Through the years women have been fighting for their rights. Not only to vote but also to be treated equal to men in all aspects of life. There were many struggle that women back in the late 1700’s and throughout the 1800’s and 1900’s. They suffered many consequences in their life times for speaking out against men. But in the end ,even if they didn’t see freedom themselves, they helped create a better world for women to live in. The women of the past helped shape the opportunities women will have in the future.
Let’s take a look back in history. Life was difficult not only for women but also for men. During the Revolutionary War, America wanted its independence from Great Britain. Through this women had the opportunity to go crazy and that’s exactly what they did. This was their first chance to make a difference in their country without getting in major trouble for doing it. Women became nurses, spies, secret soldier, maids, and cooks. In all of these areas they contributed in significant ways and changed many factors of war.
In this war women generally took two routes a “safe” one or a more dangerous one. The safer option was being either a nurse, maid, or cook. Although they were normal jobs for a women, they had a huge impact on the way that the war went. Most of the time the maids and cooks were kind of spies. They would be cooking or cleaning but would also be eavesdropping on conversations to help their own soldiers. This did go both ways, for the British and the Americans. Nurse’s on the other hand usually didn’t eavesdrop as much as they tried to prove their worth to men. They wanted to show that they could be something more than just a housewife. That was all women really were, they were moms, and loyal and obedient wives.
On the other hand some women took it into their own hand and decided to become secret soldiers and spies in the war. Some women would disguise themselves as men and fight in the war. Many women were arrested in this process though. In the article “The Roles of Women in the Revolutionary War” it says that a women served for over a year before being discovered while others would server for a few months. When they were discovered they were imprisoned for serving in the military and being a women but were freed and most went back into the war after their imprisonment. Some women became spies for the war and went to Britain and pretended to be one of them but would send secret messages to America about their next move. This helped turn the tables of the war and helped America anticipate Britain’s next move. So in reality women played a huge role in the Revolutionary war, but people don’t really like to talk about that.
With all this done men still didn’t want to take women seriously and didn’t even consider them citizens. As a matter of fact it says in “Women’s Suffrage – History” that they considered the definition of citizens as male or men only and mostly white men. With this being said both movements for civil rights for African Americans and Women suffrage joined together to form a campaign. This campaign positioned for freedom not only for African Americans but also for Women. At the time of the Civil war they were both heavily campaigning for freedom in many areas, so they ended up combining forces to help each other.
During the Civil War there was an outbreak of women who wanted their right to vote. In this new found want for freedom women formed two groups. One was the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) this group fought for suffrage not only for women but for everyone including blacks, all blacks. The other group was called the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) and this group argued that the 15th Amendment needed to be changed not to give blacks the power but to give the right to vote to white women. Both groups disagree in many different ways. Later on after there disagreements were resolved they realized that they could make a bigger impact in they worked together. They ended up coming together and making the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). There argument was that all men and women were created equal as it said in the bible.
Later they began to argue that they needed the vote because they were different from men. This was a completely different objective from what they were fighting for in the past. Although this was different it made sense because if they were different then men it would bring in more diversity to the voting polls and meet the needs of more people. The thing is that this movement didn’t only consist of women but it also consisted of men. This helped make the men in congress listen in the way that it wasn’t just a band of angry women but also concerned men. Finally in the early 1900s some states actually began to pass laws that extended the voting laws to women. In 1920 women finally gained the right to vote in all states ,but they still didn’t have respect from men. The respect they wanted from men didn’t just happen overnight it look a while and is still slowly happening.
Through all of these hardships women had to face to be taken seriously they ended up making a huge breakthrough. When looking into where America is at right now with voting and congress it has come a long way. In 2017 there were more women sitting on congress there have ever been in the U.S. history. This is all due to the immense striving that the women of the past like Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott. So many people not just women poured out so much into what they believed would make a difference and little did they know that it would have a huge effect on America.
Even in the past few years there have been huge advances in the United states for women’s rights in the area of equal pay and many others. Without the struggles that women back in the late 1700s and 1800s went through women today would still he stay at home moms and loyal wives with nothing to life. Being a woman would have no other purpose but to produce children, cook, clean, and make clothes for their family. In today’s society women play huge roles for example business owners, company starters, engineers, architects, chemists, teachers, and so many more things. This generation of women has made a name for themselves in the world not just in America.