L3&L4: The Suffrage MovementEquality and Hierarchy: Women’s

ExperienceAgenda

Objective:To understand…1. Why they chose to focus on

suffrage as the area to push for inequality.

2. How women secured the right to vote and how different approaches to this issue reflected larger divisions in the women’s right movement

3. The implications of the suffrage movement on other social movements.

Schedule: 1. Lecture and Discussion

Homework:Unit Work: Prepare

for formative discussion on the new woman on L6 (G: Thurs 12/12; Y: Fri 12/13)

Thesis: • Assign #1 Zones

Due: L4 (G: Fri 12/6; Y: Mon 12/9)

• Assign #2 Topic Due L6 (G: Thurs 12/12; Y: Fri 12/13)

The Women’s Suffrage Movement: 1848-1920

• In the last two classes we:• Described the system of oppression facing

women in the mid-1800s• Identified the two strands of activism

working to challenge this system:• Political / Change the System• Moral / Work within the System

• Over the next two days we will explore how women’s activism becomes centered on the issue of suffrage (the right to vote) and the process women use to secure that right.

Why Suffrage?

• Prior to the Civil War…– The “political” wing of the women’s

activist movement was concerned with agitating for a wide range of social changes for women, of which the vote was just one.

– The “moral” wing was largely concerned with issues that did not concern women’s rights directly: education reform, temperance, and prison reform

Women’s Rights and Reconstruction• Reconstruction dramatically alters the course

of the women’s rights movement:– Some women perceive an opportunity to

advocate for suffrage (if you are going to give blacks the right to vote, why not women too)

– Others thought this was too radical (if you tried to give both blacks and women the right to vote, neither would get it—just focus

on getting blacks the right to vote now, and extending suffrage to women later)

Reconstruction Divides Women’s Activism on the Suffrage Question• Women’s Movement United in Goal: Suffrage• Divided (still) in Strategy• National Women’s Suffrage Association

• Led by: Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony• Called for immediate, wide-scale, swift change to voting

rights in the United States• Sought a Constitutional amendment giving women &

blacks the the right to vote

• American Woman Suffrage Association• Led by Lucy Stone• Believed the 15th amendment would fail if women’s

suffrage was attached to African American suffrage• Sought state amendments to give women the right tot

vote

Reconstruction Fails To Grant Female Suffrage

• In 1870, the 15th Amendment is passed.– Gives black men the right to vote, but

not women

• Why do you think women’s suffrage was not granted to women?

• While did black men get the right to vote but not women? What was so threatening about women voting?

What does this cartoon suggest is the “threat” of women’s suffrage?

NWSA / Constitutional Strategy / Change the System

NWSA / Constitutional Strategy: Bradwell vs. Illinois 1873

• Facts:– Myra Bradwell Passed the Illinois law exam, but was denied

bar membership by the Supreme Court of Illinois because she was a woman.

– Sued the state of Illinois for violating her 14th Amendment rights.

• Argument:– The 14th Amendment’s equal protection language defended

her right to freely choose an occupation. • Ruling:

– The Supreme Court held 7 to 1 that the 14th Amendment did not include the right to practice a profession.

– Justice Bradley wrote, “The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life…The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator.”

NWSA/ Constitutional Strategy: Minor vs. Happersett 1875

• Facts:– Virginia Minor turned away from polls in Missouri when she

tries to vote.– Her husband, Frances Minor, sued the registrar who

denied her application on her behalf (under Missouri law she could not sue on her own).

• Argument: – Uses the 14th Amendment to argue that as an American

citizen she is entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship

• Ruling:– The unanimous decision of the US Supreme Court found

that women born or naturalized in the United States were indeed American citizens

– But, the Supreme Court also found that voting was not one of the "privileges and immunities of citizenship" and therefore states need not grant voting rights or suffrage to women.

AWSA/ State Level Strategy / Work Within the

System

AWSA Achieves Some Success

The NWSA and AWSA Merge in the 1890s

• In 1890 the NWSA and AWSA merge to create the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

• Lucy Stone became chairman and Elizabeth Cady Stanton served as the first president.

• Adopt a 2 part vision• Adopt a 3 part strategy

NAWSA: Vision

Framing Suffrage

• Take a look at the following political cartoons, how is the NAWSA framing the right to vote?

Blanche Ames, Two Good Votes Are Better Than One, Woman’s Journal (October, 1915)

The NAWSA Argument for

Woman Suffrage• Voting is an extension

of women’s place in the domestic sphere, not a challenge to it!

• The nation needed women voters because of their special moral leadership!

NAWSA: Strategy

The Anti-Suffrage Movement

• As the Women’s Suffrage Movement grew in prominence, it sparked a wave of Anti-Suffrage Movements and advocates.

• The following political cartoons were published opposing women’s suffrage.– For each cartoon, write

down the justification given for why women should not be able to vote.

Women were also Anti-Suffragists

• Not all women supported the suffrage movement, in fact many opposed it.

• Why do you think some women would oppose movements for gender equality?

State by State Success for Suffrage

• The NAWSA pushed forward with both a state-level and national-level strategy for securing suffrage.–National Level: Presented a woman-

suffrage amendment to the Congress, but failed (repeatedly)

– State Level: Ultimately the NAWSA starts to put into effect a successful state by state strategy for securing the right to vote. This process was very slow and frustrating, however.

State by State Success for Suffrage

• Consider the following map:–Which part of the United States

(geographically) first allowed women the rights to vote?

–Which states were last to give women the right to vote?

– Is this surprising? Why or why not?– Read the section above the map:• How did states impact each other in

granting women suffrage?

World War One Slows Down, But Advances, the Push for

Suffrage• WWI slows down the suffrage

campaign as some suffragists decide to shelve their activism in favor of “war work.”

• In the long run, however, this decision proves to be a wise one as it adds another reason to why women deserve the right to vote.

The 19th Amendment 1920• Gradually, as more and more states

granted women the right to vote it seemed culturally impossible for there not to be a woman’s suffrage amendment.–What does this mean?

• In 1920 women are granted the right to vote.

19th Amendment,

August 20, 1920

The Success of the Women’s Suffrage Movement?

• Was the suffrage movement successful?• Why do you think the process of granting the

right to vote for women was achieved through gradual state-by-state change, culminating with an amendment.

• What is the lesson for social movements more broadly?– In particular, how is the women’s suffrage

movement similar to the gay marriage movement and the marijuana legalization movement?