Women are citizens of the United States who are governed, yet they have no say in their government. The very Constitution declares that when a government no longer has the safety and rights of their people in mind, then the people should take it upon themselves to abolish it, but women did not have a vote to exercise this right. Similarly, in their article, “Teaching the New Departure: The United States vs. Susan B. Anthony” Kathi Kern and Linda Levstik state,“For Anthony and hundreds of other women in the early years of Reconstruction, “taking” their freedom meant exacting their rights at the point where citizenship was “produced”: the polling booth” (Kern and Levstik 123). Voting was and is an essential part of citizenship in the United
Anthony was a pioneer reformer for the woman suffrage movement in the United States, whose efforts paved the way for the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, endowing women the right to vote. As an advocate of African American rights, temperance, the rights of labor, Susan devoted her life to leading the women suffrage movement. The enormous contrast between the status of women in the beginning of her efforts and their status when she died is the symbol of her successful achievements as a pioneer woman. Few men can devote his or her life in focusing on one career as much as Susan did. The fifty-year to pursue the course of women enabled her portrait to be printed on the one dollar coins, making her to be the first women who gained such honor.
First woman to serve in Congress, Jeannette Rankin, stated “How shall we explain to them the meaning of democracy if the same Congress that voted to make the world safe for democracy refuses to give this small measure of democracy to the women of our country.” The 19th amendment was a major step for women’s rights in America. Many years of hardships led up to the breakthrough that serves as a reminder to all those who fought for their rights. There were many key people and organizations that fought for the woman’s suffrage movement. They took part in protest, strikes, and conventions for the right to vote. The rise of woman’s suffrage started to kick off in 1800’s.
The first ever woman's rights convention was held I Seneca Falls in July of 1848. Elizabeth Cady Stanton made her first public statement for women's suffrage. Her call to her to action was codified in the groundbreaking piece of literature known as the declaration of sentiments. This moment in history marks the beginning of the woman's right's movement. The beginnings of the Seneca Falls Convention drawback to the anti-slavery movement, or more specifically the World's Anti-slavery Convention of 1840.
While efforts toward women’s civil rights had been made in previous centuries, large scale movements known as feminism began to truly gain ground in the 19th century. The beginnings of feminism, commonly defined as work toward the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes, are often attributed to Mary Wollstonecraft in her book The Vindication of the Rights of Women, published in 1792. The ideas spread by Wollstonecraft inspired many more prominent figures and works to emerge throughout the 1800s. The feminist movement was especially prevalent in Great Britain, where women such as Josephine Butler and writings like A Room of One’s Own and The Subjection of Women worked and spread awareness. While women’s political rights in 19th century Great Britain were improving, the social attitudes worked in the opposite way to confine women even more to household and domestic roles.
In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft published her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The spirit of both documents continues to inspire the agenda of feminist movements the world over, regarding recognition of women's human rights. Published in the year 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was written by Mary Wollstonecraft as a critique of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand- Perigord‟s report (1791) to the French National Assembly which stated that women should only receive domestic education. In this book Wollstonecraft responds to those theorists of the eighteenth century who believed women should not get rational education. Wollstonecraft challenged the then prevailing perception of woman`s nature, rationality and intellect and her place in the society.
From High Society to Holloway; How Lady Constance Lytton used her familial status to contribute to The Suffragette Movement and penal reform in Britain. (1908-1914) In Britain, throughout the Nineteenth century women had little impact on the politics of the nation. However, at the turn of the twentieth century, the demand for equal rights for women became more prevalent and many women across Britain began to campaign for the right to vote. These peaceful campaigns became known as the ‘Women’s Suffrage Movement’. However, these campaigns became increasingly militant and in 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union(WSPU).
Her father, by the tone of this message was using Deborah’s womanhood and enemy perceptions of her importance as a woman to relay important messages. This is an example of how some of the importance placed on women during wartime was not necessarily about giving free white women equal rights as white men in that time, but more so a play on the perceived incompetence of free white women to help their husbands and the newly forming America. This idea is enforced my Deborah’s account of why the British soldiers let her pass, saying, “To my joy he let me go saying “Well, you are only a woman any way.” Evidently as glad to be rid of me as I of him,”
Olympe de Gouges wrote her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen after the French Constitution, which was to address equal rights, completely obliterated women. But since late 18th century a lot has change. Even though there were some fighting for equality, feminism was barely nonexistent as women just started to think about their rights as individuals. And what fighting for equality meant at that time, it certainly has a different meaning in the 21st century.
Campaigners for women’s suffrage initially wanted the vote for women on the same terms as it was granted to men. This is because many of the original campaigners for women’s suffrage were female middle class homeowners. Their priority was that the franchise should be extended to women of their own status rather than to all women. This version of reform did not include either working class men or women but, eventually, universal suffrage, votes for all became the goal of the