Research Paper: Woman Suffrage

Research Paper: Woman suffrage

In most modern governments, such as the United States of America, give the right to vote to almost every responsible adult citizen. There were limiters on the right to vote when the US Constitution was written, and the individual states were allowed to setup their own rules governing who was allowed to vote. Women were denied the right to vote until the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution which was passed in 1920. In order to understand how women struggled to obtain the right to vote, some key factors must be looked at in further detail; why suffrage rights were not defined in the Constitution, the efforts that women put forth to obtain the right to vote, why there are present-day restrictions on voting, and the implications of Suffrage in current political policy. There were several key reasons why women were not given the right to vote when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution. The emphasis at the time was based on property not the pursuit of happiness, the wording was not meant for citizens but for persons, there was a strong link between those who armed themselves to fight for the United States should be the ones allowed to vote, and during this time period it was felt that politics should be reserved for men. A strong cultural belief such as this does not change easily; it would certainly take at least a generation to pass before the next generation would start looking at things in a new light. Also, during this time period everything was dominated by men. Men ran the households, and then ran the church, they handled the business and government and women were expecting to take care of the household and raise children. It would be many years before any type of consideration towards woman suffrage would even be taken seriously.
The very first version of the Constitution in 1791 did have a different ring to it than the version that we see today. The trademark line was really ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of

References: DuBois, E. & Dumenil, L. (2009). Through Women 's Eyes: An American History with Documents (2nd Edition). Bedford / St. Martin 's. Boston / New York. Sneider, Allison L. (2008) Suffragists in an Imperial Age: U.S. Expansion and the Woman Question. New York Oxford University Press Premium. This author worked the link very well between how the expansion of the United States after the Civil War and into the Reconstruction period created a forum that women could argue their suffragist points. Without the expansion and a need to actually redefine a citizen, it would have been difficult for women to have this kind of forum or opportunity to express their points and to eventually create a change. DuBois, Ellen Carol (1998). Woman Suffrage and Women’s Rights. New York New York University Press. This author worked very hard to prove a link between the history of the suffrage movement and the political implications at the time. It begins during the founding days of the United States and covered issues ranging from the right to claim husband’s property, the suffrage movement and modern day feminism and how women can deal with the social impacts of the ‘nuclear family.’ Carroll, Susan J (2006) Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics. Cambridge, New York Cambridge University Press. This book went over some major reasons why the woman suffragist movement did not create any type of reformation at the polls after the Nineteenth Amendment was passed. It shows how it almost took 80 years for the gender gap to actually occur. Reasons for why there is a gender gap in current politics are reviewed and covered. Kornbluh, Mark Lawrence (2000). Why America Stopped Voting. New York New York University Press. This book used many graphical charts and statistical data to basically prove many points, but one of the most vivid facts is that suffrage did not cause the decline in voter participation. If anything, it is more based on demographics and how people have begun to become disinterested in the electoral process over time – by feeling that one person alone is unable to change anything. Amar, Akhil Reed. (1998). The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. New York New Haven Yale University Press This author focused on the ideals at the time of the creation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and how societal changes forced lawmakers to pass Amendments in order to change with the times. It also touched a little on how expansion of the United States helped to cause this legal change.