omen’s Suffrage Movement
If women are the so called better half, why did it take them so long to establish a system where they would be given equal rights? Women faced many obstacles in society from work to marriage, women were not able to advance far in life. A new way of thinking emerged on women's rights. The suffragette movement was a monumental step towards women's liberation and self-determination. It fundamentally changed the role of women in society and changed the way women view themselves and others.
Before the suffrage movement began women were considered property from their family to be handed over to a husband in exchange for money or land. Women were not given the right to choose a partner or hold property in certain states. They held nursing or teaching jobs, nothing further than being a stay at home mom. Elizabeth Cady, who was the first president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association began to advocate for men and women to be treated equally. Which began with establishing women's right to vote. According to History one of the ways this was brought about explained was that “many middle-class white people were swayed once again by the argument that the enfranchisement of white women would ensure immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly attained” (Women’s Suffrage). In order to garner votes needed for allowing women the right to vote, the American people were already lead to believe their long standing ideology of an all-white America as the superior race. Although this only just one of the “political agendas” being used there was many more used in order to amass it all across the United States.
Women fought to have the same social, economic, and political status as men all throughout the 19th and 20th century. It all began in Seneca, New York 1848 where the first woman's rights convention was held by Elizabeth Cady Scanton and Lucretia Mott. Even though she was not yet able to vote, Elizabeth Scantan was the first woman to run for the house of Representatives. The convention discussed women’s issues but all revolving around the same thing “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Women’s Suffrage). This explained that women should be given the same human rights and basic freedoms as men. After the Civil War one of the new tactics established was to advocate for women’s rights by moving state to state, which in turn allowed for some states to grant women the right to vote. In less than a decade several states adopted the new amendment. In 1913 the first ever suffragist parade was held in Washington D.C. where thousands of women marched before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. The event was described as a “march in a spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women are excluded" (Wiki). Since women couldn’t hold the same civil liberties as men they were excluded from owning property, usually staying in their social or economic class never being able to escape their perceived role of the “pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family”. During and after the march several women were imprisoned, beaten, and ridiculed yet continued to lobby for their voice to be heard until it finally worked.
With women obtaining the right to vote they were finally seen as individuals which gave rise to the roaring twenties. Women’s roles were changing in the 1920s, there was a higher number of working women in America. They were sexually liberated wearing shorter skirts, bobbed hairstyles, and brushing off the traditional values that were accustomed to the women before them. Flappers as they were dubbed were young women who were testing what women's freedom signified, while at the same time learning to figure out what they’re newfound role in society meant. The 1920s was an empowering time for women, the suffrage movement lead to women attending college to find professional careers like doctors, politics, and law. Because of the social movement women's roles were beginning to change with more educational and career opportunities than they had before. The suffrage movement insured women with more rights and privileges.
Women were able to secure more rights for themselves such as non-discriminatory laws based on sex. The movement led to society seeing women as more than just a housewife or breeding machine, but as individuals. In 1916 Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to serve in the United States Congress, even though women were still not yet allowed to vote. She later helped pass the 19th amendment. She focused her time on women’s suffrage and pacifism, her antiwar sentiments did not gain her any favors. Yet she continued to advocate for Peace.
Because of the suffrage movement young girls can grow up seeing themselves as equal to young men. The biggest impact has to be that now both men and women see themselves differently, on one hand one of the issues being that this brought to light the struggle America seemed to face between race and gender inequality. Since the conception of America, it seemed only white men would benefit from any social or economic change, seeing as how their wives or daughters could not own property. Despite that women are now on the same playing field. Women are impacting more change in the world and our government by having more women in politics who understand the disadvantage we face. Although some areas of the modern world still restrict women’s rights, Saudi Arabia just recently lifted a decades long ban on women driving. There are still many limitations in women's everyday lives, yet this was one is still remarkable.
Everyday women are showing they have the skills and self-determination their counterpart's possess. In a statistical finding by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University they found that “In every election since 1980, the proportion of female adults who voted has exceeded the proportion of male adults who voted. Never before had this been the case.” More women are voting now than ever before. Electing officials who would represent them in the further development of the inalienable rights we deserve. Elizabeth Stantan was quoted in saying “To deny political equality is to rob the ostracized of all self-respect; of credit in the marketplace; of a voice among those who make and administer the law; a choice in the jury before whom they are tried, and in the judge, who decides their punishment.” By denying women their legal freedoms they're not given a voice. The suffrage movement led to enfranchising half the population of the United States. America has had half the population of the country not having a voice for over a hundred years? Without counting slavery. The wives, mothers, and daughters of the strongest country in the world was ignoring a large part of their populace. This social movement paved the way for future generations to change the way society viewed women and secure further advancements for women's rights.
Works Cited
History.com Staff. “Women's Suffrage.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage.
“Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 July 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_suffrage_parade_of_1913.
“Advertisement.” Is Direct Primary Care the Future?, www.fedbar.org/Events/The-Impact-of-Suffrage-on-Womens-Rights.