Women's Suffrage campaigns - Research Paper Example

In the present day, many women in the United s may possibly think that they have always had the freedom ofvoting for the president, governors, members of the congress, and mayors as they do today. However, this is not the case. In reality, women had no voting right and in fact, it is only in the 20th century that they gained voting right. This was following a long and difficult struggle against federal governments as well as the state. Previously, women never took part in general elections simply for the reason that they were women (Macbain-Stephens, 4). This paper discusses Women's Suffrage/the right to vote. Introduction Women's suffrage refers to women’s right to hold public office and to vote. The women's suffrage movement comprises of reformers’ every organized activity to add constitutional amendments and laws guaranteeing women the right to vote or to transform laws that hindered women from voting (Lewis, 1). Between early 1800s and civil war, which took place between the years 1861 and 1865, the US had a growing middle class, including families wherein while the women stayed at home taking care of their children, men held positions of lawyers, managers, business owners, among others. During this time, stereotypical ideas regarding women as well as men’s roles emerged from the culture of men going into the world of work. People held the argument that since women were pure of heart in addition to being physically weak, only men could cope with the harsh events of the world of rough work. Another belief was that women should seldom leave home – they were expected to develop the aspects of submissiveness, purity, piety, and domesticity, maintaining the values of morality and stability in the home. They were also expected to create a getaway from the competitive world of business for their men (Macbain-Stephens, 6&7). Women were denied the right to own property, vote, obtain a divorce, speak in public, or serve on juries (Adams, 4). Macbain-Stephens further explains that long before and during the Progressive movement, a period of great reform (1900-1920) during which great transformations in economic, political and social ideas were occurring in the US, women had been fighting for their voting rights (they tried for more than 80 years without succeeding). In the year 1776 for example, a woman by the name Abigail Adams expressed strong views regarding her desire to take a more prominent role in the decision-making process pertaining the way in which the government was run as well as share a voice in the election of individuals who ran it. Abigail was the second US president’s wife and she wrote John Adams, her husband, a letter voicing her reaction to the proclamation that ‘all men are created equal’ after she had read a draft of the constitution that the second Continental Congress had written. In the letter, she requested her husband to ‘remember the ladies’ and be more favorable and to generous them than his ancestors. She promised that if her husband would not give particular attention and care to the ladies, they were determined to provoke a rebellion, and that they would not hold themselves bound by any laws in which they had no voice or representation (Adams, 4 & Thelizlibrary.org, 1-3). Abigail cautioned against according all the power to men during the formation of a new government. According to her, the constitutional freedoms and rights were also supposed to be applicable to women too. However, Abigail’s letter did not change anything. She still held the belief that one day, women would come together to secure equal rights for themselves. By early 19th century, a period during which there was the discussion of new ideas as well as the changing of the old ideas, many people shared Abigail opinion. Equally, both men and women such as Frances Wright started protesting against the discrimination against women. a writer and editor to a newspaper known as the ‘free Enquirer’, Wright became an inspiration to many women and they followed her steps. Another supporter of women’s antislavery rights and causes were Sarah Grimke and Angelina. These abolitionists journeyed to Northeast cities, audaciously addressing the public regarding their political views. Along with others, they persuaded women to fight for what they believed (Adams, 4). The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention NY played a significant role of laying the foundation for the suffrage movement of women both in America and in England (Scholastic.com, 2 & Frost-Knappman & Cullen-DuPont, 49). It was in this convention that suffragists drafted a Declaration of Sentiments, which included demanding women’s right to vote. The Declaration of Sentiments was anchored in the Declaration of Independence (Teachingamericanhistorymd.net, 1). Dilke explains that women held meetings in conventions as well as informal gatherings during the subsequent twenty years, their topics of discussion being their legal, educational, social, economic, and political rights. Susan B. Antony together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were among the most famous women who formed an organized the woman suffrage movement suffrage movement. Following the civil war, suffragists looked forward to the application of the new constitutional amendments, which gave the right to vote to slaves, to women too. Nevertheless, this did not happen. Although these women had passed away by the year 1906, other women such as Anna Howard Shaw, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, among others continued with heir work. These women led the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the biggest suffrage organization, which was a combination of two associations that formed subsequent to the Civil War namely the National Woman's Party and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) (Dilke, 501 and Adams & Keene, xi). Adams & Keene explain that together, through a national council and local associates comprising of two million members, these women directed the hard state-by-state battle for the enfranchisement of women. Catt became NAWSA’s president in the year 1915 while Paul, who was forced to resign from NAWSA owing to her persistence on the use of radical direct-action approaches, managed the National Woman's Party that used methods such as hunger strikes and mass marches. The suffragists also organized parades and marches as ways of active protest. In 1913 for example, Lucy Burns and Alice Paul formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage, which finally evolved into the National Women’s Party in the year 1917. Paul tried introducing the militant methods that Women in Britain’s Social and Political Union were using. She organized huge demonstrations and led the group in huge pickets such as a daily White House picket. After the US joined the World War I, patriotic male bystanders frequently assaulted Paul during her daily White House picket. Paul was arrested in October, 1917and given a prison term of seven months, but she was released after going on a hunger strike (Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, 4-6). Because of this picketing, five hundred women were apprehended and one hundred and sixty eight were jailed for traffic obstruction. By the year 1918, Woodrow Wilson, in the midst of the First World War, said that the suffrage for women was required as ‘war measure.’ The House of Representatives enacted an amendment that accorded women's suffrage. However, the Senate conquered it. In the year 1919 February, Congress received another amendment, although it did not pass too. By May of 1919, the House and Senate passed the amendment (Teachingamericanhistorymd.net, 4&5). The women won their struggle for the right to vote on August 26, 1920, following the states’ ratification and approval of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, which accorded full suffrage to American Women (Macbain-Stephens, 5). Conclusion Apparently, women’s suffrage campaigns and the subsequent passage of the Nineteenth amendment, which accorded full suffrage to women, took great perseverance by women and their organizations. In the United States of America, among other women, utmost credit goes to Abigail Adams, who assisted in planting the seeds that made women as well as men to start thinking concerning the rights and roles of women in a country that had been founded on independence and equality ideals. It is important to note that as Scholastic.com asserts, the situation was not any different in other countries – suffrage campaigns also took place in Latin America, Great Britain, European countries, Asia, Pakistan, Middle East, Africa, among others. Works Cited Adams, Colleen. Women's Suffrage: A Primary Source History of the Women's Rights Movement in America. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. 2003. Print. Adams, Katherine H. & Keene, Michael L. Alice Paul and the American suffrage campaign. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. 2008. Print. Dilke, Mary. Women's Suffrage. United States: Social Studies. 2008. Print. Frost-Knappman, Elizabeth & Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn. Women's Suffrage in America: Eyewitness History. New York: Infobase Publishing. 2005. Print. Lewis, Jone J. Women's Suffrage: What You Need to Know About Women's Suffrage. 2011. Web. Macbain-Stephens, Jennifer. Women's Suffrage: Giving the Right to Vote to All Americans. New York: Rosen Classroom. 2006. Print. Scholastic.com. Women's Suffrage. N.d. Web. Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. Alice Paul. 2007. Web. Teachingamericanhistorymd.net. Women's Suffrage. 2005. Web. Thelizlibrary.org. Letters between Abigail Adams and Her Husband John Adams. 1998. Web. Read More