Women's Right

The Women’s Suffrage Movement
Starting in 1776 with a letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, the movement for Women’s suffrage lasted a superfluous amount of time. Mrs. Adam’s request for the President to “remember the ladies” set in motion a whole movement that would revolutionize the United States of America. A movement that set forth rights that the women of today take for granted.
The women’s suffrage movement began in the mid-nineteenth century. Women began discussing the problems they faced in society and the different ways they wanted to change their lives. The Civil War and World War I also had an enormous effect upon the movement. During both of these wars, women felt a new sense of independence and strength. During this time, the women had to step in to take the place of men in factories, mills, and the like. Once the men had returned from war and kicked women back into their old positions, the women were furious. However, not all who fought for women’s suffrage had experienced being the “lesser sex” in a working world. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became a major advocate for the women’s movement, learned her lesson by listening to the complaints of women in her father’s office. When explaining it to her father, she stated, “They who have sympathy and imagination to make the sorrows of others their own, can readily learn all the hard lessons of life from the experiences of others.”
In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other female leaders had the first women’s convention in Seneca Falls, New York, The convention, although the first official convention to be held, did not house new ideas. In 1846, two years before the convention, several women in the state of New York had already petitioned for women’s suffrage. The main idea and creed of the Declaration of Sentiments that was proposed during the convention was that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal…” The Declaration of Sentiments addressed how society viewed and treated women as less superior to men and how to change this and how women should be treated instead.
Most things surrounding the women’s suffrage movement was widely silent and unnoticed until late 1859 when a political cartoon finally arose titled, “Ye May Session of ye Woman’s Right convention – Ye orator of ye day denouncing ye Lords of creation” The cartoon shows and elegantly dressed woman in the middle of a large auditorium holding a scroll and addressing the crowd of people which consists of men and women who look largely furious and unruly. This cartoon satirizes an event in which a hysterical crowd drowned out the speeches of three women’s rights advocates. Soon after these events began the Civil War which threw the women’s movement into a kick start.
During the Civil war events, women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association while the more conservative Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe organized the American Woman Suffrage Association. The same year of these events (1869), two more political cartoons were produced that caused much uproar amongst the male population of America. The first was titled “The Age of Brass.” The cartoon portrays a woman holding a scepter sitting on a stool next to a sign that reads “Vote for the Cherished Man Tamer.” The woman and the sign were surrounded by other women voting at the ballots, all with smug expressions on their faces. At the back of the line is a woman yelling at her husband who looks terrified and is holding their child. The picture is showing how the roles are slowly reversing, but a second cartoon that same year goes to an extreme. “The Age of Iron” portrays a woman leaving the household and getting into a horse carriage driven by a woman, to join her other lady-friend. The household that she is leaving isn’t empty though, inside are two men, possibly the husbands of said ladies, one is sewing a handkerchief next to a sleeping baby with a cautious expression on his face while the other is hand-washing the clothes. These images together show the progressing control and influence of women.
In the year 1872 a rather comical arrest of Susan B. Anthony was made for her illegal vote in the election. She was tried in New York, found guilty, but she refused to pay her fine of $100. Her speech in 1873, discussing the arrest, was a huge step forward in the movement.
I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny. (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Women%27s_Rights_to_Vote)
Susan continues on to state the Preamble and her interpretations of it and how it encompasses women, her ultimate question at the end of the speech echoes the problem that had been addressed many a time, “aren’t we persons, too?” She made similar statements and arguments in her suffragette newspapers, The Revolution. “But make woman independent-make the mother of the race dictator, as God meant she should be in the social world, and moral power will hold the animal beneath its feet.” This is a quote from March, 1868 edition of The Revolution. It shows the absolute outrage of the woman and how the men were completely domineering and overpowering women and their ideas. This paper also happened to be edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. A couple years later in 1878, A Woman Suffrage Amendment was introduced in the United States Congress. Although Congress did not pass it right away, it stayed in debate within Congress. The Women’s world was constantly changing at this point. By 1890 Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which now encompassed the two previously separate branches. However, not even 5 years later, Elizabeth had been booted from her seat of power due to being considered too radical and potentially damaging to the campaign and was forbidden to sit on the stage as a presence of honor.
What can be seen at the greatest step to victory for Women’s Suffrage was the Election of President Woodrow Wilson in 1912. His open-mindedness and good natured speeches led to women’s rights advocates who pleaded to the president with the line “Mr. President, How long must we wait for liberty?” outside the White House in 1917, just two years before the vote would finally fall through. Wilson himself set forth various speeches that stated that he had not-presented to any legislature my private views on any subject, and I never shall, because I conceive that to be part of the whole process of government. “That I shall be a spokesman for somebody, but not for myself.” (History of Women’s Suffrage Pg. 367) This cryptic message was disappointing to the suffragists because they were unsure if it was a message full of hope or just another political disclaimer.
However, hope was not far off. Soon after the World War 1, when women had once again set aside their major suffrage ideas to take care of the country while the men were gone, their dreams were realized at last. On August 26, 1920, the amendment that had been proposed forty-two years before hand was finally ratified by both houses, containing the exact same wording that it had when it was first proposed.
The victory of women’s suffrage was much celebrated and it was a hard-won victory for many. The number of women who dedicated their lives to achieving the very rights that women today take so for granted, is countless. In a short video (2007), a school petition is passed around and random selections of students are asked if they would like to end women’s suffrage. In the epitome of today’s ignorance, more than ninety five percent of the people asked, said yes. The women of today do not appreciate or understand what the women of yesterday worked so hard for us to achieve.

Works Cited

Anthony, Susan B. (Tuesday, March 19,1868) The Revolution Vol I.- No. 11. retrieved From http://www.shadowmagi.com/archives/Revolution011.pdf

BjornVardr (2007), Women’s Suffrage Survey
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu1zy2MrsFM

Congress, Library of (1859) Ye May session of ye woman's rights convention - ye orator of ye day denouncing ye lords of creation. Retrieved from http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a05771/

Congress, Library of (1869) The Age of Brass. Retrieved from http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b49804/ Congress, Library of (1869) The Age of Iron. Retrieved from http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b49805/ Juliana L (2009), 89 Years Ago Today, American Women Win the Right To Vote.
Retrieved from http://www.blogfordemocracy.org/Women_suffragists_picketing_in_front_of_the_White_house.jpg

Stanton, Elizabeth; Anthony, Susan; Gage, Matilda; Harper, Ida (1922) History Of
Women’s Suffrage: 1900-1920, Volume V

Literary Digest, The (December 20, 1913) The President and The Suffragists Vol XLVII
-No. 25. retrieved from http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/Anna_Howard_Shaw.pdf

Literary Digest, The (May 13, 1922) The First Of The Flappers Retrieved from http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/SUFFRAGE%20cady.pdf