Who's in the Running is honored to have a guest blogger today. I have been trying to decide what to post on this Election Day, and I remembered an essay Amy let me read the last time we got a few minutes together. I am thankful for my sisters throughout history. Enjoy!
The Women’s Suffrage Movement
A Seventy Two Year Battle for the Right to Vote
By Amy Rowley
For centuries women were thought of, and treated like second class citizens. With the founding of the United States of America, and the new idea of unalienable rights, many women hoped things would change. In March of 1776, while John Adams and the rest of the Continental Congress were preparing to declare independence from Brittan, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband. She pleaded with him to write the new laws in a way that would give women more rights and liberties than they formerly had. In essence, she wanted the new laws to give women the ability to have some control over their own lives. Abigail wrote, “If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have not voice or Representation.” John Adams reply was to laugh at her and call her “saucy”. He also stated “We know better than to repeal our masculine system” [1]. Seventy-two years after Abigail wrote those prophetic words the women’s movement began.
In 1840 Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton became acquainted during a world anti-slavery convention. At this convention the women were not allowed to speak even though some of them had been chosen as delegates. In fact, not only were these women forbidden to speak they were also forced to sit behind a curtain in order that they could neither be seen nor heard by the men. This treatment both humiliated and infuriated these two women. [2] Thanks to their involvement in the anti-slavery movement, these women developed organizational and public speaking skill that contributed greatly to their future endeavors. Eight years later, while Stanton was having tea with Mott and other friends at the home of Jane Hunt, she began to state her displeasure at the restrictions placed on women. She spoke so passionately that she gained the full attention of the other women. By the end of the day the women were dedicated to hosting a convention on women’s rights.[3]
The first women’s rights convention, hosted by Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann M’Clintock and Elizabeth Stanton, was held in Seneca Falls NY on July 19-20, 1848. On the second evening of the convention Elizabeth Stanton presented a document she had written which became known as the Declaration of Sentiments.
The Declaration of Sentiments was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. Elizabeth reworded the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence to say “all men and women are created equal . . .” This was followed by a list of 18 grievances against men’s treatment of women. She finished the document with a list of resolutions, all of which were unanimously accepted except the ninth. It stated, “Resolved: that it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to elective franchise.”[4] Opposition came, not because women didn’t feel it was their right to vote, but thought it was such a radical movement it would hinder their other goals. After some debate, Stanton convinced the majority that through gaining the right to vote, they could use their political influence to obtain other rights they were hoping for. In the end, the ninth resolution passed. From that point, women’s suffrage became the focus of the women’s movement.
The first national women’s rights convention was held in Massachusetts in 1850. It was arranged and carried out by Lucy Stone, Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis, Abby Kelley Foster, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and six other women. It was at this convention that Suzan B. Anthony heard Lucy Stone speak, and was convinced to join the cause. Suzan B. Anthony became a driving force for the suffrage movement. From that time, until the civil war, national conventions were held every year, except one.[5]
The women’s movement came to a halt during the civil war. Suffragists hoped, if they dedicated their time and energy to helping with war efforts, they would be rewarded with voting rights. This plan failed miserably.
In 1869 the suffrage movement was split in two. The division stemmed from the anticipated fifteenth amendment, which gave voting rights to African American males, but blatantly left women out. That year Suzan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the National Woman Suffrage Association. This association opposed the fifteenth amendment because it didn’t grant universal suffrage. Later that same year, Lucy Stone organized the American Woman Suffrage Association, which took a less radical approach to woman’s suffrage.[6]
In 1872, sixteen members NWSA, including Suzan B. Anthony, voted in the presidential elections. They claimed it was their right as citizens of the United States according to the fourteenth amendment, which gives “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”, citizenship. All the women who voted, and the men who allowed them to, were arrested. Suzan B. Anthony was the only one who was tried and convicted of voting illegally. Anthony was fined $100.00, which she refused to pay. Prior to her trial, Anthony traveled throughout her area defending her right. She states, “. . . The preamble to the Federal Constitution says: “we the people of the United States” . . . not we, the white male citizens; nor yet, the male citizens; but we the whole people who formed the Union. And it is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government – the ballot”.[7] At this same time, Virginia Minor, from Massachusetts attempted to vote. She was not allowed to register. Minor sued the officials who turned her away. Her case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that woman’s suffrage was, by law, a state issue.[8]
After the Supreme Court’s judgment, NWSA decided their main effort should be focused on obtaining a constitutional amendment guaranteeing woman suffrage. At the same time, AWSA was campaigning state by state in order to gain women’s right to vote through referendums. Both sides were met with fierce opposition from newly formed anti-suffrage associations. Knowing most women would vote for prohibition, the liquor industry, also put great effort into opposing women suffrage. Due to this opposition and other obstacles, neither NWSA nor AWSA were making much headway. The ideals that had separated the early leaders of the women’s movement were of little consequence to the new generation of suffragists. The leaders agreed they could be more successful if they combined their efforts. In 1890, the two organizations merged to form the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA). NAWSA continued to lobby for a constitutional amendment, but it was not the main focus. They put most of their energy and effort into gaining the vote in individual states. The period between the 1890’s and 1910 became known as the doldrums. Only four states granted women suffrage between 1870 and 1910.[9]Wyoming territory had allowed women to vote since 1869. They were admitted to the union in 1890 as the first state to grant suffrage. Colorado granted women suffrage in 1893. Idaho followed in 1896. When Utah was granted statehood in 1896 women suffrage was written into their constitution.[10]
In 1896, Harriot Stanton Blatch, the daughter of Elizabeth Stanton, returned from England where she had associated and worked with the radical Suffragettes. Blatch was shocked at the slow progress of the U.S. movement. She began recruiting the working women as well as wealthy supporters. Blatch organized an annual suffrage parade in New York, and invited British Suffragettes to speak at meetings. Due in large part to her efforts, the doldrums came in an end. In 1910, Washington State granted suffrage to women. The following year California gave voting rights to women. Between the years 1912 and 1913 Kansas, Arizona, Oregon and Illinois followed suit.[11]
Anna Howard Shaw served as president of NAWSA from 1904-1915.[12]In 1913, Shaw appointed Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who had lived in England and fought as British Suffragettes, to take over the Congressional Committee in Washington DC. Their first order of business was to organize a suffrage parade that took place the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, and followed the same parade route as the inaugural parade. Eight thousand women marched in the parade before an estimated 500,000 spectators. As the parade proceeded, the crowd began to push in from all sides. Men pushed, hit, and spit on the women in the procession. This continued until the parade came to a complete stop. Although the women had the legal right to march, the police did nothing to help. Police smiled and laughed at the proceedings. Towards the end, a few good men, including male college students, a National Guard regiment, and Boy Scouts came to the aid of the harassed women. However, the media exposure drew the attention and support of thousands of women.[13] [14]
The Congressional Committee, led by Alice Paul, was becoming too radical for NAWSA. In 1914, the movement was again split into two factions, and the Congressional Committee became the National Women’s Party. While NAWSA continued their quiet state by state approach the NWP continued to push for a national amendment. On January 10, 1917, members of the NWP began picketing the White House. Up to two thousand women, between the ages of 19 and 80 years old, took turns picketing. Regardless of weather conditions, these women stood silently holding banners and signs that read such things as “How long must women wait for liberty?” and “Mr. President, what will you do for woman suffrage?” On March 4, 1917, ignoring the horrible weather, the NWP held a “grand picket” led by Vida Milholland. Fighting wind and rain, these women marched four times around the White House.[15]
President Wilson’s reason for entering World War I was to fight for democracy. The NWP found this statement ironic, seeing as he still refused to support women’s right to vote. The pickets came up with new banners pointing out this irony. These new banners infuriated bystanders. As time went on, mobs of men began attacking the women. They ripped the banners and signs out of the women’s hands. The men used the poles as weapons against the unarmed women.[16]
Beginning on June 22, 1917, police began arresting the picketing women. The arrests were made on the flimsy excuse of obstructing traffic, even though it was the angry mobs of men that were causing the obstruction. Those who were arrested were sentenced to either pay a large fine of $25.00 or serve a prison sentence, sometimes lasting sixty days. The women chose prison. [17] November 15, 1917, Thirty-three women ranging in age between 19 and 73, were arrested and sent to Occoquan Workhouse. When they arrived they were knocked down, shoved, and thrown into their jail cells. The prison guards grabbed the women by their necks and twisted their arms. The guards refused to treat the women’s injuries. Lucy Burns was hand cuffed (arms raised) to her cell door and left there all night. This night became known as the “Night of Terror”.[18]
Time spent in prison was hell on earth. Conditions were completely unsanitary. Sometime the only thing to serve as a toilet was a bucket. When the women were allowed to use the real toilets, they were flushed only when the guards allowed it. Blankets were only washed once a year and rats roamed freely in and out of jail cells. In order to protest their arrests, the women went on hunger strikes. When the women refuse to eat, they were force fed. This was done by shoving a tube down the prisoner’s throat and pouring in cold milk and raw eggs. Lucy Burns refused to open her mouth so with five people holding her down they shoved the feeding tube up her nose and down her throat.[19]
Later these women sued the government on the grounds that they had broken no laws. After going through appeals court their arrests and convictions were overturned.[20] The wide publication of the harsh treatment of the women, changed public opinion and more people began supporting the movement.[21]
While Alice Paul and the NWP continued to use civil disobedience to gain awareness, NAWSA, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, continued their quiet, non-combative approach. Catt’s method included visiting congressmen, giving talks, writing articles on women’s suffrage, and helping with the war effort. Catt personally asked President Wilson to support the women’s suffrage.[22]
It was through the efforts of both NWP and NAWSA that in 1918 the nineteenth amendment which states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” passed the House of Representatives. In 1919 both houses passed the amendment. It still had to be ratified by the states. On August 26, 1920, Tennessee voted to ratify the amendment. This was the thirty-sixth state to do so, making the ninetieth amendment, law.[23]
Seventy-two years after the women’s movement began, one hundred forty-four years after Abigail Adams wrote her famous “Remember the Ladies” letter, women were finally considered full citizens of the United States, and had a guaranteed right to vote.
[1] Tonya Bolden, 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History(Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc 2002), 12-13
[2] Miriam Gurko, Turning Points in world history Women’s Suffrage(Greenhaven Press, Inc. 2000), 64
[3] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 17-18
[4] Elaine Landau, Women’s Right to Vote(Children’s Press, A Division of Scholastic Inc. 2005), 6
[5] Wikipedia(Women’s Suffrage in the United States, 2011), 2
[6] Elaine Landau, Women’s Right to Vote(Children’s Press, A Division of Scholastic Inc. 2005), 17-18
[7] Elaine Landau, Women’s Right to Vote(Children’s Press, A Division of Scholastic Inc. 2005), 19-20
[8] Turning Points in world history Women’s Suffrage(Greenhaven Press, Inc. 2000), 30
[9] Turning Points in world history Women’s Suffrage(Greenhaven Press, Inc. 2000), 30-33
[10] Wikipedia(Women’s Suffrage in the United States, 2011), 8
[11] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 27-29
[12] Turning Points in world history Women’s Suffrage(Greenhaven Press, Inc. 2000), 34,169
[13] Elaine Landau, Women’s Right to Vote(Children’s Press, A Division of Scholastic Inc. 2005), 33
[14] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 11-15
[15] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 39-41
[16] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 42
[17] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 43
[18] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 55-56
[19] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 54-57
[20] Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth(National Geographic Society, 2004), 59
[21] Turning Points in world history Women’s Suffrage(Greenhaven Press, Inc. 2000), 171
[22] Elaine Landau, Women’s Right to Vote(Children’s Press, A Division of Scholastic Inc. 2005), 38
[23] Elaine Landau, Women’s Right to Vote(Children’s Press, A Division of Scholastic Inc. 2005), 39
