Women's Suffrage

(1848-1920)

The 19th Amendment: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

The word suffrage comes from Latin suffragium, which meant "a voting-tablet", "a ballot", "a vote", or "the right to vote".

Essential Question: Why does my vote matter?

Claim: Women were not treated equally under the law without the right to vote.

Thesis: American Women fought for the right to vote from 1840 to 1920. They did this through non-violent protest marches, legal actions, and Civil Disobedience.

- - If you choose this subject for your PBAT should keep in mind the modern day women's movement from the 1970s to present day as well and consider researching the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and Gloria Steinem.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

What rights did women have in the 1800s?

https://ap.gilderlehrman.org/essay/legal-status-women-1776%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%80%9C1830

_____________________________________

Links to books for evidence and sourcing:

DOCUMENTARIES:

https://www.pbs.org/video/womens-suffrage-7neirw/

https://www.pbs.org/video/ksps-documentaries-courage-in-corsets-1/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All subjects in bold here have a resource attached in this page in either primary or secondary sources.

Historical Background - A Timeline (1840-1920)

1840: Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are barred from attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London so they make a Women's Convention in the US.

1848: Seneca Falls, New York is the location for the first Women's Rights Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton writes "The Declaration of Sentiments" creating the agenda of women's activism for decades to come.

1849: The first state constitution in California extends property rights to women.

1850: Worcester, Massachusetts, is the site of the first National Women's Rights Convention. Frederick Douglass, Paulina Wright Davis, Abby Kelley Foster, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth are in attendance. A strong alliance is formed with the Abolitionist Movement.

1851: Worcester, Massachusetts is the site of the second National Women's Rights Convention. Participants included Horace Mann, New York Tribune columnist Elizabeth Oaks Smith, and Reverend Harry Ward Beecher, one of the nation's most popular preachers.

At a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth, a former slave, delivers her now memorable speech, "Ain't I a woman?"

1853: Women delegates, Antoinette Brown and Susan B. Anthony, are not allowed to speak at The World's Temperance Convention held in New York City.

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.

1868: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Parker Pillsbury publish the first edition of The Revolution. This periodical carries the motto “Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less!”

In Vineland, New Jersey, 172 women cast ballots in a separate box during the presidential election.
Senator S.C. Pomeroy of Kansas introduces the federal woman’s suffrage amendment in Congress.
Many early suffrage supporters, including Susan B. Anthony, remained single because in the mid-1800s, married women could not own property in their own rights and could not make legal contracts on their own behalf.
The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified. "Citizens" and "voters" are defined exclusively as male.

1869: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) to achieve the vote through a Constitutional amendment as well as push for other woman’s rights issues. NWSA was based in New York.

Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe and other more conservative activists form the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) to work for woman suffrage through amending individual state constitutions. AWSA was based in Boston.
Wyoming territory is organized with a woman suffrage provision.

1870: The Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the right to vote.

1872: Susan B. Anthony casts her ballot for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election and is arrested and brought to trial in Rochester, New York. Fifteen other women are arrested for illegally voting. Sojourner Truth appears at a polling booth in Battle Creek, Michigan, demanding a ballot to vote; she is turned away.

Abigail Scott Duniway convinces Oregon lawmakers to pass laws granting a married woman’s rights such as starting and operating her own business, controlling the money she earns, and the right to protect her property if her husband leaves.

1876: Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage disrupt the official Centennial program at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, presenting a “Declaration of Rights for Women” to the Vice President.

1878: A Woman Suffrage Amendment is proposed for the first time in the U.S. Congress but does not pass. When the 19th Amendment passes forty-one years later, it is worded exactly the same as this 1878 Amendment.

1890: NWSA and AWSA merge and the National American Woman Suffrage Association is formed. Stanton is the first president. The Movement focuses efforts on securing suffrage at the state level.

Wyoming is admitted to the Union with a state constitution granting woman suffrage.
The South Dakota campaign for woman suffrage loses.

1890-1925: The Progressive Era begins. Women from all classes and backgrounds enter public life. Women's roles expand and result in an increasing politicization of women. Consequently the issue of woman suffrage becomes part of mainstream politics.

1893: Colorado adopts woman suffrage.

1896: Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Frances E.W. Harper among others found the the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. They feel separated from the other women's movement.

Utah joins the Union with full suffrage for women.
Idaho adopts woman suffrage.

1910: Washington State adopts woman suffrage.

The Women’s Political Union organizes the first suffrage parade in New York City.

1911: California suffrage campaign succeeds.

1912: Woman Suffrage is supported for the first time at the national level by a major political party -- Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party.

Twenty thousand suffrage supporters join a New York City suffrage parade.
Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona adopt woman suffrage.

1913: In 1913, suffragists organized a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

1914: Nevada and Montana adopt woman suffrage.

1915: Mabel Vernon and Sara Bard Field are involved in a transcontinental tour which gathers over a half-million signatures on petitions to Congress.

Forty thousand march in a NYC suffrage parade. Many women are dressed in white and carry placards with the names of the states they represent.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts continue to reject woman suffrage.

1916: Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. Woodrow Wilson states that the Democratic Party platform will support suffrage.

1917: New York women gain suffrage.

Arkansas women are allowed to vote in primary elections.
National Woman’s Party picketers appear in front of the White House holding two banners, “Mr. President, What Will You Do For Woman Suffrage?” and “How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?”
Alice Paul, leader of the National Woman’s Party, was put in solitary confinement in the mental ward of the prison as a way to “break” her will and to undermine her credibility with the public.
In June, arrests of the National Woman’s party picketers begin on charges of obstructing sidewalk traffic. Subsequent picketers are sentenced to up to six months in jail. In November, the government unconditionally releases the picketers in response to public outcry and an inability to stop National Woman’s Party picketers’ hunger strike.

1918: Representative Rankin opens debate on a suffrage amendment in the House. The amendment passes. The amendment fails to win the required two thirds majority in the Senate.

Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma adopt woman suffrage.
President Woodrow Wilson states his support for a federal woman suffrage amendment. He addresses the Senate about adopting woman suffrage at the end of World War I.

1919: The Senate finally passes the Nineteenth Amendment and the ratification process begins.

August 26, 1920: Three quarters of the state legislatures ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.

American Women win full voting rights.