WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

 

The women’s suffrage campaign in the United States culminated in the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified on August 18, 1920, which granted women permanent suffrage (the right to vote), in all states. Suffragists, male or female, supported equal suffrage. Suffragette was the title given to members of the United Kingdom’s women’s suffrage movement. Suffragette was originally used to describe a member of a more radical faction of the U.K. suffrage movement. American women preferred the term suffragist since it was more inclusive. However, those hostile to women’s suffrage in the U.S. used the U.K. title suffragette; it sounded more feminine and could be more easily belittled, owing to cultural bias.

Pioneers in the cause for women’s suffrage, American women were active beginning in 1826. Early years of the cause had only a handful of vocal advocates. In 1869, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. Their objective was to gain a constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage.

The American Woman Suffrage Association was formed soon thereafter. Lucy Stone headed up this more conservative group whose aim was to achieve women’s suffrage by obtaining amendments to state constitutions. These two groups united in 1890. The national organization, with Susan B. Anthony at the helm, was called National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

 

 

Freedom Rider

 

 

 

Women’s suffrage at the state level was first granted by Wyoming in 1869. The most receptive region of the country to equal suffrage was the West. As women gained the right to vote in school and municipal elections, some state governments allowed them to vote in national elections. But, in general, women’s suffrage was denied in national elections until the beginning of the Roaring Twenties. 

 

 

 

 

 

As a group, white women were ambivalent about women’s suffrage. But, almost all African American women were in favor of the franchise. They thought it would increase their educational opportunities and help stop their financial and sexual exploitation. White suffragists distanced themselves because Jim Crow legislation (segregation) prevailed in the South; they did not want to alienate southern support. Universal suffrage, which would abolish all discrimination, including race, was perceived as too radical by the women’s suffrage organization. 

 

 

 

 

White House Demonstration

 

 

A new women’s suffrage group, The National Woman’s Party (NWP), led by Alice Paul, was formed in 1916. Incorporating militant British protest strategies, the NWP staged massive demonstrations, including picketing the White House and hanging banners to embarrass President Wilson. The women were arrested and went on hunger strikes in prison. Their militance drew tremendous media attention to women’s suffrage.  

 

 

 

         Learning Automobile Mechanics

 

 Women’s suffrage gained support during World War I. Due to shortage of manpower domestically, women worked in nontraditional jobs and demonstrated willingness and ability to move beyond prescribed gender roles. Under Carrie Chapman Catt’s leadership, NAWSA secured President Wilson’s backing in 1916, which he gave partly in recognition of women’s war efforts. After decades of struggle, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1920. From the beginning, the organized women’s movement had male supporters.

 

 

Bibliography

Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote, Doris Stevens, Author, Carol O'Hare, Editor, Bt Bound, 1999

Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited (Viewpoints on American Culture), Jean H. Baker, Oxford University Press, 2003

The Big Vote: Gender, Consumer Culture, and the Politics of Exclusion, 1890s-1920s, Liette Gidlow, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004