Women's Suffrage Movement Research Paper

The National Women’s Suffrage Association was established in 1869, founded by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, just after the Civil War. One year later, Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, and several others founded the American Woman Suffrage Association, and lastly, the National Woman’s
Party was established and led by Alice Paul, a former NWASA member. For the next 50 years, these women worked toward educating the public about the importance of women being involved in the countries politics. After years of circulating petitions, picketing the white house, and lobbying congress, victory was won. It was not until 1919 when the nineteenth amendment was passed were women had gained the right to vote in the United States of America.

The first women’s right convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. The convention would spark a fifty-yearlong movement that began the Women’s Suffrage Movement. At the turn of the century, woman in the club movement and settlement house movement groups wanted to pass reform in legislation, however, many Politian’s did not want to listen to them. Over time, the women in these groups began to realize that in order to achieve any of their goals or demands, they must earn women the right to vote, which in turn, was the start of the woman suffrage movement. Women across the nation leaped at the opportunity to become equal to their male counterparts. Millions of women began members of the NAWSA. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s women were storming into the work force, during that time the number of women entering the work force “increased from 2.6 million to 7.8 million.” (http://www.loc.gov). Although, these new working women were not paid as well as the men, their wages differed dramatically, they still felt empowered to join the force. Primarily, these women worked as domestic servants. The Women’s Trade Union League worked to improve the low wages

At this point, women had gained the right to control the money they had earned, their own property, in which before they did not own, and the custody of their children in the case of a divorce from their spouse. It was not until 1896 that women had gained the “right vote in in four states (Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah). Women and women's organizations also worked on behalf of many social and reform issues. By the beginning of the new century, women's clubs in towns and cities across the nation were working to promote suffrage, better schools, the regulation of child labor, women in unions, and liquor prohibition.” (http://www.loc.gov.) As I studied this topic more closely, I found it interesting that “traditional women” did not support equality of the sexes. I suppose I just assumed that all women wanted to be freed of this sort of social slavery they had been forced to be accustom to. These traditional women argued that women in politics was just wrong, we were not fit to hold such a role, some even believe women may grow breads after taking on a man’s role. Later,