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Women's role in the nineteenth century
Women's role in the nineteenth century
Women's suffrage in the US during the 20th century
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Women in the 1900s failed to get the vote as they were seen as the inferior sex. A women’s role in society was viewed as being second class citizens. There role in society was to stay at home and obey their husband. Everyday tasks included cooking, cleaning and looking after the children. In contrast a males place in society was viewed as being more significant than females. Males occupied positions such as politicians, doctors and other senior positions within society. Therefore due to women not having successful careers this made them have a low standing within society. This ultimately made it difficult to make their view points heard and thus played an important role in them not achieving the right to vote.
Eventually in 1903 the Suffragettes campaign was started mainly to gain the right to vote. Emmeline Pankhurst was the founder of the organisation combined with her daughters. They wanted women to have the right to vote and they didn’t want to wait around for it to happen. The Suffragettes took a more violent approach whereas some women didn’t believe this was the correct way ...
Today, women and men have equal rights, however not long ago men believed women were lower than them. During the late eighteenth century, men expected women to stay at home and raise children. Women were given very few opportunities to expand their education past high school because colleges and universities would not accept females. This was a loss for women everywhere because it took away positions of power for them. It was even frowned upon if a woman showed interest in medicine or law because that was a man 's place not a woman’s, just like it was a man 's duty to vote and not a woman 's. The road to women 's right was long and hard, but many women helped push the right to vote, the one that was at the front of that group was Susan B. Anthony.
The women’s job in that era are meant keep her house clean and feed her children (Doc C). They are also dependent on the city administration to make their lives decent (Doc C). The women’s suffrage movement fought because woman needed to fulfil her traditional responsibilities in the house and to her children, which makes it a must to use the ballot and have the home safe (Doc C). All women needs to have a chance to voice their opinion to help the community strive, and one way to do that is making them able to vote.
In the years after 1870 there were many reasons for the development of the women’s suffrage movement. The main reasons were changes in the law. Some affecting directly affecting women, and some not, but they all added to the momentum of Women’s campaign for the vote.
The women suffrage was first advocated in Great Britain by Mary Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). During the 1830's and 40's British Suffrages received notable aid and encouragement from the Chartists, who fought unsuccessfully for human rights. John Stuart Mill, John Bright, and Richard Cobden were Liberal Legislators that helped to make the Women's Suffrage issues public to Britain. (Banner, Lois W. 2)
The opposition to women's suffrage in the early 20th century stems from a deep rooted social phenomenon in england that took hold in the 19th century. The victorian era gave rise to the system of gender roles and relations that sought to separate the sexes on all fronts of society. This sex class system, also known as the separate sphere ideology, developed from the changing economic scheme, the opinions of great victorian philosophers, and a revival of religious integrity. The separate sphere ideology very popular amongst english society and developed a level of indisputable credibility when publically defended by an emergence of pseudo science discoveries on a woman's capacities. The separate sphere mentality would define the clear roles, duties and responsibilities of men and women in a rigid unforgiving manner. It would shape the english morality, freezing women out of public life and into the cult of domesticity. This perceived gender role and relation system would become the single greatest platform for campaigning anti-suffragists, who lead poplar ‘antis’ movements . The key ‘antis’ arguments discussed developed from a separate sphere ideology outlook, and are as following; biological differences could not allow equal voting rights, changing the gender system would negatively alter woman's life, and women can not physically, socially or mentality navigate the world of politics.
In the early 20th century, many Americans perceived woman as unskilled and deficient, due to this woman have never gotten the chance to prove how they can positively affect society. Document A, Supports Woman states; “They still love their homes and their children just the same as ever, and are better able to protect themselves and their children because of the ballot”. If woman were given the right to vote it would not only have helped the society by having more opinions, but it would have also helped women protect themselves and their children by voting for things like better education. Supports Woman explains how giving woman the right ...
Before 1920 women did not have the right to vote. They were known as “second class citizens”. Women were to stay home to help and organize the family’s necessities. Having any other higher power was said to be way out of their limitations. Mainly because women weren’t fully exposed to the happenings outside of the home, which led to the male figure believing that it was impossible for women to vote if they didn’t know the facts. Men thought that if women were able to vote that they would reach a power, that they could not take away and they didn’t want that. Men wanted to be head of the household and everything else in between.
One argument in favour of women shows pictures of what men could be: A convict, lunatic, owner of white slaves, unfit for service and a drunkard. This portrayed men as being responsible, but they still could vote. Then it shows what women could achieve: Mayor, nurse, mother doctor or teacher or a factory hand, which showed them as responsible but they still couldn't the vote.1 Men's attitude towards women during the First World War was still negative. The ability of women to take on the roles of men meant that increasing numbers of men were vulnerable to conscription.2 The women were told that they couldn't vote because they weren't fighting for their country. They couldn't fight because they weren't allowed to.
... to stop in order to help their country flight the war. They understand they needed to helping on the home front and this was the time for them to step up and show the British Parliament how valuable they are to their country. Lobbying did take place quietly, some women suffrage groups saw this time for to show they can do the same jobs as men and contribute to the war efforts. In 1918 passed the Representation of the People Act and enfranchising women over the age of 30 who meet property qualifications. This act was the stating of women gaining equality to men. Even though, women had to meet qualifications to vote, it was a start in changing society view on women’s rights. In 1928, ten year after the Representation of the People Act, the Conservative government passed the Representation of the People Act finally giving women vote right to all over the age of 21.
A women suffrage amendment was brought to the U.S. Congress in 1868 but failed to win support as well as a second amendment in 1878. In 1869 a woman named Elizabeth Cady Stanton got together with Susan B. Anthony, a women’s rights activist, and organized an association called the National Woman Suffrage Association. With this union they would gather with women and fight for women’s suffrage. Later, in 1890 they joined with their competitor the American Women Suffrage Association and became the National American Women Suffrage Association. “NAWSA adopted a moderate approach to female suffrage, eschewing some of the more radical feminism of other women’s rights groups in favor of a national plan designed to gain widespread support” (3). What the association did was they changed their initial tactic towards suffrage for women so that they can be able to obtain support from all over. Having little to no movement on the national front, suffragists took the next step to sate level. That was when Eastern states granted women suffrage, but hadn’t spread to Western states.
Women were trying to get the vote for many years before 1900, however this was not a serious concern and they were not doing much to achieve this. However in 1900 this all changed. The NUWSS (Suffragists) and the WSPU (Suffragettes) were set up in the early years of 1900; their goal was to allow women to get the vote. Their reason was that women were already allowed to work on city councils and become doctors, some notable ones too such as Florence Nightingale. The NUWSS believed that if women were house owners and had respectable jobs they should be allowed to vote. This is because men who were allowed to vote could be white slave owners and lunatics so why could these men vote and women could not? Notably however Queen Elizabeth herself proclaimed that women should not get muddled up with the world of politics.
Although they were fighting for a worthy cause, many did not agree with these women’s radical views. These conservative thinkers caused a great road-block on the way to enfranchisement. Most of them were men, who were set in their thoughts about women’s roles, who couldn’t understand why a woman would deserve to vote, let alone want to vote. But there were also many women who were not concerned with their fundamental right to vote. Because some women were indifferent in regards to suffrage, they set back those who were working towards the greater good of the nation. However, the suffragettes were able to overcome these obstacles by altering their tactics, while still maintaining their objective.
The Suffragettes were formed in 1903 and they believed in more extreme methods of campaigning. In this essay I am going to look at the different tactics used by both groups. I will be starting by looking at the tactics used by the Suffragists. The Suffragists, who were formed in the 1890's, were led by a woman. called Millicent Fawcett, The Suffragists believed in peaceful methods.
Women had an arduous time trying to demand the rights they deserved to have. Women suffragist made associations and paraded down the street to endeavor rights. Two associations were made up, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Women Suffrage Association. The National Women Suffrage Association is also known as NWSA was developed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This association work for suffrage at the federal level. They tried press for more extensive institutional changes, such as married women being granted right to own land. The American Women Suffrage Association is also known as AWSA was developed by Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe. This association aimed to secure the ballot through state legislation. The ladies at NWSA refused to endorse the amendment because it did not give women the ballot. However the ladies at AWSA argued that once the black man was enfranchised, women would achieve their goal.(Buechler) With making associations, suffragist would march together in a parade down streets. All women who believed in the women’s suffrage movement came together, not caring what class each other are in since the demands were the same for all who marched. The intent of the parades were to dazzle and impress observers and gain recruiters, as well grab the attention of legislators who ignore the suffragist petitions and dispel unfav...
The women’s suffrage movement was the struggle for the right of women to vote, run for office, and is part of the overall women’s rights movement. In the 19th century, women in several countries most recognizably the U.S. and england formed organizations to fight for suffrage. Beginning in the mid 19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and participated in civil strike to achieve what many Americans considered a revolutionary change in the Constitution.