The changing status of American women since 1770s - Essay Example

The changing status of American women since 1770s al affiliation American history is replete with periods of extreme discrimination ranging from racial prejudice, gender discrimination, and slavery. Much of these discriminations were castigated by racial perceptions but others were purely non-racial. The post-colonial America witnessed episodic insubordination of women rights to own and transfer property and the right to vote. The political power in the colonial America was determined by an individual’s control over property in which women were disadvantaged by discriminatory property laws of the era. Gender was the sole reason for overreaching women discrimination in the post-colonial America, especially with respect to the denial of women suffrage rights. The denial of the women participation in the voting process worsened the already poor socio-economic status of the American women. The socio-political and economic processes worked against the women’s clamor for personal achievements. Apart from the economic status that made the women more vulnerable compared to men, gender was effectively used to prevent the women participation in political processes such as voting and holding public offices. Essentially, the men who had property had the right to vote while women, irrespective of their wealth and loyalty in remitting taxes were denied suffrage rights. The assumption of the denial of voting rights for women was that married mothers were vulnerable to coercion by their husbands. According this assumption, granting the women the right to vote would allow their husbands to vote twice since the women are subjects of their men and could not make independent political or voting decisions (Amar & Adams, 2013). Nonetheless, since even the unmarried women were denied voting rights, it is implicit that something beyond the influence of husbands on their wives’ voting decisions influenced the deprivation. The blatant reality is that discriminatory attitudes born by the legislators prevented them from granting women the ballot. In actual sense, the men did not want to share their political power with mothers, wives and daughters just the same way they did not want to share it with the immigrant races and the freed slaves. It is only in New Jersey where the women with property were allowed the right to vote after the revolution but in 1807. However, the legislators later revoked this right (Bodenhamer & Ely, 2008). Between 1776 and 1807, the women pursued the course of gaining their suffrage rights but failed in most of the states apart from New Jersey. The women began the suffrage rights movements in the 1820s at a time when several reform groups were thriving in the US including religious movements, anti-slavery organizations, and moral reform groups. The women began to reject the notion that being an ideal woman meant someone who is pious, submissive and a mother concerned specifically with home and family affairs. These dissentions contributed to a reformed perception of womanhood in the United States (Conley, Kaminski , U.S. Constitution Council of the Thirteen Original States & University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1992). The women rights movements in the United States gathered momentum in 1850s but was disrupted by the civil wars. Nonetheless, at the end of the civil wars during the American reconstruction, the 14th and 15th Amendments raised concerns on the issues of citizenship and voting that incessantly sidelined the American women. The 14th amendment that was ratified in 1868 soiled the struggles of women suffrage movements by conceiving that only the American men qualified as citizens and were, therefore, the only people entitled to vote. Women suffrage advocates refused to support the 15th amendment and even joined forces with the racist southerners who argued that the white women deserved voting rights so that their votes neutralize those cast by the African Americans (Amar & Adams, 2013). In 1869, the women suffrage advocates formed the National Woman Suffrage Association to advance for the suffrage amendment to the federal constitution. In 1890, the National American Women Suffrage Association was formed. The approach of the association this time deviated from the rhetoric that women deserved the right to vote since they were created equal as men (Bodenhamer & Ely, 2008). The new approach in the fight for voting rights was based on the premise that women deserved to participate in elections since they were different from men. The approach considered the differences between women from men as a point that would be used would to establish political virtue, and using the franchise to create an explicit, more moral and maternal wealth. This notion served several political agenda (Bodenhamer & Ely, 2008). The temperance advocates wanted the American women to acquire the vote since it would enable the mobilization of a strong voting block that would articulate their desires. The 11th National Women’s Rights Convention that was the first of its kind since the eruption of the civil wars was convened in 1866 to rejuvenate the women rights movements that had been previously subsumed by the civil wars. The convention transformed into the American Equal Rights Association that would advocate for the equal rights of all citizens as required in an ideal democracy. The new suffrage outfit was to fight specifically for the rights to vote. Several equal rights campaigns ensued in the subsequent years but the vote for American women remained prohibited by the government. In the colonial America, most of the women did not have any political voices since the democratic right to participate in a democratic election was curtailed by the regime dominated by white men. After the declaration of American independence from England in 1776, the thirteen colonies established their own constitutions in which the status of a woman was determined by her marital status dominated by the man. The American Revolution failed to change substantially the status of the American women as citizens. However, following relentless women voting rights movements, some of the American states began to grant the women the vote in 1910. Even with the emergent change in the perceptions of the states that accepted to grant the women voting rights, some Southern and Eastern states resisted the move. In the onset of the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to acquire the right to vote. However, this move took them decades to attain. In the middle of 1878, the women suffrage amendments to the constitution were introduced in the congress its ratification came later in August 18, 1920. In between the formulation of the 19th amendment and its eventual ratification, the advocates of women suffrage rights worked tirelessly using various strategies to win the right to vote. Some champions of women rights pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state. Through this strategy, nine western states adopted woman suffrage legislation by the down of 1912. Other advocates challenged the voting laws that favored only male voting using the court system. On the other hand, the militant suffragists used coercive strategies such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes to achieve the voting right. Notably, the advocates of women suffrage rights often encountered concerted resistance with some of them heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused (Bodenhamer & Ely, 2008). At the start of the 21st century, women participation in formal American political processes was unheard of. The women were rendered subject s of discrimination that cast them as secondary. However, through the century, the status of the women changed dramatically. Thy started holding positions of leadership and employments. The women collective struggle or equal representation and participation in the American elections stood out significantly in the 20th century. Activism and feminist movements marked the heightened women clamor for political participation in America just as the men did. The changing status of the women in the 21st century America is partly a culmination of improved women education and venture into a wide range of reform professions and efforts (Conley, Kaminski, U.S. Constitution Council of the Thirteen Original States & University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1992). The force behind the suffrage movement was motivated by their shared exclusion from civic partition that defined their common womanhood. Following the passage and consequent adoption of the 19th amendment, the American women Suffrage Association dismantled in jubilation and formed a new association called League of women voters. Even though educated white women primarily dominated the suffrage movement, its ideals were greatly shared equally by the American women. The movements in the era after the 1900s was fundamentally assert the right of women to participate in civic life instead of being represented by their fathers or husbands. Antifeminsim movements by conservative American leaders flourished in the 1980s just as was the case in the 1920s. In 1981, President Reagan nominated the first female to the Supreme Court and in 1984 the first main political party nominated the first woman to contest for the vice presidency (Bodenhamer & Ely, 2008). The subsequent periods were marked with women firsts as, more and more women ventured into active politics and effectively used their voting power to exert influence on the prevailing systems of governance. The American women were deeply divided by race, class, and religion but the common clamor for equal representation waxed them together in a feminist wave. The current representation is part of the wave that led to the convention of the Seneca Falls convention, Declaration of sentiments, and several other institutions. The National Woman Suffrage Association is overly responsible for the improved contemporary status of the American women. Currently, the wave of feminism has led to the integration of women in various civic activities, electoral participation, and employment opportunities. References Amar, A. R., & Adams, L. (2013). The Bill of Rights primer: A citizens guidebook to the American Bill of Rights. Bodenhamer, D. J., & Ely, J. W. (2008) The Bill of Rights in modern America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Conley, P. T., Kaminski, J. P., U.S. Constitution Council of the Thirteen Original States., & University of Wisconsin--Madison. (1992) The Bill of Rights and the states: The colonial and revolutionary origins of American liberties. Madison, Wis: Madison House. Read More