Women’s SuffrageWomen’s Suffrage

What was life like for Woman between What was life like for Woman between 1750 – 1920?1750 – 1920?

Spend 10 minutes researching the Spend 10 minutes researching the life of women during this time life of women during this time period. period.

Prepare to discuss your thoughts Prepare to discuss your thoughts with the class.with the class.

WOMEN’S RIGHTSWOMEN’S RIGHTS

Changes in American life Changes in American life during the Industrial during the Industrial

RevolutionRevolution

Division between work and homeDivision between work and home

The “cult of true womanhood” portrayed the ideal woman as “pious, pure, domestic, and submissive.”

Education for women

The demand for women suffrage emerged in the first half of the 19th century from within other reform movements.

Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances Wright, and Margaret Fuller believed that giving women an equal education to that of men would do more to improve women’s position in society than voting rights.

The Temperance Crusade

Susan B. Anthony and Amelia Bloomer attended the New York Men’s State Temperance Society meeting while wearing short hair and bloomers.

The radical abolition movement had the greatest impact on women’s rights.

Women in the abolition movement recognized parallels between the legal condition of

slaves and that of women.

Participation in the Anti-Slavery movement helped women develop public-speaking and argumentative skills that carried over into the women’s rights movement.

Clarina Irene Howard Nichols, Abolitionist and First Feminist of the Kansas Territory

Both white and black women were excluded from full membership in the American Anti-Slavery Society until 1840.

Women responded by forming their own separate female auxiliaries—by 1838, over 100 existed.

Marie Stewart, early African-American abolitionist speaker

“What if I am a woman? . . . Females [should] strive by their example, both in public and in private, to assist those who are endeavoring to stop the strong current of prejudice that flows so profusely against us at present.”

Marie Stewart, 1833

Angelina and Sarah Grimké

The Grimké sisters, nationally prominent abolitionists, connected the inequalities of women, both white and black, with slavery.

“. . . We are placed very unexpectedly in a very trying situation, in the forefront of an entirely new contest—a contest for the rights of women as a moral, intelligent, and responsible being. . . . It is a woman’s right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by which she is to be governed.”

Angelina Grimké, 1838

1840: The World Anti-Slavery Society denied women delegates the right to speak.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton attended the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention and her experience led her into the struggle for women’s rights.

"We resolved to hold a convention as soon as we returned home, and form a society to advocate the rights of women."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott met in 1848 to organize a convention to promote “the social, civil, and religious rights of women.”

The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention, 1848

The first signatures on the Declaration of Sentiments.

“. . . The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. . . . He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she has no voice. . .”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

The Declaration of Sentiments

Property-owning New Jersey women could vote from 1776 to 1807.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution added “male” to its definition of eligible voters—women would need another amendment explicitly granting them the franchise.

The demand for woman suffrage presented a vision of independent

women that seemed to threaten social structures.

The Seneca Falls Convention was the “birthplace of the women’s rights

movement.”

1848: New York passed a Married Woman’s Property Act—other states followed.

But calls for divorce reform were less successful.

Two new demands:

Frederick Douglass demanded the vote for women in 1848.

Before the Civil War, black and white men and women worked together for women’s rights and the abolition of slavery.

War, and the Reconstruction that followed, split the Women’s Rights

movement.

Impact of Impact of Reconstruction:Reconstruction:

Radical Republicans demanded black Radical Republicans demanded black male suffrage—but not universal male suffrage—but not universal suffrage for all adults.suffrage for all adults.

To enfranchise women, black and To enfranchise women, black and white, would give the vote to white, would give the vote to large numbers of white Southern large numbers of white Southern women, who would probably vote women, who would probably vote Democratic.Democratic.

This image made the point that, in being denied the vote, respectable, accomplished women were reduced to the level of the disenfranchised outcasts of society.

Both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were furious that Congress had given the vote to black men but denied it to women.

Black male suffrage v. Black male suffrage v. Universal adult suffrageUniversal adult suffrage

National Woman Suffrage Association National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA)(NWSA) Founded by Anthony and StantonFounded by Anthony and Stanton The more radical woman's suffrage group. The more radical woman's suffrage group. Accepted only women and opposed the Accepted only women and opposed the Fifteenth Amendment since it only Fifteenth Amendment since it only enfranchised African-American men. enfranchised African-American men.

American Woman Suffrage Association American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)(AWSA) More moderate in its views than the NWSA. More moderate in its views than the NWSA. Allowed men to join and rallied behind the Allowed men to join and rallied behind the Fifteenth Amendment as a step in the right Fifteenth Amendment as a step in the right direction toward greater civil rights for direction toward greater civil rights for women.women.

Leaders of the AWSA included Julia Ward Leaders of the AWSA included Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone.Howe and Lucy Stone.

When the two groups reunited in 1890, the new National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) followed the direction set by Anthony and Stanton.

Blanche Ames, Two Good Votes Are Better Than One, Woman’s Journal (October, 1915)

A New Argument A New Argument for Woman for Woman SuffrageSuffrage

The nation The nation needed women needed women voters because voters because of their of their special moral special moral leadership.leadership.

A New Argument for Woman A New Argument for Woman SuffrageSuffrage

Female voters could Female voters could “sweep out the “sweep out the scoundrels”scoundrels”

Female voters could Female voters could ensure that reforms ensure that reforms in child labor, in child labor, temperance, and temperance, and women’s work would women’s work would occur.occur.

Only a woman who Only a woman who was truly a citizen was truly a citizen could teach could teach citizenship to her citizenship to her children.children.

Suffrage supporters began to adopt the class and race prejudices of their white, middle class base.

“The enfranchisement of women would insure immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly obtained.” Belle Kearney

Some African-American

suffragistsfounded their own separate suffrage

associations.

Overt racism expressed by many suffragists created an atmosphere hostile to the participation of black women.

Mary Church Terrell, African-American

suffragist

Others, like Mary Terrell, remained within the NAWSA.

Women voting in Wyoming, 1869

The initial success of the post-Civil War suffrage movement came on the frontier.

Why the West?Why the West?

Special frontier conditions?—Special frontier conditions?—the Turner thesis.the Turner thesis.

Women’s vote would offset votes Women’s vote would offset votes of black men?of black men?

Women’s vote would attract Women’s vote would attract women settlers to the West?women settlers to the West?

Emmeline Wells and other Mormon suffragists in Utah.

The second Western territory to grant women the vote was Utah, in 1870.

A close correlation exists A close correlation exists between the success of between the success of

woman suffrage and states woman suffrage and states where men voted in large where men voted in large numbers for Populist, numbers for Populist,

Progressive, or Socialist Progressive, or Socialist party candidates.party candidates. Colorado (1893)Colorado (1893)

Idaho (1896)Idaho (1896) Washington (1910)Washington (1910) California (1911)California (1911) Kansas (1912)Kansas (1912) Oregon (1912)Oregon (1912)

Arizona (1912)Arizona (1912) Montana (1914)Montana (1914) Nevada (1917)Nevada (1917) North Dakota North Dakota (1917)(1917)

Nebraska (1917)Nebraska (1917)

After 1890, increasing competition among political parties made women’s suffrage a

hot political issue.

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947), women's suffrage leader

Between 1900 and 1920, the woman suffrage movement modernized, adopting new tactics of lobbying, advertising, and grass-roots organizing under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt.

1913: Illinois became the first state east of the Mississippi to grant women

the vote.

Growing opposition fostered a sense of impatience among women who had waited over 50 years since the Seneca Falls Convention for the vote.

Alice Paul (1885-1977), women's suffrage leader

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns gave a new direction to the women’s rights movement.

In 1913, Paul and Burns organized the National Woman’s Party (NWP), adopted the radical tactics of the British suffragettes, and campaigned for the first Equal Rights Amendment.

"The Stomach Tube""The sensation is most painful," reported a victim in 1909. "The drums of the ears seem to be bursting and there is a horrible pain in the throat and breast. The tube is pushed down twenty inches; [it] must go below the breastbone." The prisoners were generally fed a solution of milk and eggs.

The Woman’s Party was one of the first groups in the United States to employ the techniques of classic non-violent protest.

The actions of the NWP made the NAWSA seem moderate and reasonable by comparison.

In 1916, neither party endorsed woman suffrage in its platform, but both parties called on the states to give women the vote.

Jan. 10, 1917: The NWP began to picket the White House.

World War I interrupted the campaign for woman suffrage.

Women’s war work allowed them to claim the right of patriotic

citizenship.

Carrie Chapman Catt and President Wilson

In 1918, in the midst of the war, the House of Representatives passed the federal suffrage amendment, but the Senate voted it down.

Finally, on Aug. 20, 1920, the 19th Amendment became part of the United States Constitution when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it.

Just as the 19th century women’s rights movement began with women’s experiences in the temperance and abolition movements, the modern woman’s right movement began with women’s involvement in the civil rights protests of the 1950s and 60s.

In 1964, “sex” was added to race, creed, color, and national origin as a prohibited reason for discrimination in employment (Title VII).

Civil Rights Act of 1964

In 1972, Congress included Title IX in the Higher Education Act, providing, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal assistance.”

On March 22, 1972, Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment.