Women's Suffrage
Introduction
Voting right for women seems a very logical action now but it was not the same 200 years back. In fact, there were no voting rights granted to women anywhere in the world till the 19th century when men were only allowed to vote in all democracies. United States was notan exception either. As per the documented history, Lydia Taft of Massachusetts was the first woman to be allowed to vote in town meetings during 1750s (Bridgman and Mills 1994). New Jersey had a law that restricted a person from voting on the basis ofa minimum level of wealth. Sexual discrimination was not in place during that time. However, after that law was reversed in 1807, it took almost 100 years for women to restore voting rights in New Jersey as well as in the United States federal elections. There are several aspects to the women suffrage movement in the United States. This essay will discuss why it took so much time and struggle to get the women suffrage rights in the United States.
Early Years
The movement for equal suffrage first initiated in 1820s. Frances Wright, a Scottish woman, voiced her opinion about equal suffrage through a series of lectures(Bridgman and Mills 1994). In the next decade, another woman Ernestine Rose, who was a Polish by origin, managed to obtain a personal hearing in front of New York legislature. Lecretia Motts and Margaret Fuller also stated their campaigns for equal voting rights in Boston(Bridgman and Mills 1994). However, their movement never gained any momentum owing to various reasons. Firstly, the number of activists was few and far between with only few people making efforts to gain voting rights for women at thelocal level, but they also could not come together to voice their opinion from a common platform. Secondly, there were strong oppositionsraised from the conservative religious white women of that time. They believed that a good woman should fulfill her duty in raising her children, taking care of the family and acting religiously (DuBois 1998). These conservative white women looked upon the suffrage movement as a non-religious practice. The movement failed to make any pace between the years 1820 and 1848.
National Women Rights Convention
1848 was a landmark year for the women suffrage movement in the United States. It was in this year that the first convention for women rights took place in upstate New York. This convention is famously known as the Seneca Falls Convention. Lucretia Motts and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the main organizers of this convention(DuBois 1998). This convention which attracted more than 300 people discussed upon issues like women suffrage, protection of women in family and protection of women in a marriage. However, most of the debates remained inconclusive mainly because of the strong but radically different opinions of the women leaders. In fact, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s opinions were so strong that many women who attended that meeting refused to accept Elizabeth as a leader for the women suffrage movement. In 1850, Lucy Stone organized the first National Women Rights Convention(Bridgman and Mills 1994). This brought together women leaders at the local level. Leaders like Susan B Anthony were a major discovery from that convention. However, this convention also created more questions than answers. There were major issues discussed at length in the convention but the women leaders could not come to a unanimous conclusion. One of the major issues was whether the movement should allow the participation of men or not. Prominent leaders like Lucy Stone were in favor of involving men in the movement. She argued that this would help them get the law passed easily in the Senate. However, other leaders like Abby Keller Foster were opposed to that idea. She thought that men would create resistance to the movement and the main cause of the movement might get lost with their involvement. Women Rights convention continued every year and each year the number of participants increased by leaps and bounds.
Civil War and 15th Amendment
During the Civil War, the women suffrage movement witnessed a decline in overall enthusiasm among the activists. The movement again came back to limelight after the Civil War was over. However, during that time major differences in opinion evolved among the main leaders of the movement. Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton created National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) which was mainly run by women. They vehemently opposed the Republican Party for the African-American suffrage showing more interest in the national suffrage for white women(DuBois 1998). On the other side, Lucy Stone created American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) which was run by both men and women and sought political help to drive the movement for women’s rights. Lucy Stone worked mainly at the state level rather than at national level. Around this period the 15thAmendment was passed and it gave the right of vote to the African-American males. Lucy Stone and her organization started campaigning that if white women were allowed to vote then that would offset the African-American votes. However, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony wanted a change in the 15th Amendment to include women’s suffrage(DuBois 1998). This difference in opinion among the prominent leaders delayed the whole process. AWSA and NWSA worked in parallel for almost 20 years. Finally, in 1890 these two organizations were merged into National American Suffrage Association (NAWSA)(DuBois 1998).
Final Years
The merger of AWSA and NWSA reinvigorated the women’s suffrage movement ensuring a broad national support for the same. The main agenda for the newly formed NAWSA was to put stress on the government to include the voting rights for women inthe 19th amendment. The final years of the movement saw thousands of people joining the cause and the headquarter shifting to New York. During the first decade of 20th century, NAWSA failed to convince the Congress to pass the law. The major opposition came from the liquor salons(Bridgman and Mills 1994). In fact,the liquor saloons financed the opposition movement to resist women suffrage. The main argument given to the Congress was that the prohibition of alcoholic beverages would be an immediate after-effect if women were allowed to vote. This argument seemed to work for few years and the bill could not make it through the Senate floor due to the opposition from the democrats.
During those years the role of women changed considerably in the society. Women began participating in all outdoor activities like men. Women started working in factories, hospitals and restaurants. Participation of women in World War I gave the final push for the women suffrage(Bridgman and Mills 1994). Finally, in 1920 after decades of struggle the 19th Amendment recognized women’s right to vote in USA.
Conclusion
Not long ago women were considered unequal to men in many spheres of life. The voting right deemed as one of the major rights or the citizens of any country was not allowed to women in most parts of the world. Women were seen as child bearers and caretakers of home. The role of women in running the society was completely ignored. In USA, during the early part of the 19th century the first movements started for women suffrage. However, at that time the number of women supporting the cause was less. In the next decades the women suffrage movement gathered significant momentum and came to national limelight before the Civil War years. However, the women rights movement gathered maximum momentumafter the Civil War was over. By the end of the century, the movement gained national support. Finally, after decades of struggle women suffrage bill was passed in 1920.
Work Cited
Bridgman, Carolyn and Mills Onnolee.The Woman’s Suffrage.League of Women Voters, Dayton. 1994. Web. 23 Jan 2014 <http://lwvdayton.org/documents/suffragecurric.pdf>
DuBois, Ellen. Woman Suffrage and Women's Rights.Johns Hopkins University. 1998. Web. 23 Jan 2014<http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780814785409/>
