Women's Suffrage Dbq

The way the world sees women has always played a part in shaping history. Attitudes toward women were the spark that set suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth aflame for women’s rights. Their efforts towards women’s suffrage managed to ignite the tempers of men who did not share their passion for equality. The attitudes of those opposing the suffrage movement helped women gain the attention they needed to push women’s rights. When women were finally victorious in earning the right to vote, attitudes toward women began to change.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, it was a shared belief that women belonged at home. Their most important roles were that of a wife and a mother, but many women were finding themselves unsatisfied with that life and the opportunities available to them.

Women were not allowed to own property or vote.

They could work, but were paid a fraction of a man's salary for the same work. While men fought the Civil War, women stayed home, fighting in their own way by working in factories and doing the jobs that had once belonged to men. (Keenan) When the war finally ended five years later, the men left the battlefield and returned back to their previous lives. Women were forced back into their place in the home, but it was too late. Women everywhere had tasted freedom and all of a sudden that once comfy life was ill-fitting and chafed at women’s skin. (Women’s Suffrage)
Suffragists, women who fought for their right to vote, were often mistreated and harassed. Unlike women in many other countries, American women protested peacefully. Despite their non-confrontational parades and bloomers, suffragists were met with violence. Sojourner Truth, a black abolitionist and suffragist, preferred to walk everywhere she went to speak. She was often "heckled and sometimes beaten while touring", especially in the South due to her

skin color. (Keenan) Susan B. Anthony, another well-known suffragist, traveled from town to town to speak about women’s suffrage. She repeatedly faced mobs that threw rotten food at her and threatened to physically harm her with knives and guns, but she did not stop sharing her beliefs. (Wallner) These women also faced opposition from the police. It was not uncommon for suffragists to be arrested for parading or voting. In Rochester, New York on November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony and 50 other women voted illegally.(Linder) Anthony was arrested for her crime, found guilty, and ordered to pay a fine in a public trial. (Wallner) In March of 1913, a suffrage parade was planned as a part of the inauguration festivities. The suffragists had been promised police protection, but instead they were attacked and, according to the Women's Journal and Suffrage News, they were "spit upon, slapped in the face [...] and insulted by jeers and obscene language too vile to print or repeat". The police who were supposed to protect them did nothing but watch. (McLean) However, this mistreatment did bring the suffragists’ cause to the forefront of America’s attention. Unjustified arrests and violence won sympathy for the cause. Susan B. Anthony’s trial garnered the media’s attention and ended up helping her cause more than hurting it because she could now share her ideas with a significantly larger audience.(Wallner)
Women throughout America finally won their right to vote in 1920, as well as the right to own property, keep what they earn, and sue in court. (Keenan) Women work the same jobs, have fought the same wars, and now have the same rights as men. Even if they were not immediately viewed as equals, they were equal according to the law. As time passed women of all races held and used the rights their predecessors had fought so hard to earn. In 2008, 65.7% of women who were eligible to vote did so in the presidential election. In other words, there were 70.4 million females using their right to vote that year.(Stark) The gap between the amount men and women are paid for the same jobs has shrunken considerably, though it still exists in many workplaces. Women owning property is not a strange occurrence at all. They earn, keep, and use their own money, just like males. Women have fought for their place as equals with men in society and, generally, they are treated as such.
Anna Quindlen once said, “Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.”(Suffrage Quotes) Quindlen was correct in saying that the right thing has lasted, especially where suffrage is concerned. Women faced huge obstacles as they fought for their rights. They were mistreated and mocked, attacked and arrested, but still they stayed strong and their strength resulted in their victory. Because of those brave, resilient suffragists, women can vote. Women all throughout America are seen as equals. The right thing has indeed lasted and here’s hoping it always will.