Women’s suffrage, the battle to receive equal rights for women to vote and run for political office, was a tough battle which took almost 100 years to achieve. The traditional view of women in society was to stay at home, cook, clean, raise children, and to help take care of the family farm. This view started to change around the late 19th century and during the industrial revolution. The male authority tended to keep women in the home, but in the early 19th century administrations began giving women the opportunity to get education in more ways than they had been allowed in the past. There were still exceptions and problems with women being educated. The reason being that education was the first step for women to be able to have a career in …show more content…
medicine, law, or politics. Normally these were jobs for men and for some reason, men felt threatened by the idea of women being allowed to do the same jobs as them. During the Civil War, women often took over their husbands’ jobs and for the time being let up on the fight for rights. They began helping black slaves attain their freedom. The antislavery movement helped spark the women’s suffrage movement, although it took three amendments and 90 years of intense protest for women to finally get the 19th amendment passed. The final showdown over the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote took place in 1920 in the Tennessee State Capitol. Supporters fighting for suffrage (called suffragists) identified by wearing yellow roses. Woman advocates just needed one more state to ratify the amendment and Tennessee was their only chance. The Senate approved, but the House was said to have been split evenly. Harry Burn was the last vote they needed to pass the amendment, but he contradicted the ratification. Burn even wore a red rose to prove just how against the ratification he was. He wasn’t planning on changing his mind at all, but his mom sent him a note saying that he should give his vote. And he did. His final agreement with the amendment was the deciding factor. The women at long last achieved their goal. On August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment was approved. The 19th amendment acknowledged that all women would be given the same rights and accountabilities of citizenship as men. And on Election Day of 1920, millions of women had the opportunity to vote for the very first time. The monument includes five women in a staggered formation, it represents women marching forward with their banners raised high.
“The Anti-Suffrage Movement was very strong, especially in the South,” says Alan, “so these ladies had their work cut out for them.” (Source A) This monument portrays the women as powerful without them looking violent, they still look feminine but not delicate in the slightest. This monument is a wonderful representation of the insistent strength and determination put forth by these women during such vexing times. The figures show the importance of the events that took place and give a sense of hopefulness for even greater improvement towards gender equality. The figures stand around 7 feet tall and are made of bronze. The statue was unveiled on August 22 in 2016. The city of Nashville’s Centennial Park had a women's suffrage monument put up featuring Anne Dallas Dudley, lead the national movement that helped achieve the ratification of the 19th Amendment by the Tennessee General Assembly and add it to the U.S. Constitution, and four other women who strived for women's equality. The piece was created by a well-known Nashville sculptor named Alan LeQuire. It was specially made by the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument organization to memorialize Tennessee's crucial role in granting women the right to vote. The five women present in the monument were major characters during the final ratification battle in 1920. Their names were Anne Dallas Dudley, Abby Crawford Milton, J. Frankie Pierce, Sue Shelton White, and Carrie Chapman Catt. Catt was a national suffrage leader that came to Tennessee to help give some direction to the pro-suffrage forces. On May 1, 1916. Dudley made a plan for women to parade through the streets of Nashville to make their support for women's right to vote evident. More than five dozen vehicles journeyed from the Tennessee Capitol to Centennial Park alongside Dudley. Many businesses hung up banners with "Votes for Women"
written on them. The women who could not leave work threw flowers from the windows of their offices on to the cars below. More than 2,000 supporters were there to welcome the large group led by Dudley, her husband, and their children when they had reached Centennial Park. This movement was known to be Nashville's largest women's suffrage assembly. After the Centennial Park parade, the state of Tennessee became an important part of the suffrage movement. Dudley went on to become a member of the national board of directors in the Nation American Woman Suffrage Association, she was even nominated as the third vice-president of the organization. The reason that I chose to write about this monument is the fact that even though this movement, in my opinion, is just as important as other movements (like the civil rights movement). Women were given rights that they had never actually had before, for the first time in forever women had many of the same opportunities as men. This movement is largely one of the main reasons that women can be as successful as they are today. Even though this movement changed the future of women’s lives, it just doesn’t seem to be celebrated in the same way that many other influential movements are. It goes under the radar a little bit. It is not nearly acknowledged as well as it should be. “It was an active, controversial, multi-faceted, challenging, passionate movement of the best and brightest women in America, from all backgrounds, who, in modern parlance, boldly went where no woman had ever gone before.” (Source b) That is a HUGE step in American history. “In many history textbooks, the entire movement is summed up in one sentence: ‘In 1920, Congress gave women the right to vote.’” This sentence is so important. The women’s equality movement has not been talked about or honored nearly as well as it should be. People tend to brush it off as not being all that important, it is almost completely overlooked. But our world would be a different place if women were never given their rights. The Rights Movement gave Americans a different view, increased the roles of women in American society, and paved the way for further progress in reaching total equality for all races and genders. It opened doors for the women of America, allowing them to achieve a greater role in the society. Women's economic roles began to increase in society. Since there was more educational opportunities for women, woman began seeing to see the potential for them to pursue significant professional careers. Also women's salaries went up, although still not quite to the same level as men’s. Nonetheless, this was still a victory for women because it was a large step up from where they were at before. It also created higher expectations for women. By the early twentieth century, women had the opportunity to go to college to study professions. They began entering professions that had previously been dominated by male workers such as law, medicine, ministry, and business. Women had begun to create many new organizations and foundations on their own as well. The Women's Suffrage movement allowed for women to lock their place in society and take bigger steps towards total equality among the people of America. This monument is extremely influential. It portrays these women as strong and hardworking and that is the goal, to show society that anyone is capable of making change in this world, as long as it is a persistent effort.
Today, women and men have equal rights, however not long ago men believed women were lower than them. During the late eighteenth century, men expected women to stay at home and raise children. Women were given very few opportunities to expand their education past high school because colleges and universities would not accept females. This was a loss for women everywhere because it took away positions of power for them. It was even frowned upon if a woman showed interest in medicine or law because that was a man 's place not a woman’s, just like it was a man 's duty to vote and not a woman 's. The road to women 's right was long and hard, but many women helped push the right to vote, the one that was at the front of that group was Susan B. Anthony.
Through the 20th century, the communist movement advocated greatly for women's’ rights. Despite this, women still struggled for equality.
Throughout the 1800s, women across the world began establishing organizations to demand women’s suffrage in their countries. Today, there are still women in countries fighting for their right to vote. Some countries who’ve succeeded in the mid to late 1800s were Sweden and New Zealand. Once they expanded women’s suffrage, many other countries followed. Like Sweden, countries first granted limited suffrage to women and other countries approved to the full national level. Additionally, there were quite a few countries who had taken over a century to give women the right to vote, Qatar being a prime example. Although the fight for women’s suffrage varied in the United States, France, and Cuba in terms of length and process, each effort ultimately
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.
As mentioned above, women’s role were unjust to the roles and freedoms of the men, so an advanced education for women was a strongly debated subject at the beginning of the nineteenth century (McElligott 1). The thought of a higher chance of education for women was looked down upon, in the early decades of the nineteenth century (The American Pageant 327). It was established that a women’s role took part inside the household. “Training in needlecraft seemed more important than training in algebra” (327). Tending to a family and household chores brought out the opinion that education was not necessary for women (McElligott 1). Men were more physically and mentally intellectual than women so it was their duty to be the educated ones and the ones with the more important roles. Women were not allowed to go any further than grammar school in the early part of the 1800’s (Westward Expansion 1). If they wanted to further their education beyond grammar, it had to be done on their own time because women were said to be weak minded, academically challenged and could n...
This movement which was inspired by the ideologies of courageous women and fueled by their enthusiasm and sacrifice is often unacknowledged by most historians in the chronicles of American History. Today the movement is often misunderstood as a passive, white upper class, naive cause. But a deeper study would reveal that the women’s suffrage movement was the one that brought together the best and brightest women in America, which not only changed the lives of half the citizens of United States but also changed the social attitudes of millions of Americans.
What does “movement” mean? There are many definitions for the word. In this case, I am referring to a political meaning. Movement is a series of organized activities working toward an objective. There have been many groups in history to start up movements throughout the decades. One that stands out to me the most is the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Women’s movements are led by powerful, courageous women who push to better the lives’ of women or lives’ of others. Most familiar movements are those involved in politics, in efforts to change the roles and status of womanhood in society. Groups of women also attempt to improve lives of others with the help of religious and charitable activities. Either it was a political, religious, or charitable women’s movement, each woman of each group have made an impact on today’s view of women and achieved greater political involvement.
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 ...
Nothing simply begins. Everything needs something else in order to develop and live continuously. Fire needs wood to burn, water needs heat to boil, and the women’s right movement needed abolition to begin the real fight. The women’s rights movement of the nineteenth century emerged out of abolition activism because it was not until after abolitionist groups formed and began fighting slavery that women began to realize they had no rights themselves and began their own fight.
During the beginning of the 20th century, the increase activity of the National Union Of Women attractive additional support of the suffrage movement. “However, it was possible to criticize the policy and tactics of the constitutional suffragist on several grounds. It was argued that the suffragists should have revolted in 1884, when the amendment to the reform bill of that year failed through the opposition of the liberal leadership, but the suffragists were too well mannered to do more protesting and concentrate all of their efforts on one private members bill.” The women suffrage’s organization could not force the political parties to adopt the cause of women’s suffrage and need a major party to pick up their campaign or there was no hope of a government bill. Women’s suffrages leaders saw that they need more of a drastic tactics to gain public awareness. Women started protesting by undergoing violence methods and tactics however, the National Union Of Women believed that any aggression or violence acts of protesting would only weaken the movement. These actions would persuade male’s voters that women are too emotional and thus could not be trusted with the responsible of voting. These gentle ways of protesting was unconvincing, as many political believed would give up or lose interests. The lack of actions cause many women to take strongest methods of protesting their rights and formed a more violent group called Suffragettes.
During the 19th century women around America began to fight for their right to vote which became the Suffrage Movement. The 19th amendment which is the bill that legally gave women in America the right to vote, was first introduced to American congress in 1878. On August 18th 1920 the amendment was implemented and ratified. However, between 1878 and 1912, nine western American states granted full voting rights to females. On may 21st 1919 the house of representatives passed the bill and within two weeks the American senate followed and approved the 19th amendment. It wasn’t until Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18th 1920, that law was implemented and ratified around the country. Although, across the globe Australia already
Opening Statement: For many centuries, women have been the backbone and caretaker the families of the United States. The maxim “behind every great man, there is a great woman” illustrates the critical role women have within society. Anti-suffragists believe women should focus on their maternal role and exercise their influence and reform through other means – through the example of her behaviour and service of men. However, it is clear that women deserve the right to vote because it is their constitutional right based on the fifteenth amendment, would increase social reform and awareness throughout the country, and is morally just in order to create a true “democratic society”.
he and the other men “remember the ladies” In response, the Declaration is worded as “all
The right for women to be educated has been long sought after. The history of women education started the beginning of feminism. Education, over the last two hundred years, has changed women lives in America according to Barbara M. Solomon. In the early years of American history women were discouraged from getting a higher education it would be considered unnatural for women to be educated, and women were only taught domestic skills such as sewing, cooking and child-rearing. American women began to seek opportunities for further education, as well as equal rights. The history of women’s education has evolved through events that have shaped the culture of America today. To better understand the women’s education movement, it is important to know the background of its history.