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Sam LeMoine

Mrs. Osgood

1/9/23

The Fight for Women’s Suffrage

The women's suffrage movement resulted from thousands of women's hard work, forcing

their way into the spotlight and making people recognize the issues at hand. These women

picketed for days, were jailed for unlawful reasons, and were discriminated against because

people didn’t like the changes they were making to society. However, people didn’t realize those

changes were necessary for the country to grow and develop. In the early 1900s, women's

suffrage was a big deal because it represented a problem that had to be solved; people couldn’t

ignore it, and the movement gained momentum each time there was a rally or a speech, despite

numerous people opposing it. Although millions opposed the movement due to a fear of change,

women's suffrage was a growing force due to picketing, speeches, and marches, all to gain media

coverage so that even the President of the United States couldn’t ignore them.

The first strategy employed by women, meant to be a less imposing way of protesting,

was picketing, particularly outside of the white house. The thought was that President Woodrow

Wilson wouldn’t be able to ignore their cause if forced to acknowledge their efforts each day he

left his home. Picketing gained national attention quickly, with newspapers displaying pictures of

them “stood vigil at the White House, demonstrating in silence six days a week for nearly three

years. The "Silent Sentinels" let their banners – comparing the President to Kaiser Wilhelm II of

Germany – speak for them. Many of the sentinels were arrested and jailed in deplorable

conditions” (National Archives). Picketing was a good way of protesting because it was peaceful
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and meant only to get attention from the papers, the President, and the people nearby. In addition,

it often garnered violence from people strongly against the suffragists, leading to a more

sympathetic view from people who witnessed it. Although they weren’t representing the

President most positively, “‘Silent Sentinels’ picketed the White House during the summer of

1917, [and] White House policemen continuously arrested the suffragists on charges of unlawful

assembly, disorderly conduct, and disrupting traffic. Suffragists were fined but generally refused

to pay out of protest. As their actions became more disruptive, authorities levied harsher

sentences, sending the picketers to Occoquan Workhouse and Penitentiary in Lorton, Virginia”

(Costello). Woodrow Wilson’s attitude towards the suffragists severely changed as time went on.

At the start, he would meet regularly and talk about their movement. Later, he would start to get

more aggravated, and eventually, not having a real reason to stop the picketing, he resorted to

falsely having them arrested for disrupting traffic. Laws change over time because of persistence

and willingness to do the right thing. These women stood up for themselves and weren’t willing

to back down. Over 1,000 women picketed in front of the White House in just 1917 alone. Of

those people, 218 were arrested and charged with disrupting traffic (Today in History). Laws

change because of persistence and commitment, especially to a cause people believe in. These

women's willingness to be arrested repeatedly, in such large numbers, reveals their dedication to

the suffrage movement. Picketing proved to be an effective strategy used by the suffragists in the

late 1900s to change laws over time. Picketing allowed the women to garner attention for

themselves and the media and used their arrests to catch the public eye.

The second strategy utilized by the suffragists was their numerous speeches, along with

their marches, which were often met with a lot of anti-suffragists and were very controversial.

The purpose of marching was to bring even more awareness to their cause, this time in a more
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direct way. One suffragist, Emmeline Pankhurst, a brave leader and speaker in the United

Kingdom, often talked about “the war ‘waged by women,’ telling the audience that ‘people have

suffered, but you cannot make omelets without breaking eggs.’ She explained how necessary it

was for women to become voting rights advocates and to adopt revolutionary methods to win the

right to vote, a right which was inherently theirs—specifically because like men, they were

human beings” (Clark). Pankhurst gave women hope that their movement would be successful

by telling them that struggling and suffering is sometimes necessary to “win the war”, and that

“they were human beings” too, giving them the right to vote. Sometimes, tensions would get too

high between the anti-suffragists and the women marching in parades. In one instance, “5,000

women marched for suffrage, but their peaceful procession was disrupted by a ‘surging mass of

humanity that completely defied the Washington police.’” (Costello). Fortunately for the

suffragists, these actions of violence only drew more attention to their cause. With the extra

media coverage, more and more people began to notice the parades and marches taking place,

leading to even more attention. All this attention was good because there was no inferior

publicity; raising awareness benefitted the suffragists.

Despite the number of people against the suffrage movement in the early 1900s, women

prevailed, gaining the right to vote through hard work and perseverance, unwillingness to give in

to what the men around them wanted, and even going to jail to prove that they believed in their

cause. By picketing in front of the White House and numerous speeches and marches

strategically designed to obtain more media coverage, the women bolstered their campaign for

suffrage and ultimately earned them the right to vote.

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Annotated Works Cited

Clark, Emily. “Emmeline Pankhurst’s ‘Freedom or Death’ Speech Energizes Connecticut Women

in 1913 - Connecticut History | a CT Humanities Project.” Connecticut History | a

CTHumanities Project - Stories about the People, Traditions, Innovations, and Events

That Makeup Connecticut’s Rich History., 20 July 2022,

connecticuthistory.org/emmeline-pankhursts-freedom-or-death-speech-energizes-connecti

cut-women-in-1913/. In this article, Emily Clark writes about the significance of

Emmeline Pankhurst’s Freedom or Death speech, particularly on Women in Connecticut,

England. It is a good source because it gave me information about something we hadn’t

learned in class yet: suffrage in areas outside the United States. This source provides

information about the suffrage issues in England during the same period as in America.

Costello, Matthew. “Picketing the White House.” WHHA (En-US), 14 Apr. 2014,

whitehousehistory.org/picketing-the-white-house. Accessed 3 Jan. 2024. In this article,

Matthew Costello writes about women picketing in front of the White House, their

arrests, and how unfairly treated they were during the early 1900s. This source had a lot

of information and is the only source I used twice in my essay because of the amount of

substance included. The source describes the mobs women encountered when picketing

and marching, as well as what jail was like for women after being sent unfairly.

National Archives. “Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment.” National Archives, 15 Aug.

2016, www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage#background. Accessed 3

Jan. 2024. Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment by National Archives is about the

suffragists' picketing outside the White House. This source was beneficial because it

describes the women’s actions when picketing and the result of said actions. The article
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describes the women standing outside the White House for long periods every day,

sometimes with messages from the President.

“Today in History - August 28.” Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA,

www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/august-28/#:~:text=in%20the%20struggles.-. This

short article provides information on the number of women picketing in front of the white

house and the number of those women arrested because of traffic violations. It is a good

source because it is brief and factual. It explains the severity of punishments and the

number of women dedicated to their cause.