Women's Rights Movement Essay

Women’s suffrage has always been a major conflict in the United States, but also all over the world. Generations of women have taken action to protest, fighting for what they believed in; feminists. The struggle of not superiority but equality and respect as any other male was the message activists of the women's rights movement was trying to convey. Although many of the women were well educated, they were still were still denied the right to vote. The Women’s suffrage Movement took several years to make its way through and successfully in 1920 women won voting rights. It first began with the very first women’s rights convention in the United states at Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Fall, New York, 1848. The convention was organized by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, and the announcement was published in the Seneca County Courier on July 14. On July 19, the convention was taken place, around 200 women attended as Stanton read her drafted treatise, “Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances”. Stanton’s treatise focuses on the “injustices inflicted upon women in the United States and called upon U.S. women to organize and petition for their rights,”(“Seneca Falls Convention Begins”). The declaration was then adopted and signed on the second day. The Seneca Falls convention was the spark of many more meetings to come and the women’s suffrage movement in America. The passage of 15th amendment in 1869, the rights of colored men to vote, left few women in unapprovement due to the exclusion of women in the ballot.
“Other suffragists, however, including Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe, argued that once the black man was enfranchised, women would achieve their goal”(“History of Women's Suffrage”). The National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA), was born as a result, their mission was to push for the ratification of enough state suffrage amendments to force Congress to approve a federal amendment The NAWSA had had played a huge role for the future due to their organizational groundwork; passing of the 19th
amendment. The National Woman’s Party (NWP) was soon organized by Alice Paul, ex-president of the NAWSA and Lucy Burns. The NWP targeted Congress and the White House through direct confrontation of mass marches and hunger strikes. A great deal of the activists were arrested and imprisoned. Subsequently, the “women of the NWP were known as heros of the suffrage prisoners, attended ceremonies in their honor and received commemorative pins”(Frost-Knappman.84). Other ways women spread their message was going on tours and shared their experiences while in prison.
Thousands of women risked their jobs, reputation, and lives for protesting. Accordingly, “approximately 2,000 women spent time on the picket lines between 1917 and 1919, and that 500 women were arrested, of whom 168 were actually jailed,”(Hanson). Subsequently, the women of the NWP were known as heros of the suffrage prisoners, attended ceremonies in their honor and received commemorative pins. Other ways women spread their message was going on tours and shared their experiences while in prison. Endurance of the organizations at last had victory after decades of protest.
Eventually persuading President Woodrow Wilson to stand behind and support the ballot, the soon to be Nineteenth amendment, helped by gaining more people in agreement. On June 4, 1919 the ballot was ratified by Congress, then on August 26, 1920, the 19th amendment was finally included in the United States Constitution. The 72-year overdue struggle had granted all women the right to vote in the United States. Victory had been met but, Alice Paul was not done fighting. In 1923, Paul proposed the Equal Rights Amendment to Congress (ERA). The ERA, aimed to creating an amendment of equality amongst both sex. The amendment stated, “Equality of rights under law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”. In order to have their message heard the women acted on marching, rallies, and even committed illegal acts. “Opinion polls showed that the amendment was popular, and most people believed that it would soon be ratified by the required 38 states. But was not”(Matthew.111). The amendment was even passed by Congress in 1972 but has never been ratified.
In retrospect, the civil rights movement of women took decades to improve equality with the help of women all over America.
As women were never given the right of being treated equally as men, several brave women had decided to take charge and do something in order of getting the government to notice them. Through the hard work from the NAWSA and NWP of protests and some illegal acts taken place, the two were major organizations that had influenced women to follow, stand out, and speak their mind. Although the biggest victory of the Women’s Suffrage Movement approvement of the 19th amendment was met, the Equal Rights Amendment was not-is-not passed. Overall, the tireless activists of the past in the Women’s Rights Movement created glorious history and improved the lives of the future women's generations to
come.