Votes for Women

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• Votes for Women
• The Path to Womens Suffrage
• By Leigh Unterspan

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• In 1776 Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John
  Adams, who was working on the Declaration of
  Independence.
• She asked that he remember the ladies.
• The Declaration said that all men are created
  equal.

Abigail Adams
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Lucretia Mott

• In 1837 she organized the first convention of the
  National Female Anti-Slavery Society.
• Earlier Mott had been denied membership in
  anti-slavery societies because she was a woman.

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Women go to college

• In 1833, Oberlin College became the first
  coeducational college in the US.
• In 1837, Mount Holyoke College was founded, the
  first four year college for women only.
• Vassar (1837), Wellesley (1875) and Smith (1875)
  Colleges followed, which were all colleges
  created for women only.

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July 19-20, 1848

• The first womens rights convention in the US is
  held in Seneca Falls, New York.
• Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the
  primary organizers.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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First womens rights convention

• Signed a Declaration of Sentiments and
  Resolutions that outlined the main goals for the
  womens rights movement.
• This is a copy of the names of the original
  signers of the declaration.

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Sojourner Truth

• A former slave who took up the cause for womens
  rights.
• In 1851 she delivered her famous Aint I A
  Woman speech at a womens convention.

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• American Democracy has interpreted the
  Declaration of Independence in the interest of
  slavery, restricting suffrage and citizenship to
  a white male minority. The black man is still
  denied the right of citizenship, even in the
  nominally free States.Half our population are
  disfranchised on the grounds of sex and though
  compelled to obey the law and taxed to support
  the government, they have no voice in the
  legislation of the country.
• --Sojourner Truth
• At a meeting of the
• Equal Rights Association
• 1867

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Civil War1861-1865

• The war interrupted womens suffrage activities
  as women worked for various war causes.
• Their work, however, helped them to develop
  organizational and other skills that would help
  them in their suffrage work later.

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American Equal Rights Association

• Formed in 1866 by Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
• This was an organization for white and black
  women and men dedicated to universal suffrage.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
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Fourteenth Amendment

• Passed in 1868
• Protected all citizens from unjust state laws.
• Defined the terms citizens and voters as male.

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Womens groups split

• In 1869, the womens rights movement split into
  two groups because of disagreements.
• Stanton and Anthony formed the more radical
  National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).

Stanton and Anthony
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Womens groups split

• Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell and Julia Ward Howe
  formed the more conservative American Woman
  Suffrage Association (AWSA).

Julia Ward Howe
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• If all political power is inherent in the
  people, why have women, who are more than half
  the population of the United States, no political
  existence? Is it because they are not people?
• --Lucy Stone
• In an address to the
• New Jersey legislature
• 1867

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Wyoming

• In 1890 becomes a state with a womans suffrage
  provision intact.
• First state to grant suffrage to women

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Women on the move

• The AWSA begins publishing the Womans Journal in
  1870, a publication dedicated to womens rights.
• Several women attempt to use the Fourteenth
  Amendment to vote between 1870 and 1875, but all
  are unsuccessful.

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Women on the move

• In 1872, Susan B. Anthony is arrested for
  attempting to vote in a presidential election.
• In the same year, Sojourner Truth attempts to
  vote, but she is denied a ballot.

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Anthonys trial

• "Yes, your honor," seethed Anthony, "I have many
  things to say My natural rights, my civil
  rights, my political rights, my judicial rights,
  are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental
  privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the
  status of a citizen to that of a subject and not
  only myself individually, but all of my sex, are,
  by your honor's verdict, doomed to political
  subjection under this, so-called, form of
  government."

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Womans Suffrage Amendment

• Introduced to Congress in 1878.
• When it is finally passed in 1919, the wording is
  unchanged.

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Belva Ann Lockwood

• In 1879, Belva Ann Lockwood finally secures for
  women the right to practice law before the
  Supreme Court.
• In 1884, she runs for president on the National
  Equal Rights Party ticket. She wins 4,149 votes
  in six states.

Belva Ann Lockwood
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Women Unite

• NWSA and AWSA reunite in 1890 as the National
  American Woman Suffrage Association, with
  Elizabeth Cady Stanton as head.

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Hull House

• Founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in
  1890.
• A settlement housing project in Chicago
• Within one year, 100 settlement houses exist in
  the US, largely operated by women.
• Many women become involved in social work and
  become an important voice in American politics.

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Womans Bible

• Written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1895
• Criticized the treatment of women in the Old
  Testament
• An example of Stantons more radical views that
  caused NAWSA to separate itself from her

A draft of the Bible
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Roosevelt adoptswomens suffrage platform

• In 1912 Teddy Roosevelts Progressive party
  becomes the first national political party to
  adopt a womens suffrage plank.

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19th Amendment

• Adopted in 1920, this amendment gives women the
  right to vote.
• NAWSA ceases to exist because its mission has
  been accomplished, but members form the League of
  Women Voters.

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PhotoGallery
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A womans scrapbook about suffrage activities
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A suffrage parade in 1913
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A suffrage march in New York City, 1913
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An album cover from the period
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Woman Suffrage Headquarters, 1912
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A picket line in 1917
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Two suffragists
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Credits

• All photos in this presentation are courtesy of
  the American Memory collections
• of the Library of Congress.
• The song A Womans Tongue Will Run Forevermore
  was recorded in 1940. It is also part of the
  American Memory collections of the Library of
  Congress.