The Impact of World War I and President Wilson on Women's Suffrage
On November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed that ended World War I. The Allies, including the United States, had won. The very next year the nineteenth amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote passed Congress and in 1920 went on to be ratified by the states. The women of the United States had also won. This timing was not mere coincidence. The war had a profound impact on the suffrage movement. It became the central issue in women’s activism for a federal suffrage amendment. In turn, the women used it as a plea and a bargaining chip for the support of politicians, specifically President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was a pivotal figure in the last two years of the fight for women’s suffrage, 1917 and 1918. It was his influence on suffrage that ultimately won women the vote by his support of the federal amendment as an emergency war measure. Wilson’s support for a federal amendment was remarkable because before the war, he had not considered women’s suffrage a federal amendment issue. Other historians rightfully credit Wilson for his all-important support of the federal suffrage amendment. Yet some do not document the evolution of his ideology on the issue, and those who do not go far enough.
For years, Wilson had held the position that women’s suffrage was a states’ rights issue. On August 15, 1912, as Wilson was campaigning in Massachusetts, Governor Eugene Noble Foss wrote him to ask about his position on women’s suffrage. The Governor stated that he had been under pressure from local factions of the women’s movement to learn Wilson’s thoughts on the issue. Two days later Wilson responded and spelled it out for the Governor. “I must s...
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...unardini and Steinson clearly shows Wilson’s important influence on the suffrage movement. It even conveys the fact that Wilson had not always supported a federal suffrage amendment, but neither Lunardini nor Steinson goes far enough in explaining the why and the how of his conversion. Through his correspondence with leaders in the women’s movement and other politicians, Wilson abandoned his previous position of suffrage as a state’s rights issue. He came to believe in a federal amendment for a variety of philosophical as well as practical concerns. This conversion and its process were important occurrences in the course of American women’s history. Without Wilson’s support it is impossible to tell how much longer the suffrage battle would have worn on, and his support would never have come about if it were not for all these influences on his evolving ideology.
(Nugent, p. 116) The amendment granted woman’s suffrage, and was the fruit of many years of labor of several women’s rights groups, such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and prominent women’s rights activists, such as Susan B. Anthony. The amendment expanded the bounds of popular democracy, bringing attention to women who felt increasingly ignored as participants in the political system (Piott, p. 166). Being the inalienable right of any citizen, the right to vote inevitably expanded the political freedom of American women, and also opened other doors of opportunity to them; they could advocate for more job opportunities, better economic security, and advantageous marital and family
Socially, America was gaining strength, with women such as Jane Addams, a women's rights activist, entering the progressive fight. According to a study, the percent of eligible voters who cast ballots in Presidential elections were at a somewhat steady rate from 1904 to 1916, ranging from 59-65%, but in the 1920 election, only 49% of eligible voters actually cast ballots. (Document J) Although some may argue that the percent decrease was due to most Americans not liking any of the elected Presidential candidates, and therefore not voting, this is untrue because this was the first election in which women could vote, which threw of the ratio of voters and non-voters. In addition, all four candidates running for the title of President, Debs, Roosevelt, Wilson, and Taft, were all progressives, and wanted to reduce the number of trusts. This gave all voters, men or women, no incentive to vote. In the end of the election, Woodrow Wilson won, with 435 electoral votes, while Roosevelt had 88, and Taft received a mere e...
More than three hundred citizens came to take part in one of the most important documents written in women’s history during the Women’s Right’s Convention in upstate Seneca, New York, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott on July 19-20, 1848 (Ryder). Stanton became persistent when she included a resolution supporting voting rights for women in the document, intimidated by this notion her loyal husband threatened to boycott the convention. “Even Lucretia Mott warned her, ‘Why Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous!’ ‘Lizzie,’ however, refused to yield” (Rynder). As Mott dreaded, out of eleven resolutions the most argumentative was the ninth–women’s suffrage resolution. The other 10 resolutions passed consistently. “According to Cady Stanton’s account, most who opposed this resolution did so because they believed it would compromise the others. She, however, remained adamant” (Rynder). When the two-day convention was over, one hundred men and women signed the historical the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments to...
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 directly affect women, and some not, but they all add to the momentum of the Women’s campaign for the vote. Before 1870 there were few bills passed to achieve much for the movement. One bill that was passed, which did not directly affect women in too many ways, was one of the starting points of the campaign for the vote.
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
According to Ellen Carol Dubois, the campaigns to acquire women suffrage were not easy that they required voters to “be persuaded to welcome new and unpredictable constituencies into the political arena” (420). There was also severe resistance in the North about the immigrant vote and the exclusion of African American and poor whites in the South (420). Immigrants in the North and African American in the South were not fully qualified to vote for the women. Harriot Stanton Bl...
After World War I America became the world’s center for trade. The economic center of the world moved from London, England to New York City, New York, United States of America, and more specifically Wall Street (Buhle, Mari J, Czitzrom, Armitage 848). Due to women, the 1920’s marked economic and social change in America. Women took over men’s jobs during the war while their husbands were overseas, and once the men came home the women wanted to keep their positions. To show gratitude to these women Congress passed the 19th Amendment on August 18th, 1920 which prohibited any United States citizen from having the right to vote based on sex. This change in women’s social status led to more workers in the factories, which were usi...
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.
While the women’s suffrage movement was none violent and mainly carried out by organized meetings, lobbying congressman, and picketing protests, the women that participated in it could do nothing to stop the violence of their oppressors from coming to them. In January 1917, the National Women’s Party, led by suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, began to picket, six days a week, in front of the white house for their right to vote. At first largely ignored, they became under frequent attack with no help from the police. Then starting th...
The fight for women’s rights began long before the Civil War, but the most prominent issue began after the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments joined the Constitution. The rights to all “citizens” of the United States identified all true “citizens” as men and therefore incited a revolution in civil rights for women (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). The National Women’s Suffrage Convention of 1868
In the era of Homer, women played a very specific role in society, and even in literature. Women of this time were basically put in a box, and expected to never step out of line. If they did go against the arbitration of men, then they were faced with serious consequences. However, female characters play a huge role in both aiding, and delaying Odysseus’s journey home. I will proceed to analyze, and interpret the actions and intentions of every major female character in The Odyssey.
Women throughout the suffrage act were faced with many challenges that eventually led into the leading roles of women in the world today. Suffrage leaders adopted new arguments to gain new support. Rather than insisting on the justice of women’s suffrage, or emphasizing equal rights, they spoke of the special moral and material instincts women could bring to the table. Because of these women taking leaps and boundaries, they are now a large part of America’s government, and how our country operates.
It was Theodore Roosevelt, who stated that, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care”, conveying the idea that with no voice comes no change. In the morning of August 26, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, which centralized mainly on the enfranchisement of women. Today, they have the legal right to vote, and the ability to speak openly for themselves, but most of all they are now free and equal citizens. However this victorious triumph in American history would not have been achieved without the strong voices of determined women, risking their lives to show the world how much they truly cared. Women suffragists in the 19th century had a strong passion to change their lifestyle, their jobs around the nineteenth century were limited to just children, family, and domestic duties. It consisted of a very low rate of education, and job opportunities. They could not share their opinion publicly and were expected to support their male family members and husbands during the time. Women knew that the way to enfranchisement was going to be tenacious, and full of obstacles along the way. Therefore a new organization was formed, The National American Women Association (NAWSA), representing millions of women and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as the first party president. This organization was founded in 1890, which strategized on the women getting education in order to strengthen their knowledge to prepare for the suffrage fight. NAWSA mainly focused on the right to vote one state at a time. In 1917, a member named Alice Paul, split apart from NAWSA because of the organization’s tactics and major goals. Due to this split, many other suffragists from NAWSA bitterly divided into a new organization named, National Women’s ...
...en comparing the President Wilson to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to demand that President reverse his opposition to 19th amendment. Besides the comparison, CU also set aflame a life-size dummy of Wilson, burned copies of Wilson’s speeches, and went on hunger strikes when got sent to prison. Newspapers printed stories about the women’s treatment in jail, garnering public sympathy and support for the cause. By 1918, President Wilson publicly announced his support for suffrage. Thus, victory for women suffrage happened in 1920.