Despite making up a sizable portion of the population in the US, women still had to battle for basic rights. Much like the majority of the minority groups in the nation. The battle for the right to vote is a topic of concern in this essay. Notably, the fight for women's rights began a few decades before the American Civil War officially broke out. Coincidentally, other other reform organizations were sprouting up all throughout America, each one advocating for changes that favored them. These reform organizations included anti-slavery movements, movements for moral reform, and movements for religious diversity. Women played important roles in each of these campaigns in addition to being focused on issues related to women's suffrage. In efforts to enable the women suffrage concerns, many women across the United States had already started to brush off what historians refer to as 'Cult of True Womanhood'. This notion suggests that a 'true' woman is defined by being submissive, pious and a mother whose only concern is for family and her home. All these notions and assumptions combined changed the thinking on what it really meant to be a woman in America.
In 1848, a group of abolitionists’ activists gathered in New York to discuss women’s rights. Some men attended took part in the discussion, and Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had invited all of the participants. These two women were the reformers behind women suffrage movement. Most of the delegates in this discussion came to a consensus that American women are independent individuals deserving their own political identities. They furthered concurred that women and men are created equal each of them having been endowed with inalienable rights by their creator. Among these rights were liberty, life and pursuit of happiness. In other words, the delegates agreed that women deserved a right to vote.
Impact of the 14th and 15th amendment. The women’s rights movement gained much traction in the 1850s but lost momentum with the onset of the civil war. Shortly after the war ended concerns were raised on citizenship and suffrage based on the 14th and the 15th amendment. The 14th amendment extended constitutional protection to all citizens but defined citizens as being male. On the other hand, the 15th amendment ratified in 1870 gave male African Americans the right to vote. These amendments, particularly the 15th amendment sparked racial tendencies (Craig 45). For instance, advocates such as Stanton and Susan refused to support the 15th amendment alongside racists from the south. They held that white women’s vote would be used to neutralise votes cast by the African Americans. This resulted in the creation of the National Women Suffrage Association, which was focused on fighting for universal suffrage. Notably, the African American community groups been fighting for voting rights for a while as while which means the 15th amendment was well deserved. For this reason, some held that tying the African American enfranchisement to the campaign for women suffrage was an unfair endangerment of the black community. This resulted in the creation of the American Woman Suffrage Association which supported the 15th amendment.
Following the conflict resolution between the two groups in 1890, they came together and formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Initially, the women suffrage movements called for ratification of women rights on the premise that women were equal to men. However, the new group of activist pushed for women rights on the basis that women were different from men. In this regard, the women’s rights movement argued that women could create political virtue from their domesticity to create a moral maternal commonwealth. This new approach to the fight for women rights served several political agendas on their behalf. For instance, temperance advocates supported voting right for women as it would ensure major voting for their cause. On the other hand white, middle-class people believed that allowing women to vote would ensure durable white supremacy.
The fight for women suffrage might have been viewed as a channel to achieve many different agendas, but one that changed America forever stood out. Voting rights for women. At the beginning of 1910, some states such as Idaho and Utah had already given women rights to vote. However, some of the states in the eastern and the southern cohere remained rigid and un-accommodative of women rights to vote. The ‘winning plan’ was unveiled in 1916 by the then president of the women suffrage movement, Carrie Chapman (Pankhurst 67). The plan was to rally support for the movement from local and state organisations countrywide with key focus on states that seemed more unwilling to support women’s voting rights. Another movement called National Women’s Party took a more radical approach to achieve the objective including hunger strikes. The World War 1 slowed the suffragist’s efforts, but it did allow them to build a case in favour of women’s rights. Their contribution during the war emphasised that they as deserving citizens as men. At last, the 19th amendment came into being in 1920 and women became conferred the voting rights. This milestone changed how women are perceived in America and has played a major role in enabling women to take key leadership roles in government today. Hillary Clinton is a good example. Given their resilience, it would not be a surprise to a have a female American president.
Based on a poll conducted by Gallup by the end of the 20th century which was aimed at highlighting the most important events that have occurred in the century, many highlighted that World War II as being the first while the women getting their voting rights as being the second. It is clear to note that the voting rights in women has come to be considered as momentous to the US history. In 1930s a poll had been conducted to determine if Americans were ready for a female president. The result was that Americans rejected the idea. Fast forward to 2016 during the US presidential election, there was a similar poll conducted and a huge number of people accepted the idea of a female president. It is meant to show that once the women got their voting rights they became familiar faces in elected offices and as a result there was a transformation in the way the society viewed them. Once women got the right to vote, it gave them the power to decide the future of some of the contentious bill at the time. For instance the alcohol ban was lifted by what is termed as the first women’s mass movement. A majority of women backed the prohibition more fiercely than compared to the men.
That offers us extensive information on extraordinary personalities and historical events that will forever be embedded in the American culture. It is because of the women’s rights movements that many girls have now become cognizant that they are equals to men. However not many are aware of the non-violent movement that many women took part in for 70 years just to be conferred the right to vote. The roles of women increased tremendously in the society. More and more became educated and therefore realized their potential in seizing meaningful carriers. The ripple effect was that more women were in a position to earn better salaries and it marked the birth of the independent woman.
Women still haven’t attained complete equality that they fought for years ago. They are some who still are facing prospects of violence, unequal treatment and even unequal wages. With the recent increase in the women rights movements currently, equalization is certainly going to be achieved. It is certain that the wider goal of ensuring quality is yet to be attained, however, the victorious women suffrage gives the existing generation of activists a firm base on which they can build their future. The struggle has been long and looking back women can be termed as the first disenfranchised class who won inclusion without the help of any political party and without anyone shedding blood. It should not be forgotten that the suffrage movement has been momentous achievement as it has led the people to where we are today.
Works Cited
Craig, Jared B. Political Animal: Florence Brown Cotnam and the Arkansas Women’s Suffrage Movement. Diss. University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2017.
Pankhurst, Sylvia. The Suffragette: The History of the Women’s Militant Suffrage Movement. Courier Dover Publications, 2015.
