The American Women’s

Suffrage Movement
Suffrage: Right to vote,
enfranchisement
In the early 1800s, many women were
involved in the abolition (anti-slavery)
and temperance (no alcohol)
movements
Seneca
Falls,
NY
1848
•A group of women
and men gathered
at a conference in
Seneca Falls, NY in
1848

•This conference
was led by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott
 Declaration of Sentiments

Why are women requesting to

vote?
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. . . . Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance
(loyalty) to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government. . . .
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations
(taking away power) on the part of man toward
woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny
over her.
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise (right
to vote).

He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.

He becomes, in marriage, for all intents and purposes, her master--the law giving him
power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer punishment.

He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most
honorable to himself. As a teacher of religion, medicine, or law, she is not known.

He has given to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral
delinquencies (crimes) which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but
deemed of insignificant in man.

He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own
powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject
life.
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this
country,
--in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel
themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most
sacred
rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and
privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

Source: Declaration of Sentiments, written in 1848 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

14 Amendment-1868
th

Section 1: Citizenship- All persons born or naturalized in the United States

and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States

and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any

law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the

United States…nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal

protection of the laws.

Susan B. Anthony
• “All persons”
• Went to vote with
Constitution in
hand
• Anthony is arrested
• Trial in Canandaigua
At trial judge instructed the
jury to find her guilty
without discussion. He fined
her $100 and made her pay
courtroom fees, but did not
imprison her when she
refused to pay, therefore
denying her the chance to
appeal.
 Frederick Douglass, 1869
“When women, because they are women . . . are dragged from
their houses and hung upon lamp posts; when their children are
torn from their arms, and their brains dashed upon the
pavement . . . Then they will have an urgency to obtain the
ballot equal to our own.”

But was this not true for black women?

“Yes, yes, yes. It is true for the black woman but not because
she is a woman but because she is black!”
Sojourner Truth, 1869 “There is a great stir
about colored men
getting their rights, but
not a word about the
colored women … And
if colored men get
their rights, and not
colored women theirs,
you see the colored
men will be masters
over the women, and it
will be just as bad as it
Disappointed many women who thought African-American
men and women would be enfranchised together
15 Amendment-1870
th

Section 1: Extending the Right to Vote- the right of citizens of the

United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United

States or any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of

servitude.
 •National American Woman
Before 1910 Suffrage Association
(NAWSA)

•Big leaders: Susan B.

Anthony, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton

•Strategy:
• Try to win suffrage state
by state
Try to pass a
Constitutional
Amendment (but this
would need to be ratified
by 36 states –3/4)
Map of Women’s Suffrage Before 1920
The Next Generation
•Elizabeth
Cady
Stanton died
in 1902

•Susan B.
Anthony
died in 1906
The Next Generation
•Early 1900s many
young, middle-class
women were going to
college and joining the
suffrage movement

•Hoped the vote would

help improve working
conditions
 New Era of Progressive Era Suffragists

Carrie Chapman Catt Lucy Burns Alice Paul

Safe or Sorry? Carrie Chapman Catt
National American Woman Suffrage
Association.
She believed in:
• Careful state-by-state strategy

• Supporting President Wilson

even though he didn’t outright
support suffrage because
Democrats were a safer bet
than Republicans

• Acting ladylike so as not to

embarrass the movement
National Women’s Party Alice Paul & Lucy Burns
led the NWP and believed in more
• Wanted a Constitutional Amendment aggressive strategies:

• Adopted “un-ladylike” strategies from

British suffragettes (e.g. heckling
politicians, picketing)

• Refused to support President Wilson if

he wouldn’t support woman suffrage
• NWP members arrested for picketing in
front of the White House.

• Put in jail, went on a hunger strike, and

were force-fed.
The National Woman’s Party created
their own flag to symbolize their
struggles to achieve women’s suffrage.
During the drive to ratify the 19th
Amendment (the amendment which gave
women the right to vote), they would
sew on a star onto the flag for each state
that ratified the amendment.

They used the flag when picketing the

White House (unheard of at that time),
parades and demonstrations. When the
19th Amendment was finally ratified, the
leader of the party, Alice Paul, unfurled a
flag with stars representing all of the
States at their national headquarters in
Washington, D.C.