THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT : OVER 100 YEARS OF SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES
On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified granting women the right to vote. This victory is considered the most significant achievement of women and the single largest extension of democratic voting rights in the nation’s history. But it was not won without many trials and hardships. The road to victory for American women actually began in 1848 with a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton it was the first women’s rights convention in the world. Although there were smaller meetings in support of women’s right to vote, hold office, and ownership of property, the Seneca Falls Convention is considered the one that launched the suffrage movement. The delegates produced a Declaration of Sentiments that stated, “that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Following the convention, the idea of voting rights for women was mocked in the press and some delegates withdraw their support. But the leaders were not deterred and the movement moved forward for the next 70 years under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and pioneers such as Sojourn Truth, a slave who spoke out for civil rights and made such an impression on President Lincoln that he invited her to the White House to discuss issues. These suffragists circulated petitions and lobbied Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to enfranchise women.
So, how was life in the early days of America that led to the suffrage movement? During its beginning, women were denied some of the basic rights enjoyed by male citizens. In addition to having no right to vote, married women could not own property and had no legal claim to any money they might earn. Women were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, not politics. The historical timeline from 1776 to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 shows the determination and willingness of American women from all ethnic, racial, social and financial backgrounds to achieve equality for women. This led to a platform for the achievement of other reforms.
In 1776, in a letter to her husband, John Adams, one of our founding Fathers, the future first lady, Abigail Adams, made a plea to him and the Continental Congress to “ remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” It is not hard to imagine Abigail Adams leading a movement for women’s rights, nor to miss her admonishment to her husband to remember that the American Revolution was fought over a lack of representation.
Seventy-two years later, and 30 years after her death, Abigail Adams would be pleased that following the Seneca Falls Convention the women’s rights movement gathered steam. More conventions were held, but across the country many sorts of groups were proliferating that involved the interest of women-temperance leagues, religious movements, moral-reform societies, anti-slavery organizations. The leaders of these groups saw the vote for women as a means to achieve their goals. New Jersey became the first state to acknowledge women’s right by granting women the right to vote in their state constitution in 1776.
The 1850s were an especially active time for the suffragists. Sojourner Truth (Isabella Van Wagener) became an itinerant preacher speaking out for women’s rights. Her spontaneous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech electrified the women’s convention in Akron, Ohio. “A Paper Devoted to the Elevation of Woman was acknowledged as the first feminist newspaper of the women’s rights movement. Many more conventions were held to bring in more supporters.
During the 1860s, The Civil War slowed the movement while women focused on the war effort. Regardless, Kansas granted women the right to vote in school board elections. A petition with 10,000 signatures is presented to Congress for an amendment prohibiting disenfranchisement on the basis of sex, and American Equal Rights Association is formed that pledges to achieve suffrage for both women and people of color. Following the end of the war Elizabeth Cady Stanton declares herself as a candidate for Congress in New York but loses. Referendums on women’s rights are held in several states and fail, and the first measure providing for the woman suffrage amendment is introduced into Congress. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony with Parker Pillsbury publish the first edition of The Revolution which becomes one of the most important radical periodicals of the women’s movement. During the presidential election women cast ballots in a separate box in New Jersey that inspired suffragists in other states to do the same in the following years, and the first federal women’s suffrage amendment is introduced in both Houses of Congress. With slavery abolished the suffrage movement was again on the front burner, but a rift developed in the suffrage movement over how to best achieve suffrage. Anthony and Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and campaigned for a constitutional amendment for universal suffrage in America, as well as for other women’s rights. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was formed by Lucy Stone and others to focus on obtaining suffrage for black men with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and to win women’s rights to vote state-by-state, ignoring the broader rights the NWSA was campaigning for.
During the 1870s, the Women’s Journal debuts and later becomes the official paper of NAWSA. Wyoming becomes a state and brings with statehood women’s right to vote. The Anti-Suffrage Party is founded by wives of prominent men, including many Civil War generals. Susan B. Anthony is arrested in New York for casting a ballot with 15 other women. She is tried for voting illegally, convicted and fined $100, which she refused to ever pay. Michigan and Minnesota give women the “school vote”. Senator A.A. Sargent from California introduces a woman suffrage amendment in 1878 and the wording remained unchanged until it passed Congress in 1920.
The 1880s brought the realization to the two organizations that they would be more effective if they merged back into one group. They formed the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) with Stanton as President and Anthony as Vice-President. They campaigned for broader rights along with the right to vote. In the early 20th century, NAWSA restructured itself and shifted its tactics, recruiting celebrities to draw attention to the cause, allying with local women’s clubs and some labor unions, and raising money to train organizers. In 1914, Alice Paul and Lucy Stone became dissatisfied with the leadership and direction of the NWSA and formed the Congressional Union which was much more radicalized and militant than the NWSA. In 1916 the group was renamed the National Woman’s Party (NWP) and began a more militant campaign for suffrage by picketing and holding demonstrations in front of the White House.
By the turn of the 20th century the suffrage leadership wanted to pass reform legislation but had begun to realize that the politicians were unwilling to listen to a disenfranchised group. Therefore, they began a mass movement to gain the right to vote.
The NAWSA president, Carrie Chapman Catt, was Anthony’s hand-picked successor as the driving force of the organization and led the final push toward a constitutional amendment, setting up a publicity bureau in Washington, D.C. to exert immediate, face-to-face pressure on Congressmen. The NWP had generated bad publicity by criticizing the government for supporting democracy abroad while denying women the right to vote at home which they called blatant hypocrisy. Catt publicity distanced herself and NAWSA from NWP. NWP continued more radical practices resulting in arrests and jail time, hunger strikes and force-feedings until the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified.
Earlier, it was mentioned that the road to victory was a rocky path. An article from HistoryNet Magazines, March 1913, gives us a glance into how rocky that path was.
Sixty-five years after Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the landmark women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y., the first national demonstration for women’s suffrage took place in Washngton, D. C. On March 3, 1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration, 8000 women gathered to march down Pennsylvania Avenue in support of women’s right to vote. ---------As the women and several male supporters set forth with 26 floats, a crowd of roughly half a million people watched with mixed emotions. The murmurs of the crowd grew loud and angry as malicious bystanders crumpled parade programs and flung them at the women. The police that Congress promised would protect the parade stood aside as men poured onto the street, shouting insults and condescending remarks, and began to physically attach the marchers. Police ignored cries for help as the mob ripped banners from the hands of young girls. -------Reporters from across the country took pictures and reported on the event. -----The resulting press coverage and congressional investigation led to the first congressional debate over a federal amendment enfranchising women in 26 years. The parade successfully reintroduced the suffrage movement as a legitimate and formidable political force. Seven years later, the 19th Amendment passed by a margin of one vote.
The 19th Amendment was presented to the House of Representatives on May 21, 1919 and was passed on a 304-89 vote. The U.S. Senate took up the Amendment on June 4, 1919. After Southern Democrats abandoned a filibuster, 37 Republicans were joined by 19 Democrats to pass the amendment and send it to the states for ratification. The amendment had to be ratified by 36 states. The first state to ratify was Illinois and Texas was the first southern state to approve ratification. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify on August 18, 1920. The story goes that the vote was 48-48 with no sign of changing until a 23-year-old Senator got a letter from his mother telling him that he should be helping Mrs. Cates and approving the amendment. He changed his vote and made it a 50-49 vote. With the 36-state approval the amendment was ratified. On November 2, 1920, that one vote allowed eight million women to cast a vote in an American election for the first time in American history. Another 60 years passed before the 12 other states finally approved the amendment.
On this 100th year anniversary of the 19th Amendment let each of us give thanks for the women, and the men who supported them, who kept their faith and commitment over 100 years to the idea of equality for all. And, as each election rolls around to remember that our vote does count. The only way our vote would not make a difference is if we do not use it. Not casting a vote in any election is letting someone else speak for us. Since 1776, with Abigail Adams’s letter to her husband, women have fought against injustices and have been successful. Let us not let their sacrifices go to waste. Vote as if your life depends on it—for it truly does.