The History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

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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

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