Women's Suffrage Movement In Oklahoma

Suffrage Movement in Oklahoma The definition of suffrage is the right to vote in political elections. This movement represents the struggle and the hardship women went through to have equal rights to men. Susan B. Anthony once said, “Men’s rights are nothing more. Women’s rights are nothing less.” After twenty-eight long, hard years of women fighting for their rights and changing laws, women finally received equal rights. The suffrage movement persuaded women to form groups and fight for equal rights. The dispute for female voting rights lasted for twenty-eight years, between 1890 and 1918 (Rowley). The first woman suffrage movement began in Oklahoma in 1890 when the women’s suffrage movement created the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This group lobbied lawmakers to give women the right to vote in school elections (Corbett). The National American Woman Suffrage Association joined forces with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1895. These
The Anti-suffragists opposed women’s suffrage primarily because they believed in piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. Members of the anti-suffrage movement claimed that the right to vote would not help with women's problems or society (“Oklahoma Women’s Suffrage Association”). Many people led powerful oppositions to the movement including, William H. Murray, the president of the Oklahoma constitutional convention. Murray disapproved of granting women the right to vote because he believed it would destroy the traditional role of women as homemakers and eventually allow African American women to vote. As a positive result of Murray's opposition, women were granted the right to vote, but only in school elections (Corbett). Many people were against allowing women to vote because many women wanted to ban alcohol. According to Bill Corbett, many people opposed alcohol for religious reasons, but others opposed because they didn’t believe it was good