Women Suffrage
Women’s rights in America have always been a major issue throughout history.
Women’s rights have been closely linked with human rights throughout . This violation of
Women’s rights is apparent in the fight for suffrage in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s . It can
be said that the government denying the vote to women is a human right offense because
the right to vote is a natural right that comes with citizenship. To deny a certain group
based on race, age, or gender is deny them of their basic rights and therefore taking the
stance that they are second-class citizens if they are citizens at all. . The fight for suffrage
was a human rights struggle for more than just the right to vote. They were also striving
for a right to equal treatment as men politically. Women wanted to be recognized as being
a political force able to change the country if they so chose.
Suffrage can be documented as starting as far back as 1776, with Abigail Adams.
She wrote to her husband John, who was attending the Continental Congress, asking that
he and the other men “remember the ladies” In response, the Declaration is worded as “all
men are created equal:” Although this was seen by the men as a joke between husband
and wife, it was a blatant refusal of women as citizens of the country.
In he 1800’s women’s rights were furthered by the Married Woman’s Property
Act which was passed by Maryland in 1839. This law gave women the right to retain
personal property even within marriage. Now, the husband could not come into control of
the women’s property and sell it when married. This law was important because it
recognized the fact that women had the right to personal property even if there was a man
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... rape, and savagery with in
marriages. Husbands of women in the movement if they were not supportive would often
use spousal abuse and inter-marital rape to force the women to drop out of the protest.
This was an effective method of diminishing the movements numbers.
Finally, all the campaigning paid off. In the summer of 1919 the nineteenth
amendment passes both the house and the senate. After a few more years of campaigning,
on August 26 the Nineteenth Amendment was adopted after the thirty-six states ratify it.
The struggle for suffrage was an important one because it showed that through
peaceful protest one can obtain political power. Perhaps it was only because they were
women that they were not put down by the government, but in any event they
accomplished an important feat that took precedent for the women’s movement for
centuries to come.
It allowed married women the right to retain property they owned before marriage and wages they earned outside the family home. (pp.247) Their rights continued to progress when both white and black women were given the right to vote, although it still didn’t have the impact that was expected. Not only were women given more rights, but they also started attending schools and seeking employment. This was a big step for women, but men interpreted this as a threat to the balance of power. Weitz stated that after new “scientific” ideas were combined with old definitions of women’s bodies, due to their ill and fragile bodies, “white middle-class women were unable to sustain the responsibilities of political power or the burdens of education or employment.”
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.
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.
Women like Martha followed the custom of publicly staying out of men’s affairs to honor their husbands, but privately they were the glue that held their lives together and kept the home running from day-to-day. Though these courageous and tireless women worked hard behind the scenes and did not enjoy the freedom and benefits their male counterparts did, they were an inspiration to future generations who recognized their hard work and accomplishments that paved the way for change in the words, “all men are created to equal” to include all of humanity and not just certain men.
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.
On February 3, 1870 the 15th Amendment was ratified, although the promise of the Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. The House of Representatives passed the Amendment by a vote of one hundred forty four to forty four on February 25, 1869. The Senate passed the Amendment by a vote of thirty nine to thirteen on February 26, 1869. The 15th Amendment is exactly as follows:
During the late 19th century, women were in a society where man was dominant. Women did not have natural born rights, such as the right to vote, to speak in public, access to equal education, and so forth, did not stop them to fight for their rights. Women's lives soon changed when Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony played a prominent role to help bring about change.
The need for women’s rights began back in colonial America where women were referred to as “inferior beings”. This era, though it is not particularly noted for it’s feminist movements, did hold such people as Margaret Brent, who was a wealthy holder of land in Maryland and was a strong, but unsuccessful voice in securing a place for women in the legislature of the colony. It was also a period where Quakers, and many other individuals, such as famous American patriot, Thomas Paine supported the rights of women, but at the time it was not enough to make a significant difference and it wasn’t until the 19th century that women would get the real chance to make a difference.
ratify the federal woman suffrage amendment. The women suffragists faced many challenges and obstacles, but their
Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. These women lived at the turn of the century, and fought vehemently for a cause they believed in. They knew that they were being discriminated against because of their gender, and they refused to take it. These pioneers of feminism paved the road for further reform, and changed the very fabric of our society.
equality to be able to vote, and today women are still battling for equality in political
Just as the Irish wanted good work and the farmers wanted a good banking system, women wanted equality. Women and women's organizations worked for various rights for different groups of people. They not only worked to gain the right to vote, they also worked for political equality and for social reforms.
her and many others then women today would still be oppressed. In my opinion women are just
Women could initiate legal proceedings, and they were responsible for their own actions. They could be the executors of wills and even sign their own marriage contrac...
Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century women began to vocalize their opinions and desires for the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage movement paved the way to the nineteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution that allowed women that right. The Women’s Suffrage movement started a movement for equal rights for women that has continued to propel equal opportunities for women throughout the country. The Women’s Liberation Movement has sparked better opportunities, demanded respect and pioneered the path for women entering in the workforce that was started by the right to vote and given momentum in the late 1950s.