The suffragist movement took place in the United States in the early nineteenth century and it was one of the major social change in American history. Women fought for their rights and believed suffrage was the most effective to change an unjust system. Iron Jawed Angels was a film that covered a chapter in U.S. history of the struggles of women who fought for their rights to vote. In a country controlled by sexism, it was difficult for the women to fight against the men. The women used many tactics to gain equal rights as men. There were positive and negative forces that brought about this change.
Women were always stereotyped and they were considered to be the weaker gender. The paradigms that were involved were women were always seen as a certain role. Taking care of the children was "the only role" that was considered appropriate for females. Women were often looked at as inferior when they participated in politics but, men were always been looked as the strong ones and they thought without man we would not be anywhere. Also, women were known as chattel which defines them as ...
Martin Pugh, in his evaluation of women’s suffrage, focuses his narrative on the Victorian Suffragists, especially from the 1870s to 1890s, arguing- unlike many other historians- that their contribution to the securing of votes for women was instrumental. Presented through 10 essays, focusing on specific topics related to the Suffragist movement, Pugh provides an in depth analysis of both the tactics and political climate the Victorian Women’s Suffrage movement faced. Organised in roughly chronological order, the prose is fluent with constant reference to central ideas featuring in each text, consolidating Pugh’s point.
Women were only second-class citizens. They were supposed to stay home cook, clean, achieve motherhood and please their husbands. The constitution did not allow women to vote until the 19th amendment in 1971 due to gender discrimination. Deeper in the chapter it discusses the glass ceiling. Women by law have equal opportunities, but most business owners, which are men, will not even take them serious. Women also encounter sexual harassment and some men expect them to do certain things in order for them to succeed in that particular workplace. The society did not allow women to pursue a real education or get a real job. Women have always been the submissive person by default, and men have always been the stronger one, and the protector. Since the dawn of time, the world has seen a woman as a trophy for a man’s arm and a sexual desire for a man’s
With the rise of woman suffragists in the mid-nineteenth century came the subsequent rise of anti-suffragists. Surprisingly, however, many of those who opposed woman suffrage were women themselves. In fact, in a letter written to the editor of the New York Times in 1873, one woman maintained, "for every one woman who desires the vote, there are ten [at least] who do not wish to do so" (qtd. in Bjornlund 80). But with so much opposition, why was it that the anti-suffragists lost this battle? It all came down to their tactics. While anti-suffragists were genteel and dignified in their approach, a method consistent with the nature of women (Marshall 352), suffragists were more radical and militant. Though diametrically opposed in their strategies, it was essentially the extremist approach of the suffragettes that ultimately resulted in the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
After the success of antislavery movement in the early nineteenth century, activist women in the United States took another step toward claiming themselves a voice in politics. They were known as the suffragists. It took those women a lot of efforts and some decades to seek for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her essay “The Next Generation of Suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch and Grassroots Politics,” Ellen Carol Dubois notes some hardships American suffragists faced in order to achieve the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Along with that essay, the film Iron-Jawed Angels somehow helps to paint a vivid image of the obstacles in the fight for women’s suffrage. In the essay “Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II,” Ruth Milkman highlights the segregation between men and women at works during wartime some decades after the success of women suffrage movement. Similarly, women in the Glamour Girls of 1943 were segregated by men that they could only do the jobs temporarily and would not able to go back to work once the war over. In other words, many American women did help to claim themselves a voice by voting and giving hands in World War II but they were not fully great enough to change the public eyes about women.
Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
Men have a broader, more masculine figure compared to women, being less manly and more feminine-built. These physical disadvantages are the reason why women stayed home to care for their family because it was thought of as too dangerous to be doing the hard “men’s work.” Women were also considered to have been less intelligent, more emotional and less decisive than men. Women had low social status and fewer rights than the men. History states that women are the child bearers who nurse infants which led to the assumption that women hold the responsibilities around the household, while men went out long distances to do the tough work....
During the beginning of the 20th century, the increase activity of the National Union Of Women attractive additional support of the suffrage movement. “However, it was possible to criticize the policy and tactics of the constitutional suffragist on several grounds. It was argued that the suffragists should have revolted in 1884, when the amendment to the reform bill of that year failed through the opposition of the liberal leadership, but the suffragists were too well mannered to do more protesting and concentrate all of their efforts on one private members bill.” The women suffrage’s organization could not force the political parties to adopt the cause of women’s suffrage and need a major party to pick up their campaign or there was no hope of a government bill. Women’s suffrages leaders saw that they need more of a drastic tactics to gain public awareness. Women started protesting by undergoing violence methods and tactics however, the National Union Of Women believed that any aggression or violence acts of protesting would only weaken the movement. These actions would persuade male’s voters that women are too emotional and thus could not be trusted with the responsible of voting. These gentle ways of protesting was unconvincing, as many political believed would give up or lose interests. The lack of actions cause many women to take strongest methods of protesting their rights and formed a more violent group called Suffragettes.
Effectiveness of Suffragists and Suffragettes The suffragists and suffragettes campaigned for votes for women from 1906 to 1914. The suffragists campaigned politically, organising petitions, marches and meetings. The suffragettes were violent protesters, vandalising public property, private property, and men's affairs. But how effective were these campaigns, of violence and peace. The suffragist's greatest achievement was arguably the introduction of the conciliation bill.
During the early times of our country's history, men and women were actually considered partially equal. During this time, America was an agrarian society, which means that it was a farm-based country. There was much work to be done around the farm, and the chores were divided equally amongst the men and women. (K., Esther 1) The livelihood of the family relied on both the husband and the wife, so women's jobs were considered equally important to those of men.
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.
The suffrage movement first emerged at the turn of the century and Civil War when African American slaves were denied the right to vote, a benefit that a majority agreed was associated with citizenship, and therefore should be applicable to all freed slaves. This set the grounds for a suffrage movement that later evolved into a larger issue centered on antislavery reform. Joining together to fight for benefits that were being withheld from American citizens, the role of women came into play during this time as the most active abolitionists who came together to organize petitions, conventions, and raise funds to help further the movement. Women played a vital role in being heard through protests and local publications of their thoughts. Novels such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Clotel, along with articles in popular news publications, shed much light and attention on anti-slavery reform, while also sparking the inspiration for women’s rights (Britton, 2006).
Before the Women’s Rights Movement women were viewed less than men in every aspect. Pre- Civil War women were viewed as the source of life but viewed less than men intellectually . In the 19th century the ideal women was submissive, her job was to be an obedient, loving wife . There were two important thing that ruled the way that women were treated. One of these was the most important out of the two during this time period this was the Cult of Domesticity, which basically said that women were supposed to do all of the domestic work in a household 3.
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.
Reaction Paper 1: Iron Jawed Angels “Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity” (von Garnier, 2004, part 10) and that is exactly what courage was viewed as when the women’s suffrage movement erupted in the mid 1800’s and it was quite the uphill battle from there. Iron Jawed Angels captures the height of the women’s suffrage movement with Alice Paul, a liberal feminist, as the front woman in the battle against Congress. Paul’s determination to pass a constitutional amendment can be seen through her dauntless efforts to go against the societal norms of the time to fight for women’s rights. Through the first wave of the women’s suffrage movement seen in Iron Jawed Angels, the struggles women endured for equality have a lasting impact on American society.
...and they are too good to clean the house and take care of the children. Women were thought of as the ones to deal with everything and anything that happened to the house during the day while the men worked. Men in society believed women were only meant for simple things like housework.