Embracing the Pink Vote: Not All Blue!
The story of women's suffrage and the 19th Amendment
Story by: AllyKat2496
Amendments and documents
The 19th amendment: Ratified on August 18th, 1920. This amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote in all elections.
Declaration of rights of women: It expressed the desire for American women to have the same rights as men, including the right to vote.
Equal Rights Amendment: A proposalto ensure equal pay for men and women for the same jobs The National Women's Party began to lobby for another amendment right after the nineteenth amendment was passed. The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972, however it was not ratified by the three quarters of states as required, so the proposal died.
Did You Know?
Lydia Chapin Taft - was the first woman voter. She first voted in colonial Massachusetts on October 30th, 1756. She voted at three town meetings.
The 19th amendment was first introduced in Congress in January of 1878.
Hattie W. Caraway was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She was also the first woman to preside over the Senate on October 19, 1943.
Lucy Stone, graduate of Oberlan College, was the first woman to use her maiden name even after marriage, and was the first woman to "lecture on Women's rights."
The Seneca Falls Convention was a two-day conference held on July 19 and 20th, 1848. It was set up to "discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of women." It was the idea of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Margaret Fuller, Amelia Bloomer and other women wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. It was a resolution listing the grievances they had against the "tyranny of man."
Fredrick Douglas was one of 32 men attending the Seneca Falls convention. He made a speech that helped the resolution proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton to pass. His main point was that women of all races needed to make strides and obtain rights together.
The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920; 42 years after it was introduced to Congress.
36 states ratified the 19th Amendment to officially make it part of our Constitution.
According to Ron Brown of WGEM News, of Quincy, Illinois. the first woman to vote after the 19th Amendment was ratified was Mrs. Marie Ruoff Byrum of Missouri.
The First National Women's Rights Convention occurred in 1850 in Worchester, Massachusetts.
Susan B. Anthony joined forces with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to promote the equal treatment of women in education, employment, and the ability to own property. In 1872 she was arrested for trying to vote. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she formed the National Woman's Suffrage Association in 1869.
American Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1869 by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell.
In 1878,the "Susan B. Anthony Amendment" was introduced in Congress. It read: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by and State on the account of sex." It was defeated for 40 years.
Mrs. Esther Morris played a huge role in getting woman suffrage passed in the Wyoming Territorial Council in Dec. 1869. Wyoming women were the first to win the right to vote.
1870 women gain right to vote in Utah.
1893 women gain right to vote in Colorado.
1896 women gain right to vote in Idaho.
March 13, 1913, the Women's Party, led by Alice Paul, held a demonstration and parade that 8,000 women participated in to promote the amendment allowing voting by women. They picketed the White House front gates every day for months.
January 1917 first pickets for women's rights to vote were at the White House and in June, the first arrests of the women picketers took place.
Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association targeted the passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment at the state level and did not use picketing.
Jan 1918, the 19th Amendment passes the House of Representatives. In 1919, it passes the Senate, and in 1920 it becomes part of the Constitution.
1920, the National American Suffrage Association becomes the League of Women Voters. Its purpose was to encourage women to understand and participate in the political and voting processes.
Representative Daniel Anthony, nephew of Susan B. Anthony introduced the amendment for equal rights in Congress in 1923.
In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment passed Congress, but only 32 states of the 38 needed approved the amendment before the 1982 deadline. Therefore, it has never been ratified and is not part of the Constitution.
Events that Occurred
Two days in the summer of 1848, over 300 men and women stood in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. They listened for hours to speeches about women's rights and their lack of rights. After a long time the group finally passed a "Declaration of Sentiments" on Friday, July 20th, 1848.
In the year 1869 a lot happened. In May, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA). The primary goal of the NWSA was to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the Constitution. In November, Lucy stone, Henry Blackwell, and others form the American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA). This group focuses exclusively to individual state constitutions.
On December 10th, 1869, the territory of Wyoming passes the first women's suffrage law. The following year, women begin serving on juries in the territory.
Then in 1890, the National Women Suffrage Association and the American Women Suffrage Association merge to form the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA). As the movement's mainstream organization, NAWSA wages state by state campaigns to obtain voting rights for women.
Groups That Made Suffrage Happen!
American Women Suffrage Association-AWSA worked for the gradual adoption of the women's right to vote on a state by state basis. Ran by Julia Ward Howe, Henry Ward Beecher, and Lucy Stone.
National American Women Suffrage Association
National League of Women's Voters
National Women's Suffrage Association
National Women's Party
Women's Political Union
National Organization of Women
Equal Rights Association- ERA, a national organization, with both women and men members. It supported the three Post-Civil-War-Amendments. Numbers 5, 13,14,and 15.
League of Women Voters
Minnesota League of Women Voters
Minnesota Women Suffrage Association
Women's Christian Temperance Union
Women's Joint Congressional Committee
Important People
Elizabeth Cady Stanton – One of the organizers of the Women's Rights Convention at the Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. She was also the first president of the National Women Suffrage Association.
Jane Hunt, Mary Ann McClintock, Lucretia Mott, and Martha C. Wright – All helped organize the Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.
Emily Collins – There was a lot of press coverage that raised women's interest and inspired women like Emily Collins to fight for women's rights.
Abigail Adams – Wife of John Adams; during the writing of the Declaration of Independence, Abigail Adams advised her husband, "in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors."
Betty Friedan – Wrote the Feminine Mystique, launching the modern women's rights movement, and was the founding president of the National Organization of Women.
Angelina Grimke – an abolitionist and feminist activist famous for her ground-breaking speaking tour of 1837-1838.
Alice Paul – Was instrumental in securing women's right to vote under the nineteenth amendment and drafted the Equal Rights Amendment.
Susan B. Anthony – worked tirelessly to get Congress to pass a women's right to vote amendment to the US Constitution. She formed the National Women Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Henry Ward Beecher – Together formed and led the American Women Suffrage Association.
Esther Morris – "The mother of women's suffrage in Wyoming."
Matilda Joslyn Gage – NWSA President.
Vice President Thomas W. Ferry – Supporter of women's suffrage.
Clara Ueland - Was the first President of the League of Women Voters of Minnesota.
Carrie Chapman Catt - She was elected president of the National American Women Suffrage Association twice.
Jeannette Rankin - Was the first woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives and the first female member of the Congress sometimes referred to as the Lady of the House.
Emmeline Pankhurst - After selling her home, English activist Emmeline Pankhurst travelled constantly, giving speeches throughout Britain and the United States. One of her most famous speeches,Freedom or death, was delivered in Connecticut in 1913.
Genevieve Clark - In 1914 she got her father, Speaker of the House Champ Clark, to announce his support for what became the 19th amendment.
Jane Addams - Was a founder of the U.S. Settlement House movement, and the second woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was also a women's suffragist and founded the Hull House.
The Historical Time Period!
Women's suffrage had started in the US in about 1756. Abigail Adams, one of the many daughters, mothers, and wives of the delegates that were writing the Constitution, thought that women should have the right to vote. But the delegates ignored them!
Most of the action takes place in 1835-1982. Women were putting their foot down to the word "NO!" They stood up for what they believed in and they also fought heavily for more (and fairer) rights. It didn't end in 1982; women are still getting paid less in their jobs that are either equal or above a man's job. Women's fight for equality is an ongoing effort though out the world.