Women's Rights Case Study
H.J. Resolution 1 "Women's Suffrage"
Compelling Policy Question: What rights and responsibilities should be considered when the Government is debating policies related to Women's Rights?
Policy Case Study:
H.J. Resolution 1 "Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending the right of suffrage to women"
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislature of three-fourths of the several States.
"ARTICLE ————.
"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.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Historical Context of the Women’s Suffrage Movement- source
Definition of Suffrage: the right to vote in an election
1848- First Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton writes "The Declaration of Sentiments".
1850- At National Women's Rights Convention Suffragettes ally with Abolitionists.
1861-1865 Women’s Suffrage Movement stalls during the Civil War.
1866- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association (A.E.R.A.), with the goal of suffrage for all genders and races.
1868- Senator Pomeroy of Kansas introduces the federal woman’s suffrage amendment in Congress.
1868 - The 14th Amendment is ratified. "Citizens" and "voters" are male.
1869- The A.E.R.A. is divided over the question of whether to support the proposed 15th Amendment which would give Black American males the vote, but not women.
1869- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). They push for a Constitutional Suffrage amendment.
1869- Wyoming territory is organized allowing women suffrage.
1870 The Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the right to vote. NWSA refused to support it, and instead advocate for a 16th Amendment for universal suffrage.
1871 Victoria Woodhull addresses the House Judiciary Committee, arguing women’s rights to vote under the fourteenth amendment.
1871- The Anti-Suffrage Party is founded.
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.
1874 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded. The WCTU supported woman suffrage. The liquor lobby was one of the strongest opponents to women's enfranchisement, fearing women would vote to prohibit the sale of liquor.
1876 Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage disrupt the official Centennial program at Independence Hall, presenting a “Declaration of Rights for Women”.
1878 A Woman Suffrage Amendment is proposed in the U.S. Congress.
1887 The first vote on woman suffrage is taken in the Senate and is defeated.
1890 NWSA and AWSA join and form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The Movement focuses efforts on securing suffrage at the state level.
1890- Wyoming admitted to the Union. The state constitution gives women the vote.
1893 Colorado adopts woman suffrage.
1896- Utah joins the Union with suffrage for women. Idaho adopts woman suffrage.
1910 Washington State adopts woman suffrage.
1911 The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) is organized. its members included wealthy, influential women, some Catholic clergymen, distillers and brewers, urban political machines, Southern and congressmen.
1911- The California suffrage campaign succeeds by a small margin.
1912 Woman Suffrage is supported for the first time at the national level by a major political party -- Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party.
1912- Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona adopt woman suffrage.
1913 suffragists organized a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
1914 Nevada and Montana adopt woman suffrage.
1915 Forty thousand march in a NYC suffrage parade. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts continue to reject woman suffrage.
1916 Jeannette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to Congress. Woodrow Wilson states that the Democratic Party platform will support suffrage.
1917 New York women gain suffrage.
1918 Representative Rankin opens debate on a suffrage amendment in the House. The amendment passes the house, but fails in the Senate.
1918- Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma adopt woman suffrage.
1918- President Wilson states support for a federal woman suffrage amendment.
President Wilson addresses the Senate about adopting woman suffrage at the end of World War I.
Section One - Guiding Question: Why do some people believe we should focus on the Rights of Women when we debate Women’s rights?
To-day we are mobilizing all our resources for the ideals of democracy.
….
For 70 years, the women leaders of this country ... Every great woman who stands out in our history — Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Clara Barton, Mary Livermore, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frances Willard, Lucy Stone, Jane Addams, Ella Flagg Young, Alice Stone Blackwell, Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Catt — all have asked the Government to permit women to serve more effectively the national welfare.
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We must discuss public affairs ... as Americans, taking always a national perspective and looking toward the welfare of the entire country.
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How can people in other countries (understand) our plan of democracy ... when we deny the first steps in democracy to our women? ...
Deep down in the hearts of the American people is a living faith in democracy. … [I]t prompts in us the desire for ... justice which is based on equal opportunity, equal protection, equal freedom for all.
...
To-day there are men and women … bending all their energies toward … this dream of universal justice.
….
Matilda Joslyn Gage, “Remarks by Susan B. Anthony in the U.S. Circuit Court in New York”, Leavenworth Times, 1873 (modified/link to original)
Anthony was an activist who fought to Abolish Slavery, make education available people no matter their sex, race, or wealth, win rights for workers, women’s rights and Women’s Suffrage.
Gage was reporting on Anthony's trial after Anthony was arrested for trying to vote in the 1872 election.
Court— Would the defendant like to say anything before sentencing?
Miss Anthony—Yes, your honor, I have many things to say. My every right, constitutional, civil, political and judicial has been trampled upon. I have not only had no jury of my peers, but I have had no jury at all.
Court—Sit down Miss Anthony. You cannot argue the question.
Anthony—I will not sit down. I will not lose my only chance to speak.
Court—You have been tried, Miss Anthony, by the forms of law, and my decision has been rendered by law.
Anthony—Yes, but laws made by men, under a government of men, interpreted by men and for the benefit of men. The only chance women have for justice in this country is to violate the law, as I have done, and as I shall continue to do," She struck her hand heavily on the table in emphasis of what she said. "Does your honor suppose that we obeyed the infamous fugitive slave law which forbade to give a cup of cold water to a slave fleeing from his master? I tell you we did not obey it; we fed him and clothed him, and sent him on his way to Canada. So shall we trample all unjust laws under foot. I do not ask the mercy of the court. I came into it to get justice, having failed in this, I demand the full rigors of the law.
THE WOMAN'S REASON.
BECAUSE women must obey the laws just as men do,
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE women pay taxes supporting government just as men do,
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE women suffer from bad government just as men do,
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE mothers want their children's surroundings to be better,
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE over 5 million women in the U.S. are workers and their health is endangered by evil working conditions that can only be fixed by legislation,
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE busy housemothers and professional women cannot give such public service, and can only serve the state by the same means used by the busy man--namely, by casting a ballot,
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE women need higher social and civic responsibility,
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE women are consumers, they need political representation
They should vote equally with men.
BECAUSE women are citizens of a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and women are people.
They should vote equally with men.
Florence Kelley, Speech at the 1898 National American Women Suffrage Association Convention (modified/link to original)
Kelly was a Chicago-born labor reformer, socialist, and woman suffrage advocate.
No one needs all the powers of the fullest citizenship more urgently than the wage-earning woman, and from two different points of view—that of actual money wages and that of her wider needs as a human being and a member of the community.
The wages paid any body of working people are determined by many influences, chief among which is the position of the particular body of workers in question. In the garment trades the presence of a body of the disfranchised, of the weak and young, undoubtedly contributes to the economic weakness of these trades.
The lack of the ballot places the wage-earning woman upon a level of irresponsibility compared with her enfranchised fellow workingman. By impairing her standing in the community the general rating of her value as a human being, and consequently as a worker, is lowered.
Women now form about one-fifth of the employees in manufacture and commerce in this country. Industrial legislation directly affects women as wage-earners. Yet she has no such power to defend her interests at the polls, as is the heritage of her brothers at home. This position is unjustifiable, and there can be no pause in the fight for full political power and responsibility until these are granted to all the women of the nation.
The National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company created a broadside titled, "Give Mother the Vote, We need it" in 1915.
Frederic W. Freeman made a cartoon titled “Another Junker for the Scrap Heap” in 1915.
Freeman was a cartoonist who used the pseudonym "W. Ourcadie"
Virginia Arnold [holding Kaiser Wilson banner], Photo by Harris and Ewing, 1917
Virginia Arnold was a member of the National Women’s Party. Members of the NWP frequently were arrested and imprisoned for their protests. Thirty-three members of the NWP arrest and imprisonment led to the infamous “Night of Terror”. Harris and Ewing took this picture of Arnold holding a protest sign outside of the White House. This sign compares President Wilson to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany- the enemy of the U.S. in World War 1.The women in these protests were sometimes attacked and arrested.
Police arresting party demonstrators outside Senate Office Building, Oct. 1918.
Suffragettes protests were often broken up and the protesters were arrested.
Nina Allender, "Insulting the President?", The Suffragist, 1917
" Who and What were Back of the Opposition [to Suffrage] in Nebraska? Backbone! (Liquor Interests)"
Supporting Question #2: Why do some people believe we should focus on the Responsibilities of Women when we debate Women’s rights?
The Women Voters Anti-Suffrage Party of New York sent a petition to U.S. Senate in 1917 . Their petition said...
The Women Voters Anti-Suffrage Party of New York was established in 1897 by a group of women opposed to Women getting the vote.
Whereas, This country is now engaged in the greatest war in history, and
Whereas, The advocates of the Federal Amendment, though urging it as a war measure, announce, through their president, Mrs. Catt, that its passage :means a simultaneous campaign in 48 States. It demands organization in every precinct; activity, agitation, education in every corner. Nothing less than this nation-wide, vigilant, unceasing campaign will win the ratification” therefore be it.
Resolved, That our country in this hour of peril should be spared the harassing of its public men and the distracting of its people from work for the war, and further
Resolved, That the United States Senate be respectfully urged to pass no measure involving such a radical change in our government while the attention of the patriotic portion of the American people is concentrated on the all-important task of winning the war, and during the absence of over a million men abroad.
Mary Nash Crofoot, Lest Catholic Men Be Misled., 1914 (modified/link to original)
This Literature was distributed Sunday at the doors of the Catholic churches in Omaha.
Although I am strenuously opposed to mixing politics and religion, as a Catholic woman I must protest against our Catholic men voting for the enfranchisement of women in Nebraska. I do not believe that any Catholic men or women would favor "Votes for Women" if they realized certain facts.
First, There are a million socialists in this country, and all are unanimous for woman suffrage. They hope the women’s vote will help them politically. Socialists are opposed to anything Christian. Why should Catholics join them?
Second, The great cry of the suffrage body is for individual liberty. They demand the vote because they object to their husbands, fathers and brothers voting for them. Why would a Catholic support a movement whose leaders are against authority, when we believe in divine authority.
Third. Feminists are a part of the suffrage movement. Do Catholic woman wish to join feminists? We, with the Virgin Mary for our standard of ideal womanhood, must protect our ideal.
Fourth. I fear that women in politics, will injure the Catholic virtue of charity.
I hope that Catholic men in this community will vote "No" to woman suffrage.
In 1914, the Nebraska Association Opposed to Women Suffrage created a flyer titled "Ten Reasons Why The Great Majority of Women Do Not Want the Ballot". The flyer said...
(excerpts / original)
BECAUSE they have not lost faith in their fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers, who afford full protection to the community...
BECAUSE women realize that when they become voters they will in consequence have to serve as jurors, and be compelled to hear all the... (details of) murder trials and trials for other (wicked) crimes...
BECAUSE in political activities there is... conditions from which every normal woman naturally shrinks.
BECAUSE the primary object of government is to protect persons and property. This duty is imposed by nature upon man...
BECAUSE when women noisily contest and scramble for public office—woman pitted against woman—they write an indictment of womankind...
BECAUSE women can accomplish more through counselling than they ever can attain through commanding.
BECAUSE woman suffrage will not enhance peace and harmony in the home...
....
BECAUSE the woman worker wants rest and quietude—not political excitement.
BECAUSE every reason supporting ...women (voting) supports also the right of women to be consulted as to whether they shall or shall ... (vote).
J. B. Sanford, Argument Against Women's Suffrage, Los Angeles Times, 1911 (modified/link to original)
Sanford, a California State Senator, was the Chairmen of Democratic Caucus. This opinion piece was written in opposition to a proposition to give Women in California the vote.
Suffrage is not a right. It is a privilege that may or may not be granted. Politics is no place for a women consequently the privilege should not be granted to her. The mother's influence is needed in the home.
The men are able to run the government and take care of the women. Do women have to vote in order to receive the protection of man? Why, men have gone to war, endured every privation and death itself in defense of woman. To man, woman is the dearest creature on earth, and there is no extreme to which he would not go. By keeping woman in her exalted position man can be induced to do more for her than he could by having her mix up in affairs that will cause him to lose respect and regard for her. Woman does not have to vote to secure her rights.
Let her be content with her lot and perform those high duties intended for her by the Great Creator, and she will accomplish far more in governmental affairs that she can ever accomplish by mixing up in the dirty pool of politics.
Keep the home pure and all will be well with the Republic.
Let the manly men and the womanly women defeat this amendment and keep woman where she belongs in order that she may retain the respect of all mankind.
Frank Beard made a cartoon titled "Is this 'Woman’s Sphere'" in 1899.
Source: 50 Great Cartoons, 1899 (full book)
In 1909 EW Gustin, drew a cartoon titled "Election Day".
Puck Magazine published a cartoon by Charles Jay Taylor titled "A squelcher for woman suffrage" in 1894.
A woman is denied the opportunity to vote because she is wearing a dress and a hat that are too wide for the narrow booths labeled "Ballots Must Be Prepared In These Booths" where the ballots are marked. A policeman is standing on the left, and, in the background, election officials are standing over the ballot box for "Election District No. 13".
What were the results of the debate, and the consequences of that result?
On June 4, 1919, Congress passed the Resolution creating the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment would become law in 1920 when enough states had ratified it, giving Women the Right to Vote.
Some of the women who pushed for Woman's Suffrage believed the 19th Amendment, while a great victory, fell short of guaranteeing women the equality they really wanted, so they introduced something called the Equal Rights Amendment (known as the E.R.A.) The E.R.A.'s text says this:
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification
The E.R.A. was passed by Congress in 1972, but still has not been ratified by enough States to become law.
In addition, while the text of the 19th Amendment was supposed to protect woman's right to vote, other types of discrimination (besides sex) prevented many women from being able to vote. Many women of color including Asian American, Native Americans, and African Americans were prevented from being able to vote by state laws related to citizenship, poll-taxes, literacy tests. Once the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 Chinese American women were allowed to vote, Filipinos in 1946, and other Asian Americans in 1952. In 1957 the Indian Citizenship Act guaranteed Native Americans the rights of a citizen, including the vote. When poll taxes were outlawed in 1964, it became easier for women of lower socio-economic status to vote. The 1965 Voting Rights Act made many more laws that made it harder to vote, such as literacy tests, illegal. However, there are still many legal barriers preventing some women from casting a vote, such as laws not allowing felons from being able to vote.