What Was the Path to Women’s Suffrage?

After the Civil War, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony renewed calls for suffrage. They had opposed the Fifteenth Amendment because it gave the vote to African American men but not to women. In 1869, Stanton and Anthony set up the National Woman Suffrage Association, a group that worked for a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote.

Beginnings in the West

In most states, leading politicians opposed women’s suffrage. Nevertheless, in the late 1800s, women won the right to vote in four western states: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. Pioneer women had worked alongside men to build farms and cities. By giving women the vote, these states recognized the women’s contributions.

When Wyoming applied for statehood in 1890, many members of Congress wanted the state to change its law that gave women the vote. Wyoming lawmakers replied, “We may stay out of the Union for 100 years, but we will come in with our women.” Wyoming barely won admission.

Pioneer woman Annie Bidwell worked to secure the right to vote for women in her home state of California. She helped form the California Equal Suffrage Association in 1904. She was also a member of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Like many reform-minded women of the time, she had gained important experience in the movement to establish laws banning the sale of alcohol.

A dedicated suffragist and highly effective organizer, Carrie Chapman Catt followed Susan B. Anthony as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1900.

Women Gain Support

In the early 1900s, the women’s suffrage movement gained strength. More than 5 million women were earning wages outside the home. Although women were paid less than men, wages gave them some power. Many demanded a say in making the laws that affected them.

After Stanton and Anthony died, a new generation of leaders took up the cause. Among the most outspoken was Carrie Chapman Catt. She had worked as a school principal and a reporter before she became a leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association.

Catt was a brilliant organizer. She created a detailed plan to fight for suffrage, state by state. Across the nation, suffragists, or people who worked for women’s right to vote, followed her strategy.

Gradually, their efforts succeeded. One by one, states in the West and Midwest gave women the vote. Generally, women in these states could vote only in state elections. At the same time, more and more women were demanding a constitutional amendment to give them the right to vote in all elections.

READING CHECK

Identify Supporting Details What was Carrie Chapman Catt’s main contribution to women’s suffrage?

What New Opportunities Opened Up for Women?

Besides working for the vote, women struggled to gain access to jobs and education. Most states refused to grant women licenses to practice law or medicine. Myra Bradwell taught herself law, just as Abraham Lincoln had done. Still, Illinois denied her a license in 1869 because she was a woman. In 1890, Illinois finally allowed her to practice law.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLS

Some states took longer than others to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.

Region Which two regions gave women the right to vote earlier than other regions? (Choose from West, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast.)

Understand Effects How did Wilson’s support affect the ratification of the suffrage amendment?

Access to Higher Education

Despite obstacles, a few women managed to get the higher education needed to enter the professions. In 1877, Boston University granted the first Ph.D. to a woman. Slowly, more women entered graduate schools and earned advanced degrees. By 1900, the nation had about 1,000 women lawyers and 7,000 women doctors.

Forming Groups to Take Action

During the late 1800s, middle-class women joined women’s clubs. At first, most club women read books and sought other ways to improve their minds. In time, many became eager reformers. They raised money for libraries, schools, and parks. They pressed for laws to protect women and children, to ensure pure food and drugs, and to win the vote.

Faced with racial barriers, African American women formed their own clubs, such as the National Association of Colored Women. They battled to end racial injustice and worked for suffrage and other reforms.

Seeking Reform

During the Progressive Era, many women became committed to reforming society. Some women entered the new profession of social work. Others campaigned to end social evils, such as child labor. Florence Kelley investigated conditions in sweatshops. In time, she was made the chief factory inspector for the state of Illinois. Kelley’s main concern, though, was child labor. She organized a boycott of goods produced by child labor. She helped publish a list of manufacturers whose factories met basic standards.

READING CHECK

Identify Main Ideas Why did Illinois at first deny Myra Bradwell the right to practice law?

Discrimination Against African Americans

After Reconstruction, African Americans in the South lost many hard-won rights. Jim Crow laws led to segregation in schools, trains, and other public places. In the North, too, African Americans faced prejudice and discrimination. Landlords refused to rent homes in white areas to African Americans. Across the nation, African Americans were hired only for low-paying jobs.

The depression of 1893 made life even harder. In the South and elsewhere, jobless whites took out their anger on African Americans. In the 1890s, more than 1,000 African Americans were lynched—murdered by mobs.

The murders outraged Ida B. Wells, an African American journalist. In her newspaper, Free Speech, Wells urged African Americans to protest the lynchings. She called for a boycott of streetcars and white-owned stores. Wells spoke out despite threats to her life.

A Moderate Approach to Gain Equality

During this period, Booker T. Washington spoke for many African Americans. He called on blacks and whites to live in harmony. In Up From Slavery, his autobiography, Washington told his own success story. Although born into slavery, he had taught himself to read. As a youth, he worked in coal mines, attending schools whenever he could. In 1875, he graduated from the newly founded Hampton Institute. Six years later, he helped found the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to offer higher education to blacks.

African Americans, said Washington, must work patiently to move up in society. First, he urged them to learn trades and earn money. Then they would have the power to demand equality.

Business tycoons like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller backed Washington. They helped him build trade schools for African Americans. Presidents also sought his advice on racial issues.

A More Radical Approach to Gain Equality

Other African Americans, like W.E.B. Du Bois (doo BOYSS), took a different approach. Du Bois agreed with Booker T. Washington’s view on the need for “thrift, patience, and industrial training.” However, he added, “So far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, . . . we must firmly oppose him.” Instead of patiently accepting discrimination, Du Bois urged African Americans to fight it actively.

In 1909, Du Bois, along with Jane Addams, Lincoln Steffens, and other reformers, organized the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. Members of the NAACP worked for equal rights for African Americans.

Successes Despite Discrimination

Most Progressives, though, gave little thought to the problems faced by African Americans. When African American soldiers were accused of rioting in Brownsville, Texas, President Roosevelt had their whole regiment dishonorably discharged. Later, President Wilson ordered the segregation of African American and white government workers. When African Americans protested, Wilson replied that “segregation is not humiliating, but a benefit.”

Despite many obstacles, some African Americans succeeded. George Washington Carver discovered hundreds of new uses for peanuts and other crops grown in the South. His writings about crop rotation changed southern farming practices. Sarah Walker, better known as Madame C. J. Walker, created a line of hair care products for African American women. She became the first American woman to earn more than $1 million.

African Americans established their own companies, including insurance firms and banks, to serve the needs of African Americans. Other businesses provided personal services that whites refused to offer African Americans. Among these were restaurants, beauty parlors and barber shops, and funeral parlors. Colleges such as Wilberforce and Tuskegee trained young African Americans for their professions. Churches like the African Methodist Episcopal Church were training grounds for African American leaders.

Analyze Images Madame C.J. Walker became America’s first female millionaire.

Identify Cause and Effect How did providing hair care products lead Walker to success?

READING CHECK

Identify Supporting Details Which African American leader called for fighting discrimination aggressively?

The Government Restricts Asian Immigration

In the 1870s, whites on the West Coast pressed Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act, passed in 1882, kept Chinese from settling in the United States. As a result, the Chinese population declined.

Japanese Immigrants

Still, the demand for cheap labor remained high. White employers on the West Coast and in Hawaii therefore got around the Chinese Exclusion Act by hiring workers from other Asian countries.

Sugar planters in Hawaii brought in workers from Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. They deliberately hired workers from diverse groups. They hoped these differences would keep workers from uniting and demanding fair treatment and pay on par with whites.

When the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898, a number of Japanese saw the opportunity for a better life on the mainland. More than 100,000 Japanese entered the United States in the early 1900s.

Many newcomers from Japan were farmers. They settled on dry, barren land that Americans thought was useless. Through hard work and careful management of resources, the Japanese made their farms profitable. Soon, they were producing a large percentage of southern California’s fruits and vegetables. Mantsuchi Nakamura, for example, moved to California from Hawaii in 1902. He eventually bought a grape farm, which he used to produce raisins.

Analyze Images Asian and Latino men harvest grapes on a southern California vineyard in 1905.

Cite Evidence What might a vineyard owner have felt about restrictions on immigration?

A “Gentlemen’s Agreement”

Prejudice against immigrants from Asia remained high. Many white farmers and factory workers resented the success of the Japanese. In California, the Japanese were barred from owning land and from many economic pursuits. In 1906, San Francisco forced all Asian students, including Japanese children, to attend separate schools. Japan protested the insult, and the issue threatened to cause an international crisis.

Unions and other groups also put pressure on President Roosevelt to limit immigration from Japan. Because Japan was a growing naval power in the Pacific, Roosevelt tried to soothe Japanese feelings. He condemned the segregated schools and offered his own solution. If San Francisco ended its segregation order, he would restrict further Japanese immigration.

In 1907, Roosevelt reached a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with Japan. Japan would stop any more workers from going to the United States. The United States, in exchange, would allow Japanese women to join their husbands who were already in this country.

Anti-Japanese feeling did not decrease with the “Gentlemen’s Agreement.” In 1913, California passed a law that banned Asians who were not American citizens from owning land. Before long, the United States would take more drastic steps to stop immigration from Asia.

READING CHECK

Identify Supporting Details What were the terms of Roosevelt’s “Gentleman’s Agreement” with Japan?

Lesson Check

1. Why was the fight for prohibition especially important to women?
2. What services did mutualistas provide in the barrio?
3. Summarize How did progress toward suffrage, starting in the West, finally lead to women gaining the right to vote?
4. Compare and Contrast How did the social and political ideas of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois differ?
5. Writing Workshop: Cite Sources Write the source of each note you have taken. In your essay, any words quoted from a source must be cited. Also cite the sources of someone else’s ideas that you have paraphrased or summarized.