought of the bill as a joke and never thought that it would ever be passed. In 1869, a secretary in the Territory, Edward M. Lee, wrote, “Once, during the session, amid the greatest hilarity, and after the presentation of various funny amendments and in the full expectation of a gubernatorial veto, an act was passed Enfranchising the Women of Wyoming. The bill, however, was approved, became a law, and the youngest territory placed in the van of progress . . . How strange that a movement destined to purify the muddy pool of politics . . . should have originated in a joke . . . All honor to them, say we, to Wyoming’s first legislature!” When the bill was passed Susan B. Anthony said,

“Wyoming is the first place on God’s green earth which could consistently claim to be the land of the Free!” Ever since the bill was passed in 1869, Wyoming has been known as the Equality State.
Suffrage was and is a very important thing in history and now. Wyoming played a very special role in this by being the first state to allow women to vote. There were also many people that helped with suffrage. Some of these people were Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and also William Bright and his wife, Julia Bright. There were many reasons why Wyoming chose to let women vote, both because they thought it was right and logical to let women vote and also to bring more people to Wyoming. Suffrage is something that has changed a lot of things in the past and present. These are reasons why suffrage is and was important, and also how Wyoming played a special role in suffrage.