Women's Suffrage Reaction

Women’s Suffrage Reaction Paper

The declaration of independence states that all men and women are created equal. This document, along with the constitution, is what the administration of the United States was founded on. The men who created these documents were citizens striving for equal rights and representation in government. Ironically, these rights the founding fathers worked so hard to create for themselves were not granted to women in their newly established nation. Fortunately, due to the tireless work of decades of activist’s, laws have changed, amendments added to the constitution, and rights granted to those who were previously unjustly denied. One of these victories for women’s rights occurred when women were granted the right

At this time women were denied many rights such as voting, higher education, and property (Wood, 59). The women’s rights movement held their first convention in 1848 known as the Seneca Falls Convention. Led by Cady Stanton and Lucrieta Mott, this convention sparked a revolution for women’s rights (Brown, 2005) by gaining national attention and getting people to start thinking about these issues. Furthering the work of suffragists before them, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed the National Women’s Party (NWP) in 1916 with its main goal being granting women suffrage. They influenced public opinion for their movement through nonviolent protest such as parades, picketing the white house, and hunger strikes. During a peaceful protest these suffragists were unconstitutionally arrested and sentenced to 60 days in a work camp where they were mistreated. Once word of this reached the press it caused public uproar and put more pressure on president Wilson to pass a bill to congress. Increased pressure from suffragists, and politics in Europe finally led Wilson to call for a 19th amendment, which was then ratified by

Sojourner Truth a famous abolitionist and women’s right activists feared rights of women would be left out. Many African Americans felt that the women’s suffrage movement was concerned with the rights of only white women (Wood,59) and were sometimes discriminated against within the movement.. This is fictionally displayed in Iron Jawed Angels when a black suffragist expresses discontent with their parade being segregated by race. I feel that this is hypocritical as they are fighting for equal rights yet treating people of color as separate. Despite their concerns countless African American women still joined in on the cause and contributed to its