The Women's Social Movement - Research Paper Example

For decades, women are relegated to a subordinate position to that of men especially in our patriarchal societies dominated by masculinity. In America national laws, traditions and religious doctrines only acted to sustain the women’s subordinate status and codified women’s lack of legal and political rights. Though the constitution states that men and women are equal since they have inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness women are often denied the opportunity to enjoy these rights due to their feminine status.

This begins with families where men are viewed as the heads of the households and women as helpers or assistants to other institutions of society especially in politics. Even today, women are far from gaining equality with men as they rarely occupy important positions. In the 113th Congress of U.S there are only 20 women in the senate out of 100 senators and in the House of Representatives there are only 79 women out of 435 members (Center for American Women and Politics). It is in light of this oppression that women’s movements became an important of life.

This essay will focus on the women’s suffrage movement formed in 1848 and continued up to 1920; how it was formed, its goals, problems and challenges and major achievements over the period as well as the key figures in the movement. The women’s suffrage movement was formed in the late nineteenth century and continued up to early twentieth century. It was founded in 1848 during the Seneca Falls Convention by women who were fed up with being treated as inferior members of society although some men who sympathized with the women’ s plight were also present.

Just like it is stipulated by Staggenborg that social movements undergo a natural cycle of maintenance, growth, and decline, the suffragist movement was no exception (10). The period before the American Civil War was that of growth. However,