The late American activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton once said, “The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history”. Years after Elizabeth played her role in the women’s suffrage movement, her relentless efforts finally paid off. The Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was passed by Congress on June 4 1919 and at last ratified on August 18 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment goes on to say that, “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”. An almost century long struggle had officially ended, and women had ultimately achieved equality with men.
The battle for women’s right to vote started way before it was officially recognized. In fact, most of the women coined for starting the movement did not live to see the movement’s final victory. Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony, and Lucretia Mott amongst numerous others, paved the way for the display of gender equality we see today. The women’s suffrage movement was said to have begun on July 19 1848 at the First Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. An estimated amount of three hundred people attended the convention held at the Wesleyan Chapel. Here the women discussed the disadvantages women faced in life due to sex discrimination and introduced the “Declaration of Sentiments”. Resembling the Declaration of Independence it declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”. This convention was a breakthrough in the movement with activ...
... middle of paper ...
...t Virginia and Tennessee, were invalid and making the suffrage a Federal Act was unconstitutional. These arguments were at first heard in the trial courts and state appellate courts where both chose to dismiss the case. After, Leser vs. Garnett was argued at the Supreme court on Jan 24,1922 and a decision was made on February 27 of the same year. The court unanimously ruled to dismiss the case as well.
Works Cited
Kraditor, A. S. (1971). The ideas of the woman suffrage movement, 1890-1920. New York: Anchor Books.
Expansion Memorial. (2013, November 16). Virginia Minor and Women's Right to Vote. National Parks Service. Retrieved December 3, 2013, from http://www.nps.gov/jeff/historyculture/the-virginia-minor-case.htm
Copied to Clipboard!
Sullivan, G. (1994). The day the women got the vote: a photo history of the women's rights movement. New York: Scholastic.
(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
The Web. The Web. 3 Dec. 2013. http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/women-early-20th-century>. "The National American Association of Woman Suffrage Under Carrie Chapman Catt."
I have read Kathryn Kish Sklar book, brief History with documents of "Women's Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870" with great interest and I have learned a lot. I share her fascination with the contours of nineteenth century women's rights movements, and their search for meaningful lessons we can draw from the past about American political culture today. I find their categories of so compelling, that when reading them, I frequently lost focus about women's rights movements history and became absorbed in their accounts of civic life.
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...
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...
However in the mid 1800’s women began to fight for their rights, and in particular the right to vote. In July of 1848 the first women's rights conventions was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was tasked with drawing up the Declaration of Sentiments a declaration that would define and guide the meeting. Soon after men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments, this was the beginning of the fight for women’s rights. 1850 was the first annual National Women’s rights convention which continued to take place through to upcoming years and continued to grow each year eventually having a rate of 1000 people each convention. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the two leaders of the Women’s Rights Movement, in 1869 they formed the National Woman suffrage Association with it’s primary goal being to achieve voting by Congressional Amendment to the Constitution. Going ahead a few years, in 1872 Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in the nation election, nevertheless, she continued to fight for women’s rights the rest of her life. It wouldn’t be until 1920 till the 19th amendment would be
"The beginning of the fight for women suffrage is usually traced to the Declaration of Sentiments' produced at the first woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, N. Y. in 1848." (Linder) A few years before this convention, Elizabeth Cady St...
In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was sign into the Constitution, granting women the rights to vote.
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
Sixty- nine years after the Declaration of Independence, one group of women gathered together and formed the Seneca Falls Convention. Prior and subsequent to the convention, women were not allowed to vote because they were not considered equal to men. During the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered the “Declaration of Sentiments.” It intentionally resembles the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal…” (Stanton, 466). She replaced the “men” with “men and women” to represent that women and men should be treated equally. Stanton and the other women in the convention tried to fight for voting rights. Dismally, when the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to the Congress, the act failed to be passed. Even though women voiced their opinions out and urged for justice, they could not get 2/3 of the states to agree to pass the amendment. Women wanted to tackle on the voting inequalities, but was resulted with more inequalities because people failed to listen to them. One reason why women did not achieve their goals was because the image of the traditional roles of women was difficult to break through. During this time period, many people believed that women should remain as traditional housewives.
In the 20th century leadership of the suffrage movement passed to two organizations. The first was the National American Woman Suffrage Association. “The National American Women’s Suffrage Association lobbied congress, and state legislatures for const...
Stalcup, Brenda, ed. The Women's Rights Movement: Opposing Viewmpoints. San Diego, California: Greenhaven press, Inc., 1996.
In the case Minor VS Happersett (1874), the Supreme Court decided that the state of Missouri was acting within its constitutional limits in denying a woman the right to vote. “This decision ended the ‘new depart...
The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.
The women’s suffrage movement achieved victory with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920. For the first time in more than 110 years, women were given the right to vote. However, nine states at this time already guaranteed the women’s vote. At this time, all nine states lay west of the Mississippi, (Rothschild, p.8). Indeed, “Although the ideology of suffrage and equal rights was born in the East, the implementation of equal rights came in the West,” (Rothschild, p.9). This is also a reflection of the progressive nature of Western men during this era. This attitude will be seen again in reference to the passage of women’s suffrage in Arizona in 1912.