Women’s suffrage, or the crusade to achieve the equal right for women to vote and run for political office, was a difficult fight that took activists in the United States almost 100 years to win. On August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified, declaring all women be empowered with the same rights and responsibilities of citizenship as men, and on Election Day, 1920 millions of women exercised their right to vote for the very first time.
The women’s suffrage movement is thought to have begun with the publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792. Wollstonecraft is considered the “mother of feminism” and wrote of the sexual double standards between men and women, calling for equality for both as human beings. She is in modern times considered a difference or communitarian feminist “in her honoring of women's natural talents and her insistence that women not be measured by men's standards” (Lewis, 2011, para. 3), endorsing the female focus of “emphasis on duty in the family and in civic relationships” (Lewis, 2011, para.3). She lived the reality of abuse and oppression and drew on her experiences to bring these revulsions to public awareness.
During the 19th century, as male suffrage gradually expanded, women became more active in the quest for their own suffrage. It wasn’t until 1893 in New Zealand that women achieved the right to vote on a national level; Australia followed in 1902. American women didn’t win the right to vote until after World War I (Women’s Suffrage, 2011).
The campaign in America for women’s suffrage began in earnest before the Civil War. Reform groups were thriving all over the country, including temperance clubs, religi...
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...esult was a world event that changed the face of politics in America. The right to vote politically empowered women in the United States and recognized the importance of their voice as citizens.
Works Cited
Lewis, J.J. (2011). Mary Wollstonecraft legacy. Retrieved from http://womenshistory.about.com/od/wollstonecraft/a/wollstonecraft-legacy.htm
Women’s Suffrage. (2011). Scholastic website. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/suffrage/history.htm
Kelly, M. (2011). Seneca Falls convention. Retrieved from http://americanhistory.about.com/od/womenssuffrage/a/senecafalls.htm
Tindall, G.B. & Shi, D.E. (2010). America a narrative history 8th edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
The Fight for Women's Suffrage. (2011). The History Channel website. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” (Elizabeth, 1815). The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gave women a right to vote as well as men. The movement to give the right to vote for women through the 19th Amendment was a Suffrage movement. The Suffrage movement had continued since the Civil War, but the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment (it is related to the right to citizen) did not cover the right to vote for women. The 19th Amendment and the Suffrage movement have changed the lives of women in society.
Later in May 1919, there was a special assembly where the House and the Senate passed the Susan B. Anthony amendment. The entire procedure of approval was completed on August 18,1920. That was the day women won the fight for women’s suffrage. In the beginning, from
In the years after 1870 there were many reasons for the development of the women’s suffrage movement. The main reasons were changes in the law. Some affecting directly affecting women, and some not, but they all added to the momentum of Women’s campaign for the vote.
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.
All adult women finally got the vote with the Nineteenth Amendment, also known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, in 1920.
How the Vote Was Won introduces the role of brave women in their journey to success of the national suffrage movement. Mead writes about the success that was brought by the women in the western states, and gives the readers an insight on the struggles of racism and elitism that played throughout the suffrage movement in the western states. In eight perceptive chapters, the authors focuses on a few states in the west, in which she explains the successes or failures of the campaigns for woman suffrage. Mead also addresses readers with significant descriptions of how the woman 's suffrage served as both economic and political justice giving women the right to vote.
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.
Banner, Lois W. “Women Suffrage.” Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. OCLC 2004. 4 January 2004
On August 18, 1920 the nineteenth amendment was fully ratified. It was now legal for women to vote on Election Day in the United States. When Election Day came around in 1920 women across the nation filled the voting booths. They finally had a chance to vote for what they thought was best. Not only did they get the right to vote but they also got many other social and economic rights. They were more highly thought of. Some people may still have not agreed with this but they couldn’t do anything about it now. Now that they had the right to vote women did not rush into anything they took their time of the right they had.
After decades of fighting for women’s suffrage, the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920 which guaranteed women the right to vote; leading another step towards gender equality. Great women suffrage leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton finally received a result from their years of hard work to gain support for women’s suffrage
In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was sign into the Constitution, granting women the rights to vote.
And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and half of our posterity, but to the whole people women as well as men.” (Document 5). Anthony even once tried to vote, however was arrested, and found guilty. She was fined a large amount, but refused to pay the bill. In 1846, only four states, all western states, allowed women to vote. In between the years of 1896 and 1910, seven more Western states permitted full suffrage for women, but it wasn’t until 14 years after Anthony’s death, women gained national suffrage. President Wilson urged the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, and in 1918, all women in America were given the right to vote. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified by the states and made into a law. A woman by the name
In August 18, 1920, the U.S. Constitution Granted U.S. women a right. That was the right of vote. In American history women had no right to vote or be part of government. They were born to be at home and do the house choir and motherhood. They had no right to educate or go out, thus the 19th amendment was approved that gave the women the right to vote (Matthew, 2017). Having the right of votes for women was not easy. It was given to them after years of fighting and struggling, after fighting and protesting so long for their rights they were finally victorious. Women in America were finally given their rights. One of the most important freedom given to women in 19th amendment is their rights. This essay will investigate how women were given the right to be equality, the right to vote and be part of government, and also, how this amendment affected the lives of women.
Suffrage is the right or exercise of the right to vote. Suffrage has been viewed as a right, a privilege, or even a duty. Suffrage was first proposed as a federal amendment in 1868, women 's suffrage struggled for many years before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920. The demand for liberation of american women was first formed in 1848 at seneca falls after the civil war. In 1869 Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National woman suffrage association to work for the movement on the federal level and to press for a more drastic institutional changes. Lucy Stone and Julia Ward formed the American Women Suffrage Association which aimed to secure the ballot throughout the state 's legislature. The two groups run by the four women finally joined in 1890 united together under the name of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century women began to vocalize their opinions and desires for the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage movement paved the way to the nineteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution that allowed women that right. The Women’s Suffrage movement started a movement for equal rights for women that has continued to propel equal opportunities for women throughout the country. The Women’s Liberation Movement has sparked better opportunities, demanded respect and pioneered the path for women entering in the workforce that was started by the right to vote and given momentum in the late 1950s.