Women's Suffrage Movement

Womens Suffrage in America

The Women's Rights Movement was and continues to be one of the most incredible and inspirational series of events to occur in United States history. One of the more credible aspects

of these events happens to be the bold, intelligent pioneers that paved the way for many other women throughout the United States to follow. An important battle fought for was women's suffrage, and in fighting for this worthy cause, various smaller battles were also fought.

In the late eighteenth century, while Americans fought for there freedom from Great Britain and the Constitution of the United States was written declaring the freedom and the rights of its' citizens, women were not allowed to vote, to own property, to speak in public, or serve on juries. It was during this time Abigail Adams wrote her famous "Remember the Ladies" letter to her husband John Adams (a member of the Continental Congress whom would eventually become vice president, and then President of the United States) who was appointed to a committee that would draft the Declaration of Independence. Abigail Adams half jestingly proposed that women should claim their share of liberty. She objected specifically to the legal codes under which married women could not own property. But she was ahead of her time; later generations of women would have to struggle to change similar laws. In the nineteenth century, the words that our forefathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "that all men were created equal", held little value. Human equality was far from a reality. If you were not born of white male decent, than that phrase did not apply to you. During this period, many great leaders and reformers emerged, fighting both for the rights of African Americans as well as the rights for women.

Although Abigail Adams may have planted the seeds for the growth of such a movement, this great movement would have never occurred if the few brave women that felt that women were ultimately being treated unfairly by the government would not have taken a stand. The women's suffrage movement began in 1848 when a group of women met in Seneca Falls New York. The Seneca Falls convention was organized by a group of women who had been active in

the antislavery movement. When they were rejected as delegates to an abolitionist convention because of their sex, they vowed to turn their attention to women's rights. These women were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Coffin Mott. These women issued what became known as the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, a document outlining the demand for equal rights. All of the articles of the Declaration passed except for the right to vote. It was widely believed at that time, that women were both physically and mentally inferior to men, and therefore should not have the right to vote.

This convention attracted lots of attention from the press, mostly negative. One of the organizers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, welcomed even the negative attention as she believed that it would cause both men and women to begin thinking and that this would lead to steps being taken in favor of the movement. Because of their involvement in the abolitionist movement, women had learned to organize, to hold public meetings, and conduct petition campaigns. As abolitionists, women first won the right to speak in public, and they began to evolve a philosophy of their own place in society. When the 15th amendment, which gave black men the power to vote, was passed women became furious.

After the fifteenth amendment was passed, the Women's Suffrage Movement turned its attention towards gaining the right to vote state by state. Susan B. Anthony, a leader in the movement, met a wealthy businessman named George Francis Train while campaigning in Kansas. He offered her the money to begin a suffrage newspaper. In return he would be allowed to write a column about economics. Thus the Revolution was born. Its' motto was "Men, their

rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less." Another woman involved in the movement, Lucy Stone and a group of conservative suffragists broke away from Anthony's National Woman's suffrage Association and founded the American Woman Suffrage Association. The NWSA attracted younger and more radical women who worked for a constitutional amendment to get the vote. The AWSA directed its efforts toward getting states to give women the right to vote. Anthony believed that this would take to long and tried to appeal to the courts to declare that voting is the right of all citizens. Although they took different approaches, both associations provided major contributions to the Women's Suffrage Movement and its' success.

During the nineteenth century, the women's situation seemed bleak. Women felt that if they had the same freedoms as the men, all of their problems would be solved. They had a lot of troubles and without being able to vote, they felt incapable of changing the future for themselves and their daughters. Everything they worked hard for did not belong to them but to there father or husbands. The struggle started