Women's Suffrage
In the early years of our nation, participation of women in politics was not regarded as important and valuable by everyone; women were expected to dedicate themselves to housework and motherhood not politics. By the Civil War's end, women were undeniably active in their quest for the right to vote. In efforts to become eligible to vote, American women encounter a myriad of difficulties they worked very hard to overcome. In 1869, abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott associated with activist Susan B. Anthony, emerged from the women’s rights movement, to form organizations that raised public awareness and petitioned the government to grant voting rights for women.
Organizations like the National Woman Suffrage Association and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (later united as “the National American Women Suffrage Association” – NAWSA). At the turn of the century, women politicians became new members of the movement to continue the work of the pioneer predecessors and founders. In 1915, Carrie Chapman Catt was named president of the NAWSA; this organization worked arduously for women’s voting rights at a federal level and lobbied for more constitutional changes, for instance, granting married women property rights. The achievements, vicissitudes, battles and victories that American women have experienced since the birth of our nation had transcendent time and the romantic depiction of women in past eras.
After many decades of parades, marches, lectures, document drafting, silent vigils, hunger strikes and even civil disobedience, militant suffragist begun to see the results of a long trajectory of sacrifice and dedication. This 70-year battle found its victory with the passage of the 19th Amendment, on August 26, 1920. It was then that American women exercised their right to vote for the first time on Election Day of 1920 (as indicated in historic records: www.history.com/topics/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage).
Women's Suffrage Time Line
Women’s suffrage timeline (1840-1920) : http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/history/woman-suffrage-timeline
Timeline of Women’s suffrage in the United States (1776-1920): http://dpsinfo.com/women/history/timeline.html
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http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_amendment_19.html