Women's Suffrage Movement

Women’s Suffrage Movement
By: Sarah Rodey
MODERN AMERICA: 1900 TO 1945
HIST 364 6380
Professor Steven Sharoff
September 26, 2014

How did the Women’s Suffrage Movement change America? At one point in time it was thought that a women’s place was barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. The question is when did this idea change, how did it change, and who help change this image of women? The Women’s Suffrage Movement was a long and delicate process, starting in 1840 when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were barred from attending a World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London (NWHM). Even though the event did not take place in the United States it fueled the fire for the Women’s Suffrage Movement. There are those who were against the movement and allied themselves with the anti-suffrage movement. One of those people was an independent woman and a member of the politically-active Roosevelt Family, Kate Shippen Roosevelt opposed women gaining the right to vote. In her diary, written from 1912-19, Mrs. Roosevelt, the widow of Theodore Roosevelt’s first cousin, Hilborne L. Roosevelt, often expressed her negative views on this heated debate. Describing women’s right to vote as, “simply unnecessary,” Mrs. Roosevelt did not mince words. She along with, for the most part middle to upper-middle class, conservative Protestants like herself subscribed to the notion that women were biologically destined to be childbearers and homemakers (Hazard). Unfortunately there were those that became violent. During one of the largest protest of the suffrage movement, many protesters were assaulted by those in the crowd who opposed the women's right-to-vote campaign. Attacks ranged from spitting and throwing of objects to all-out physical assaults. While many women were injured, the public was outraged at the violence that translated to wider support for the suffrage movement (Gibson Aug 12, 2011). It was not until August of 1920 the nineteenth Amendment was ratified giving women the full right to vote (NWHM). These events and every event in-between of the Women’s Suffrage Movement changed America’s image of women forever. The Women’s Suffrage Movement gave women equal rights, the right to vote, to own property, and fair wages, and educational opportunities; where before the movement women where thought of the lesser sex meant only for having children and taking care of the home.
The journey for women’s rights started over 100 years before the passing of the 19th amendment. In 1776 Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, who is attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, asking that he and the other men--who were at work on the Declaration of Independence--"Remember the Ladies." John responds with humor. The Declaration's wording specifies that "all men are created equal." The meaning behind this is that men (women not included) are all equal. The future first lady never hesitated to debate her husband on political matters. She begged Adams to draft laws that were "more generous and favorable" to women than his predecessors had. As history would have it, this is not the end but the beginning of the battle for women’s rights. In 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed. William Lloyd Garrison, one of the leaders of the society, was fervently for women's rights. Unfortunately the other members were not. When women were not allowed to sign the Declaration of Purposes, they formed the Female Anti-Slavery Society as an answer. The society spread and it became the target of much criticism. There was strong opposition to abolition and even stronger opposition toward the female abolition societies. Meetings were often mobbed and the hall was burnt down where the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was being held. Such violence against women when the women were fighting for other’s rights. This would not be the last acts of violence towards women fighting for their rights and the rights of others.
In 1840, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were barred from attending a World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London (NWHM). Even though the event did not take place in the United States and it was non-violent, this event fueled the fire for the Women’s Suffrage Movement. The first gathering devoted to women’s rights in the United States was held July 19–20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. The convention was presided over by Lucretia Mott’s husband, James Mott. About 100 people attended the convention; two-thirds were women, and in attendance were thirty-two men. Elizabeth Cady Stanton has drafted a “Declaration of Sentiments, Grievances, and Resolutions,” and it states “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” One important man involved in signing the sentiments included Frederick Douglass. The campaign “One Women, One Vote” would be carried on for more than 70 years, in state legislatures and in Congress.
Women in the United States were not allowed vote or own property, and it was frowned upon for women to work outside of the home, and when they did, they did not receive the same wages as men. Although women didn’t gain equal wages until 1963 they did soon gain the right to own property. This important event for women happened in 1848 that Elizabeth Cady Stanton was involved in was the Married Women's Property Act. Before married women's property acts were passed, upon marriage a woman lost any right to control property that was hers prior to the marriage, nor did she have rights to acquire any property during marriage. A married woman could not make contracts, keep or control her own wages or any rents, transfer property, sell property or bring any lawsuit. After the law was passed women gained the right to own property. This means that women could keep property that was their own before marriage or any property that was inherited during the marriage and not be forced to forfeit said property to their husbands.
During the Civil War, the women's movement died out as the women concentrated on abolition. Following the war in 1866 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, an organization dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all regardless of gender or race. After the war, they expected equality for both blacks and women but were disappointed when the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments restricted the right to vote to male citizens. Because of the 14th amendment, Anthony and Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and began publishing the Revolution. The primary goal of the organization is to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the Constitution. While fighting for the same cause others felt it best to go a different way. Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and others form the American Woman Suffrage Association. This group focuses exclusively on gaining voting rights for women through amendments to individual state constitutions. Both groups had two very different views on the 15th amendment, Stanton believed in what was known as the “educated vote.” She did not agree that newly freed African American men, few of who knew how to read or had much knowledge of the government, should be able to vote when she, a well-educated and politically informed white woman, could not. In fact, some historians have argued that Stanton was “racist and elitist” and believed that only educated people should be enfranchised. While Lucy Stone, on the other hand, followed the notion espoused by African American leaders, such as Frederick Douglass, that 1870 was “the negro’s hour.” While continuing to advocate for women’s suffrage, Stone supported the passage of the 15th amendment. She believed that both suffrage movements were closely tied and that progress for one was progress for the other.
Once realized that these two organizations were fighting the same cause no matter which way it is fought they became one. In 1890 the National Women Suffrage Association and the American Women Suffrage Association merge to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). As the movement's mainstream organization, NAWSA wages state-by-state campaigns to obtain voting rights for women.
At the turn of the century the fight for women’s rights slows down again but had the support of President Theodore Roosevelt. His actions on behalf of equality for all citizens have been well reported, less well known, however, are Roosevelt’s thoughts and actions regarding women’s rights. He writes that “I believe in women’s rights. I believe even more earnestly in the performance of duty by both men and women; for unless the average man and the average woman live lives of duty, not only our democracy but civilization itself will cease to exist.” In 1900 Anthony retires as the president of the National American and, to the surprise of many, recommends Carrie Chapman Catt as her successor, she proved to be a worthy successor, increasing the size of the organization’s membership and conducting some substantial fund-raising. In 1904 Catt leaves NAWSA to attend her dying husband and Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw takes over as president of the National American. Shaw gave up her work as a pastor in order to lecture in support of the temperance and women's vote movements. In 1888, with the encouragement of Susan B. Anthony, she decided to focus solely on the cause of women's suffrage. Although her administrative abilities did not equal her speechmaking, Shaw served as vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1892 to 1904, and as president from 1904 to 1915.
Right up to the outbreak of World War I, feminists on both sides pledged themselves to peace, in transnational women’s solidarity. Within months of the war’s outbreak, however, “all the major feminist groups of the belligerents had given a new pledge – to support their respective governments.” Suddenly, campaigners for women’s suffrage became avid patriots and organizers of women in support of the war effort. Many of these feminists hoped that patriotic support of the war would enhance the prospects for women’s suffrage after the war, and this came true in a number of countries. In 1914 America joined the fight in World War I. With men leaving home and work to fight in the war women are now forced to take their places in the work force During World War I the rapidly expanding war industries dipped heavily into the labor force of women. In 1918 nearly three million new women workers were employed in food, textile and war industries. Many taboos and restrictions thrown up to keep women out of large-scale productions industry were broken down. Women worked as streetcar conductors, radio operators, and in steel mills and logging camps during the war. Women roles began to change rapidly because of the war. Not only did women maintain their households, but also they played the roles of helping to support the war. One of the women’s major contributions to the war effort was to take over the running of the farms and grow much needed food. Women worked long hours providing the support that was needed. They learned many new skills and as a result their roles continued to change.
At the end of WWI women’s suffrage finally made headway with the help of President Woodrow Wilson. In 1917, he had been picketed by suffragists outside the White House who berated him for paying mere lip service to their cause. The protests reached a crescendo when several women were arrested, jailed and went on a hunger strike. Wilson was appalled to learn that the jailed suffragists were being force-fed and he finally stepped in to champion their cause. In 1918, President Wilson gives a speech before Congress in support of guaranteeing women the right to vote. In his September 30 speech to Congress, Wilson says "we have made partners of the women in this war...Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?" On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. Finally on August 26, 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment is ratified. Its victory accomplished, NAWSA ceases to exist. The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote.
The fight for women’s right was a long and delicate process taking over 100 years. It was not one single person or event but many that change the views of women’s role. From first lady Abigail Adams writing to her husband about “remember the ladies” in 1776 to Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton being barred from attending a World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840, to the passing of the 19th amendment and every event in-between, women and men fought together for equal rights to all regardless of race, religion, or sex. Now almost 100 years after the 19th amendment was passed women have joined the paid workforce sometimes being the sole money maker in the household, even taken powerful positions within the government like Hillary Clinton in her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination for US President.

Notes
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