Women's Political Activism and Womens Suffrage - Coursework Example

Women’s Suffrage Women’s suffrage movements began as an active organized political campaign in the nineteenth century, though the intellectual developments that would seed these activities had been established a century earlier. The nineteenth and the twentieth centuries would be a period of unprecedented change and the emergence of the feminist movement would mark the pinnacle of this era. The fight for vote defines the beginning of self assertion of women and her emergence as a political force on par with men. This period (often called the first wave (Humm.M, 1995, p251) of feminism) does by no means include only suffrage. The campaign to abolish slavery, the temperance unions, the property right reform movements, marriage and divorce legislation reforms, birth control awareness movements to socialist and Marxist causes all had substantial feminine influence and presence. Women leaders emerged in various fields and they by their example dispelled the notion of women as inherently weak beings. Despite this overwhelming tide of feminist causes, suffrage or the fight by women to enfranchise themselves held a truly unique position. It was the domineering demand of the time, as is evidenced in the literature of the era. The common belief was that the right to vote would enable women to attain all the other rights. The fact that the male political institutions were reluctant to grant enfranchise to women constantly reminded them of their second class citizenship within the state. The movement brought together women from all walks of life and drew supporters that belonged to the social high class, the working middle class, the lower classes and even people from the slums. The activists conducted rallies and marches that attracted overwhelming public support and sympathy. Organizations formed by women to advocate the cause of their suffrage were formed all over the world far outnumbering any similar associations for other reform movements. Women showed a sense of global sisterhood for championing the right to enfranchisement. When women won the vote in Australia and New Zealand, their counterparts in the United States of America and the United Kingdom argued their cases as examples before their legislatures. Leaders of the movement in both the sides of the Atlantic visited each other very often and exchanged ideas. Very early on in the movement it had become evident that women winning the vote in any one country of the industrialized west would pave the way for social taboos to be broken down everywhere else. This sense of unity, that too at a period that preceded the two world wars by itself demonstrates the preeminence of women’s suffrage over all other feminist issues of the time. To comprehend the true extent of the suffrage movement and to understand why women valued the right to vote above all others, it is necessary to undertake a preview of the social situation of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The class structure and the role of the women in the society have since undergone revolutionary changes to the extent that it is beyond all recognition today. Women, in our times are by no means completely freed from discrimination and it is also true that during the nineteenth century, not all women were subject to radical oppression. However, the fundamental outlook of the society towards feminist causes can be understood only if we are aware of the social standing of women in the nineteenth century. The Society of the nineteenth century In retrospect, it seems unbelievable that for many centuries half of mankind had no say in the political processes that were responsible for their well being and happiness. It is equally amazing how the other half exerted a repressive influence on them depriving their basic liberty and economic freedom. The status of the American woman was so bad in the early nineteenth century that even foreign visitors commented upon their plight. English women believed that American marriages doomed women to "insipid and meaningless lives, devoted to gossip, clothing, and often to no greater ambition than merely getting through the day" (Allen & Taylor, 1999). But English women were not in any better state; a rigid system of social conduct had deprived them of their right to own property and individual freedom. This situation was repeated in every country around the globe with the degree of harshness increasing with ascending longitude. The role that was expected by the society to be played by women has been summarized in what is called the “Cult of Domesticity”. The ‘cult’ identifies piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity as the four basic attributes of the female character. Piety was the "core of a womans virtue, the source of her strength”, Submissiveness required women “to suffer and to be silent under suffering” and women were expected to “comfort and cheer, to nurse and support, to manage and oversee”. (Welter, 1976, p65-68). The home was widely considered to be a woman’s proper place and it was widely expected to continue as such. The general attitude particularly in agrarian communities was to treat women as the property of her father before marriage and that of her husband after marriage. In the lower strata of the society it was common for the women to be beaten up by a drunken husband but this could not be complaint against as it was considered a prerogative of the husband to chastise his wife in any manner that he considered fit. Poverty was rampant in many states and the absence of birth control made it difficult to control the number of children in a household. As a result, many poor families were also large families with high rates of mortality to the child as well as the mother. Many women began to see marriage as a trap that deprived them of their freedom and left them at the mercy of their husbands. The extent of the subjugation of women within the household can be understood from the content of the Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848: “In the covenant of marriage, she (woman) is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he (Man) becoming to all intents and purposes, her master--the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women; the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands” (Stanton, Anthony, & Gage, 1887, p123-125) Women from less affluent families had to find employment as domestic help and manual laborers to support their families. Churches and their religious orders did allow women entry but they were given no ecclesial posts of any authority. These women, though employed, did not have any rights of their own and they were heavily discriminated at their places of employment in the remuneration that they received. Women had been holding the traditional position of teachers for many years but these women were expected to lead a life of total devoutness that was removed from all worldly pleasures. Even after nursing became a respectable position (largely due to the efforts of Florence Nightingale), the economic prospects of this field remained dim with recruitment largely from self serving religious orders (Lloyd, 1971, p18). Professional fields like medicine and Law were discouraged for women. Reform and Suffrage The situation was worse in Russia where even most men did not have the right to vote. “In a setting so inhospitable to egalitarian premises, where even male suffrage was denied, society would have to be reconstituted politically before a concern with full citizenship could be meaningful. Advocacy of political rights to women, so central to the preoccupations of mill and other feminist movements, could find no soil in which to flourish.” (Lapidus, 1978, p27) By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the call for reform had begun to be heard from various political establishments and intellectuals. The growing dissatisfaction with the existing social system was first expressed in the literature of the day. The point of relevance here is that most of the feminist writers of the day foresaw the need for suffrage to be given for women as this was deemed necessary to bring subsequent political alterations. Though it was “A vindication of the rights of women” (1792) written by Mary Wollstonecraft which is considered to be the first work to deal specifically with issues that we now consider to be ‘feminist’, it was Marion Reid’s “A plea for women” (1843) that made the maiden appeal to grant women the right to vote. Economist and social reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “Women and economics, a study of the economic relation between men and women as a factor of social education” (1899). These works mentioned a number of other causes for women to concerned with but they extolled suffrage as a fundamental tool for the emancipation for women. On an intellectual level, the vote had supremacy over other asymmetries as early as the eighteenth century. Various political organizations highlighted their individual causes during the nineteenth century. There were Temperance organizations, unions for the abolition of slavery, Woman’s Trade Unions, The General Federation of Women’s Clubs, Councils for Jewish Women, and Councils for colored women. In Britain they was a Married Women’s Property Committee and other organizations that were composed of women to argue cases that concerned them. But in their sheer numbers and their membership, the suffrage unions far outweighed the other societies. In US there was the National American Woman Suffrage Association and in Britain there was the National Union for Women’s Suffrage Societies. In Australia alone there were seven and most disenfranchised European nations had their own suffrage societies. In Britain, the radical Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU) had around 2000 members and the suffragist NUWSS had around a 100,000 extending over some 400 branches (Humm L.P, 1982, p319). If anything, the membership figures point to the fact that the overwhelming public support was for the cause of women’s suffrage. Many of the leaders of other movements would also take up leadership positions on the suffrage front. Francis Willard who became the president of the United States Womans Christian Temperance Union in 1879 would exert massive influence on both the eighteenth and nineteenth amendments to the constitution. Both the eminent American suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were involved in the abolition of slavery. It was the unwavering devotion of Stanton that finally convinced the pivotal Seneca Falls Convention to adopt women’s suffrage as a part of their agenda. In Britain Emmeline Pankhurst was involved in the improvement of women’s work place conditions while her daughter Sylvia Pankhurst was a committed socialist. The work of these women in the field of suffrage far superseded their accomplishment in any other field. Even during their times, it was their suffrage work that attracted the largest amount of attention, support as well as criticism. The changes that women wished to create in the society varied from country to country but suffrage was a demand that transcended political boundaries. From North America to Europe and Asia, there were frequent campaigns to earn the vote. This feature lends to the suffrage movement universality so that if any one feminist movement is asked as characterizing the whole of the nineteenth century, then it is definitely the fight for the right to vote. Various suffrage societies lend support to each other and their leaders engaged in productive exchanges of campaign strategies and leadership. Emmeline Pankhurst visited the United States after the First World War and met with the suffragists there. This trend was not visible for any other movements except for the cause of socialism, but then no other cause was as mammoth in its implications or as widespread in its reach as the cause of the women’s suffragists. As has been mentioned before, the enfranchisement of women in New Zealand in 1893 and then in Australia in 1902 were quickly used by the suffragists as case studies to prove their point. These helped catalyze the process of the world nations recognizing their cause and the eventual grant of universal enfranchisement. Conclusion In 1920, The United States of America ratified the nineteenth amendment granting women’s suffrage and in 1928, The United Kingdom too granted women the vote on equal terms as men. It had taken a long 70 years from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to the nineteenth amendment. In this, we have our last evidence that suffrage was indeed the preoccupying feminist concern in the time period. For no other cause had such an extent over time and managed to retain its priority with the feminists. Most other causes had ironically been conceived and granted before suffrage was realized but their period of activism had not lasted anywhere as long. In the modern age, it has been argued that women’s suffrage has not had the impact that the suffragists envisioned. One reason might be the fact that there is no “women’s vote” i.e., women do not vote en block in favor of any candidate. In bestowing their electoral confidence, they follow the same pattern as the rest of the society. In the times that we live in, suffrage has almost been universally granted. The granting of the right to vote marked the end of an epochal time in the history of feminism and the beginning of another. Discrimination based on sex has not disappeared from our society but we are definitely much closer to attaining it than we were at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Works Cited Allen, & Taylor, A. (1999, October). Feminism, Social Science and the meanings of Modernity: The debate on the origin of the family in Europe and the united states, 1860 - 1914. The American Historical review . Botting, Eileen H, Houser, Sarah L., "Drawing the Line of Equality”: Hannah Mather Crocker on Womens Rights in American Political Science Review (2006), 100: 265-278 Francis, Roberta W (2008), The History behind the Equal Rights Amendment, www.equalrightsamendment.org/era.htm Humm, Maggie. 1995. The Dictionary of Feminist Theory. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, p. 251 Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Modern British History, 3. New York: Garland, 1982 Lapidus, G. W. (1978). Women in Soviet Society. California: University of California Press. Llyod, T. (1971). Suffragettes International. London: Purnell and Sons Ltd. Records of the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. London Metropolitan University, Womens Library. Archives in London Sevenhuijsen, Selma. Mothers as Citizens: Feminism, Evolutionary Theory and the Reform of Dutch Family Law, 1870–1910, in Smart, Carol (ed.) Regulating Womanhood: Historical Essays on Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality London 1992 167–86. Stanton, E. C., Anthony, S. B., & Gage, M. J. (1887). History of Womans Suffrage Vol 1. The History of feminism, 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_feminism Welter, B. (1976). Dimity Convictions: The American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens: Ohio Uniiversity press. Read More