Women’s Rights Movement

The Womens Rights Movement Womens Suffrage is a field of honor that could easily be considered a black mark on the story of the United States. The entire history of the right for women to select latch ons many twists and turns but fifty-fiftytually glum out alright. This paper will take a look at some of these twists and turns along with some of the major figures involved in the ballot lawsuit. The first recorded instance in American history where a woman demanded the right to vote was in 1647.Margaret Brent, a property owner in Maryland cute two votes in the impertinently formed colonial assembly to represent her vote and the vote of Lord Baltimore whom she held power-of-attorney. (Pleck, 2007) The governor eventually turned agglomerate her demands. The 1790 constitution of New Jersey allowed women property owners the right to vote through a loophole that tell that all inhabitants that met property and residence requirements could vote.This loophole was closed in 1807 by a state legislator that had almost woolly an election due to a womens voting bloc. Other than these isolated incidents the first organized womens voting bowel movementcan be traced keystone to the mid 1800s with theSeneca Falls design. The organized movement started at Seneca Falls, NY with a meeting called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. (National Womens History Museum, 2007) Both women received their start in the womens voter turnout movement by being active in the abolitionist movement.Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an important element of the Womens Rights Movement, but not many people know of her significance or contributions because she has been overshadowed by her longtime harmonise and friend, Susan B. Anthony. However, I feel that she was a woman of great importance who was the driving force behind the 1848 Convention, vie a leadership role in the womens rights movement for the next fifty years, and in the oral communication of Henry Thomas, She was the archi tect and author of the movements most important strategies ad documents. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in 1815 into an affluent family in Johnstown, New York.Now, while Stanton was growing up, she tried to imitate her brothers donnish achievements due to the fact that her parents, Daniel and Mary Livingston Cady, preferred their sons to their daughters. In trying to copy her male siblings, she got an extraordinary information she went to Johnstown Academy and studied Greek and mathematics she learned how to ride and manage a horse she became a skilled debater and she attended the Troy Female Seminary in New York (one of the first women s academies to fracture an advanced education equal to that of male academies) where she studies logic, physiology, and natural rights philosophy.However, it wasnt her education, but watching her father, who was a value and lawyer, handle his cases, that cause her to become involved in various women rights movements. Stanton and Mott attended t he Worlds Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 and were refused seating for being women. After this incident the two women started seeing a connection between the plight of slaves and the treatment of women in the United States. The womens movement took a back seat to the slavery movement during the American Civil War as the women turned their attention to on the job(p) through the war.However, after the war was over the womens movement thought they were in a severe position to win some key battles due to their war run short and the attention being compensable to equal rights at the time. This was not to be so as the Republicans in power believed that womens suffrage would hurt their chances to push forth rights for freed slaves because of the widespread unpopularity of womens rights. (National Womens History Museum, 2007) After the war the womens movement split into rival gangs with Stanton and Susan B.Anthony forming the National womans Suffrage Association and Lucy Sto ne and Julia Ward Howe forming the American Womans Suffrage Association. The NWSA did not support the passing of the 15th amendment because the amendment did not caterress the bragging(a) of equal rights to women as well as blacks and fought a reconcilest the passing of the amendment as a result. The AWSA supported the 15th amendment and wanted to turn on for womens rights in the states separately. Pleck, 2007) The two movements eventually reunited in 1890 to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association led by Susan B. Anthony until 1900 when Carrie Chapman Catt took over. Catt was integral in the strategy to work for womens suffrage on both the federal and state level upon her re-election to president of the NAWSA in 1915 which led to another faction split between the NAWSA and a group led by Alice capital of Minnesota who believed that the major push of the fight needed to be focused at the federal level. About. com, 2007) Finally all the hard work of the womens mov ement paid off in the summer of 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment. This was not an easily won victory however. recounting first took up the issue in 1915 but the bill lost in the voting and was shelved for almost three years. (Womens Suffrage, 2007) On the eve of the vote President Wilson made a astray publicized appeal for the passage of the bill and this time the bill barely passed with the need two-thirds majority.However, the bill failed to gain the necessary votes to pass the Senate even with another of President Wilsons appeals for the passage of the bill. The bill would be voted down twice over the following year before finally gaining enough votes to pass due to Congress interest in having the issue solved prior to the presidential elections slated for 1920 and on June 4, 1919 the Senate voted to pass the bill to add the amendment to the constitution securing womens rights. The effects of the 19th amendment on the United States can be seen everywhere.to a gr eater extent women now hold public office and the United States even has a woman running for the Democratic nomination for president. The womens voting block is one politicians cannot forget about and still have hopes of being successful. The ability of women to vote, even though sparsely used until the 1980s, changed how companies did business and what legislation was passed for respect of the potential voting power of women. More women friendly policies exist, both in the workplace and in general life, which can be attributed to the hard work of the pioneers in the womens movement.Knowing that men controlled the ability of women to vote and that a way of life would be drastically changed makes the gains of women to vote even more amazing. I can stand back now and admire the gallantry of the women who fought for what was and is rightfully theirs and for the bravery of the men to do the right thing by allowing women equal rights. You can retributory reflect about todays life and a ffairs to see that the shift from legal rights to suffrage was successful.Our public offices consist of many great female leaders, and the future for America is brighter with collaboration of men and women alike. The efforts of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were indeed not in vain as they rallied up people to protest in unison and the results are evidenced by the American political structure today. References About. Com. (2007). Womens History about Carrie Chapman Catt. Retrieved November 25, 2007, from About. com blade Site http//womenshistory. about. com/library/bio/blbio_catt_carrie_chapman. htmNational Womens History Museum. (2007). Womens Suffrage exhibition. Retrieved November 25, 2007, from National Womens History Museum Web Site http//www. nwhm. org/exhibits/tour_02-02d. html Pleck, E. (2007). Womens Suffrage. Retrieved November 24, 2007, from bookworm Web Site http//teacher. scholastic. com/activities/suffrage/history. htm Womens Suffrage. (2007, November 26). In Wikipedia, th e free encyclopedia. Retrieved November 26, 2007, from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/History_of_womens_suffrage_in_the_United_States