Susan Anthony: The Maker of Movements - Case Study Example

Susan Anthony: The Maker of Movements When Susan B Anthony pioneered minority and womens rights in the 19th century, few could have envisioned the sweeping impact that her work would have. Anthony is typically thought of as an advocate for womens rights, but her sense of equality extended to all members of the human race. Anthony was aware that until everyone had the same access to freedom and liberty, we would all be politically and socially oppressed. Anthony did not live to see the passage of the womens right to vote, or the significant social impact that her activism would have. Social issues such as temperance, abolition, education, and health care are all issues that have been impacted by Anthonys work in gaining the womens right to vote. Throughout the 20th century women would bring issues of social importance to women into the public discourse. The issues of civil rights, divorce law, and reproductive rights would manifest in the landmark decisions of Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. The work of Susan B Anthony would forever alter the size, shape, and texture of government in America. The name of Susan B Anthony is indelibly connected with the feminist movement and the womens right to vote, and though her campaign for womens rights was relatively short, her singular intensity gave the movement its power. By some accounts, Anthony was no more than a minor character in the womans movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. She was not present at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 that is credited with bringing the plight of the oppressed woman into the national spotlight, and died 14 years before the passing of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote (Chapman and Mills 3). Yet, because of her oratory skills at moving an audience, Anthony is still regarded as the "mother of all of us" (Chapman and Mills 3). In 1871 she toured the Northwest, and during a three month period gave speeches that would solidify the support needed for the right to vote in the Western states. During this tour she traveled 2000 miles and gave 60 lectures, while being dismissed by local newspapers as "being ugly, old (aged fifty one), and a spinster" (Blair 687). Yet, her work would have a monumental impact on the future of America. Humm writes that Anthony, "could not have imagined the radical transformation of the place and role of women in society wrought through the womens movement of the 1970s and beyond – perhaps the most radical change of the millennium and all within the past few years" (2). Anthonys dedication to the rights of women has been a landmark on the political and social history of America. Susan B Anthony is best known as an advocate for womens rights, but her influence has been felt far beyond the voting booth. In advocating for womens rights, Anthony was promoting the cause of equal rights for everyone. An abolitionist, Anthony felt so strongly about equal rights for everyone that she originally opposed the Fifteenth Amendment because it did not include women in the right to vote. According to Brigance, Anthony "refused to support the separation of woman suffrage from negro suffrage after working so diligently to link them together" (3). Other womens rights advocates of the era, such as Lucy Stone, had sought to include womens rights as part of the emancipation of the African Americans during the Civil War. In 1863 Stone commented that, "you must be true alike to the women and the negroes. We can never be truly "loyal" if we leave them out" (qtd. in Brigance 3). Stone would later abandon this position, not wishing to "sacrifice negro suffrage for woman suffrage by opposing the Fifteenth Amendment" (Brigance 3). This view was also widely held by the political status quo and the academics that defined democracy. According to Caraway, "by the middle of the nineteenth century most white men were enfranchised, but slavery and the exclusion of black men gave scholars greater pause than the exclusion of women" (449). After the war, Anthony stood alone in her demands that the right to vote include women as well as the Negro. Anthonys close associate Elizabeth Stanton would contend in an article in Anthonys periodical Revolution in 1868 that, "Now is the hour—not the negros hour alone, but everybodys hour" (qtd. in Brigance 3). Anthony understood the true meaning of equality, and without the womans right to vote the issue of civil rights would never reach its full potential. Anthony would introduce a resolution to the Loyal League, a womans group, that read "Resolved, There never can be a true peace in the Republic until the civil and political rights of all citizens of African descent and all women are practically established" (qtd. in Brigance 4). For Anthony, rights must include everyone and only when all people are free can there truly be freedom, liberty, and peace. Understanding how Anthony affected the social fabric of America, it is helpful to understand the demographic and geographic support for womens suffrage during the early 19th century. Prior to the passage of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote, 13 of the 16 Western states had passed state laws allowing women the right to vote, while only 2 Eastern states had enacted state laws (McCammon and Campbell 55). During this period, the West was heavily influenced by Puritan attitudes towards the role of women, which "defined womens appropriate roles as domestic, such as caring for children and running households" (McCammon and Campbell 63). The womens rights movement was able to reframe the role of women in politics as "a public motherhood" role for women whereby women, with their nurturing qualities, would care for and improve public life, by reducing corruption in government, helping the poor, improving public education, and so on" (McCammon and Campbell 63). The issue of womans suffrage was closely linked to a broad range of social programs. According to McDonagh and Price, "a strong commitment to education for the young would be associated with support for prohibition, higher turnout, and support for woman suffrage" (423). McCammon and Campbell contend that the womens vote was supported by legislators and political leaders because "they believed that women would support laws regulating the social problems of the region, particularly drunkenness, gambling, and prostitution" (57). Anthonys intense belief in womens right to vote would forever alter the social pattern of the United States, and have a lasting impact on federal social policies. One of the major works produced by Susan B Anthony was the publication of the periodical Revolution from 1868-1870. Anthonys interest in the broader social context of womens rights were reflected in the articles that ranged from "marital property laws and prostitution to monetary policy, the drinking habits of Ulysses S. Grant, and the perceived injustice of the Fifteenth Amendment" as well as "dress and health reforms, temperance, domestic abuse, and the limits of the womans sphere" (Harrington-Lueker 130-131). It was through the publication of the Revolution that Anthony was able to more sharply define womens rights in terms of its impact on other interest groups. This resonance was not missed by the existing status quo and "many studies show that many men fought to exclude women precisely because they feared that womens voting behavior would change the political map" (Caraway 446). She was a pioneer in identity politics and in 1868-1869 she even attempted to align the womens movement with the radical and militant labor reform movement (Harrington-Lueker 133). By bringing in other minority interests and allying the cause of women with them, Anthony was able to build a national movement that would use the power of the womens vote to change the social fabric of the country. The impact that women have had on the social direction of the US is clearly evident in the debate that surrounds the implementation and later repeal of Prohibition. Anthony would link the womens rights movement to the early temperance movements that would later manifest as the 18th Amendment prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol. According to Kyvig, "the quest of middle-class women for social status [. . .] had much to do with the strength of the temperance movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries" (475). In addition, Lott and Kenny report that "Women also dominated the temperance movement, and we find strong evidence that suffrage directly led to passage of prohibition laws" (1184). At the time of its passage and in the early 1920s, Prohibition seemed unrepealable, "especially since American women (now fully franchised) could be counted upon for nearly unanimous support of prohibition" (Kyvig 465). Though this was fifteen years after her death, the work of Anthony was heavily influencing the direction and attitude of the social policies of the nation. Yet, just as women had influenced the passage of the 18th Amendment, they would also bring about its demise. To a large degree, the womens right to vote was responsible for generating the support necessary to pass, and then overturn, the only Amendment ever to be repealed in the history of the US. According to Kyvig, "Large numbers of women, cooperating with each other and for the most part working independently of men, made a significant contribution to ending national prohibition and thus to the history of American constitutional change" (481). The womens movement, as defined by Anthony decades earlier, had given women a voice in government that was reverberating through the changes that would drastically alter the social landscape throughout the 20th century. Many of the sweeping hopes that Anthony had for social change have never been realized. Susan Anthony, and many of her contemporary feminists of the time, believed that, "the achievement of political power for women would reduce conflict, aggression, and wars" (Chessum 230). The world is not significantly less aggressive or violent since women gained the right to vote in 1920. Indeed, it can be argued that the opposite is true. Health care and education, two issues that were of great interest to Anthony, continue to be neglected areas where there is widespread discrimination based on race and gender. Temperance, a central issue of Anthony, was able to gain only a temporary foothold on the American political landscape. Though she was able to generate the necessary support for the right of women to vote, she could not foresee all of the political and social leanings of the female population, or the impact that they would have in the next century. One of the impacts that Anthonys womens movement has had is on the size of the federal government. Allowing women to vote meant larger constituencies and gave then greater influence on how the federal and state revenues would be spent. Lott and Kenny argue that "Since women tend to have lower incomes, they benefit more from various government programs that redistribute income to the poor, such as progressive taxation" (1164). In fact, there has been a significant expansion of public entitlement programs and public assistance that began in the early 20th century that coincided with the womens right to vote. According to Galliher, Ray, and Cook, the womens suffrage movement at the turn of the 20th century was accompanied by "anti-trust legislation, the Pure Food and Drug Act, the first Workmans Compensation Act, laws limiting the hours and conditions of employment for women and children, and minimum aid to dependent children" (539). State spending increased dramatically and "these effects continued growing as more women took advantage of the franchise. Similar changes occurred at the federal level as female suffrage led to more liberal voting records for the states U.S. House and Senate delegations" (Lott and Kenny 1185). From this aspect, Anthony continues to affect the national attitudes on social reform and has made an indelible mark on the direction of the nation. In conclusion, seldom does the work of one person have the lasting impact that forever changes the face and direction of a nation to the extent that Susan B Anthony had. Anthonys tireless dedication to the equal rights of women has given all the people of the world greater freedom and a greater hope for true liberty. The womens vote changed Americas attitudes on education, health care, and the poor. This new constituency brought into public focus the issues that were important to women, and in doing so made them important for everyone. Though many of the dreams that Anthony had for a more peaceful future for America have not been realized, her work continues to affect the national debate. A century after her death the nation is still confronting the challenging issues of peace, health care, and education that were at the foundation of Anthonys call for the womens right to vote. Works Cited Blair, Karen. Rev of Sowing Good Seeds: The Northwest Suffrage Campaigns of Susan B. Anthony, By G. Thomas. The Journal of American History September 1991: 686-687 Brigance, Linda C. "Ballots and Bullets: Adapting Womens Rights Arguments to the Conditions of War." Women and Language 28.1 (2005): 1-7. Academic Search Complete. 10 Apr. 2009. Caraway, Teri. "Inclusion and Democratization: Class, Gender, Race, and the Extension of Suffrage." Comparative Politics 36.4 (2004): 443-60. JSTOR. 10 Apr. 2009. Chapman, Mary, and Angela Mills. "Eighty Years and More: Looking Back at the Nineteenth Amendment." Canadian Review of American Studies 36.1 (2006): 1-15. Academic Search Complete. 10 Apr. 2009. Chessum, Lorna. "Race and Gender in the United States of America." Gender & History 12.1 (2000): 228-31. Academic Search Complete. 10 Apr. 2009. Galliher, John F., Gregory Ray, and Brent Cook. "Abolition and Reinstatement of Capital Punishment during the Progressive Era and Early 20th Century." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 83.3 (1992): 538-76. JSTOR. 10 Apr. 2009. Harrington-Lueker, Donna. "Finding a Market for Suffrage Advertising and The Revolution, 1868-70." Journalism History 33.3 (2007): 130-39. Academic Search Complete. 10 Apr. 2009. Humm, Andy. "The Activists That Shaped a Century." Social Policy Nov. 1999: 2. Academic Search Complete. 10 Apr. 2009. Kyvig, David E. "Women Against Prohibition." American Quarterly 28.4 (1976): 465-82. JSTOR. 10 Apr. 2009. Lott, John R., and Lawrence W. Kenny. "Did Womens Suffrage Change the Size and Scope of Government?" The Journal of Political Economy 107.6 (1999): 1163-98. JSTOR. 10 Apr. 2009. McCammon, Holly J., and Karen E. Campbell. "Winning the Vote in the West: The Political Successes of the Womens Suffrage Movements." Gender and Society 15.1 (2001): 55-82. JSTOR. 10 Apr. 2009. McDonagh, Eileen, and H D. Price. "Woman Suffrage in the Progressive Era: Patterns of Opposition and Support in Referenda." The American Political Science Review 79.2 (1985): 415-35. JSTOR. 10 Apr. 2009. Read More