FREE ESSAY ON WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE

The women's suffrage movement began in Seneca Falls, New York during a convention on the
rights of women. Seneca Falls was a progressive town but even here, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton's call for suffrage was controversial. Voting and politics were seen as
completely male domains and it was shocking to think of women involved in either. 
The primary argument of suffragists was that they were being denied one of the most basic
rights of Democracy. They were expected to live under laws which they could not vote for
and pay taxes to a government which didn't represent them. Men were only half of the
population but they were in charge of all of the decisions. Not only was it unfair, it
went against the way God intended things to be. Women and men were different. To create a
balanced society, they must both be allowed to have influence. 
In 1848, women were treated as the property of men. They didn't have rights to property
or to their children. It was legal for a man to beat his wife. They were taxed but denied
representation in congress. Their sphere of influence was in the home. The Seneca Falls
Declaration called for an increase in women's rights in these areas, as well as in
education for women and the jobs available to them. It stated that women were morally
obligated to resist their tyrannical and oppressive government. This unfair treatment
wasn't only unjust, it went against God. The Declaration was not well received by much of
the public but it set off a wave of women's rights meetings throughout the 1850's.
It was after one of these meetings that Stanton met Susan B. Anthony. This meeting had a
profound influence on the future of the women's movement. Together, Stanton and Anthony
founded the National Women's Suffrage Association in 1869. This association was one of
the central forces in the movement for women's suffrage.
Sojourner Truth was one of few African-Americans involved in the women's movement at the
beginning. In a speech at a women's rights convention in Ohio, she argued that as a
slave, she proved she was just as capable as a man to do hard physical labor, so why
wouldn't she be as capable of voting?
When the civil war broke out, suffragists put aside their cause to work for the Union.
After the war, black men were given the vote but it was still denied to women. Many
suffragists felt betrayed. They had worked on behalf of the abolitionists, then found a
lack of support for their own cause. Stanton was disappointed and made it clear she
didn't think men were capable of creating a stable government on their own. At a
convention in Washington D.C. in 1868, she expressed her disdain for "the masculine
element". She felt men had created a disorganized government and a violent and cruel
society. By refusing the vote to women, they were forcing women to become dilutions of
men and repressing the natural character of women. She argued that giving women the vote
would help to maintain the natural equilibrium and provide better representation for the
whole.
In 1872, a radical suffragists went to the polls to vote in an election. This was a
federal offense, and Anthony was arrested. She was tried in a federal court. On the first
day of her trial, the judge instructed the jury to find her guilty. Anthony was deemed
incompetent to testify on her own behalf because she was a woman. Anthony was allowed to
speak before her sentencing. She argued against the unfairness of her trial. She had been
tried under a system which was established by men, interpreted by men and carried out by
men. By refusing women the right to vote but forcing them to follow laws, they were being
treated as subjects rather than citizens. During her speech, Anthony said her famous
maxim, 
"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
Anthony was prevented from appealing to the Supreme Court based on a technicality. A
similar case did make it to the Supreme Court a year later, and the court ruled that each
state would have to grant women the right to vote.
This ruling turned the attention of the suffragists to individual states. In 1890,
Wyoming entered the United States as the only state allowing women to vote. 
In 1893, the governor of Colorado persuaded the state legislature to put the issue of
women's votes on the ballot. Carrie Kat from the NWSA and a local reporter named Ellis
Meredith campaigned together. They organized 10,000 women, many from the Women's
Christian Temperance Union, who wanted to end the sale of alcohol. Liquor companies began
campaigning against them, but suffrage was passed in Colorado anyway. By 1896, Utah and
Idaho had also granted women the vote.
By the 1890's rights for women were improved. By then, women could hold property and
girls could attend high school and college. But the suffragists still met lots of
opposition, even among their own sex. In Boston, women organized the Massachusetts
Association Opposed to Suffrage for Women. They saw politics as corrupt and male, and
they believed it would degrade all women to be involved. In a non-binding referendum held
by the Massachusetts legislature which allowed both men and women to vote, suffrage was
overwhelmingly defeated.
At the end of the century, the National Association of Colored women was formed. They
were led by Mary Church Terrell. Black women rarely got support from white suffragists.
Their organization received little support even though it grew to 500,000 people. 
At this time, many suffragists began arguing that if educated white women were prohibited
from voting, the vote should be taken from uneducated immigrants as well. The suffrage
movement became more conservative towards the turn of the century. 
Stanton was now in her late 70's. She began seeing the Bible as a tool of oppression
written by men against women. Stanton rewrote every passage of the Bible which said women
were inferior to men. This action scandalized the suffragists, who called it blasphemous.
Stanton resigned her presidency of the NWSA and the movement fell into a rut.
At the start of the 20th century, the movement took a sharp turn. More women were working
in offices, factories and other positions than ever before. Stanton's daughter, Harriet
Blach, became a leader of the movement. She incorporated all kinds of women into it and
developed new tactics. Women would go out into the streets to confront men directly and
to give open-air speeches and they held suffrage parades. The NWSA didn't support Blach's
tactics, calling them "unladylike". 
By 1912, five more states had granted women the vote. The Progressive Party had endorsed
their cause, including presidential hopeful Teddy Roosevelt. 
Women were denied the vote in Ohio, Michigan and Wyoming in votes in 1912 and a new wave
of opposition from men arose. Liquor companies and big businesses particularly wanted to
stop the suffrage movement.
In 1913, Alice Paul arrived in Washington from London. Paul was a suffragist turned
radical by prison abuse. She held a doctorate in political science. She had met Lucy
Burns in prison in London and together they organized a march in Washington DC the day
before Woodrow Wilson's inaugural parade. 8,000 women attended. The parade erupted into a
riot and 100 women were hospitalized. The police offered the women no protection and none
of the rioters were arrested.
Paul began organizing women to lobby the president and congress. At this time, the Susan
B. Anthony Amendment was introduced to the house. It was stalled in congress.
In the 1914 elections, Paul and her followers went to the nine states where women could
vote and campaigned against all Democrats. They saw the Democrats as responsible for
stalling the amendment. Anna Howard Shaw, the leader of the NWSA, saw that as suicidal
move and the party split. Paul's followers became the National Woman's Party. Only a few
Democrats were defeated but Paul saw the campaign as a success and the amendment was sent
to the floor for a vote. It was badly beaten, but that it had even been considered was
seen as progress by the women.
In 1916, Carrie Kat took over the NWSA from Shaw. She centralized the movement's power
and increased support everywhere but in the South. Hundreds of NWSA members began
lobbying congressmen and senators alongside the NWP. 
In 1917, the United States entered World War I. The NWSA's strategy was to work for the
war effort as well as for suffrage. the NWP began picketing the White House. They
wouldn't support the war effort. At first the president tolerated their presence, but
some of the NWP's pickets became insulting. Many Americans saw them as treason. Daily
attacks began against the women and they received no police protection. 
During the summer and fall of 1917, police arrested 168 women for "obstructing traffic".
They were mistreated in prison, which radicalized many of them. The police chief became
determined to stop the picketers. He arrested several women and put them in an isolated
wing of the prison. They were horribly mistreated. Led by Paul, 30 women went on hunger
strikes. Finally, all the prisoners were unconditionally released. During their time in
prison, many people came forward protest their treatment.
In November of 1917, New York granted women the vote. The enfranchisement of so many
women made it important for many politicians to court their votes by supporting suffrage.
On January 10, 1918, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment passed in congress by one vote.
As a compromise in the senate, some Southern senators proposed a rider to the bill that
would prohibit black women from voting. Few white suffragists protested, but the clause
was defeated and the amendment was passed in the Senate anyway on June 4, 1919. 
Now the suffragists had to get the legislatures of 36 states to ratify the amendment. By
1920, 35 had ratified it. Delaware defeated the amendment, forcing the suffragists to
turn to the South. In Tennessee, both sides of the issue tried to persuade the
legislators. Liquor and manufacturing lobbies bribed them. The night before the vote, it
was feared the suffragists would lose by one vote. But on August 18, 1920, 24 million
American women won the right to vote when Harry Burn listened to a letter from his mother
and "did the right thing" by supporting the amendment.
Without the hard work and determination of so many women, I might not have grown up in a
world in which I never once questioned whether or not I could go to college and get a
job. I've always been told I could do whatever I put my mind to. For their spirit and
strength, and for all the opportunities they've given me and every other woman who came
after them, I'm very grateful.