Susan B. Anthony: The Women's Suffrage Movement

In 1874, Susan B. Anthony wrote a petition to Untied States Congress requesting: “that the fine imposed upon your petitioner be remitted, as an expression of the sense of this high tribunal that her conviction was unjust." (Anthony) Anthony believed the fine $100 USD was unjust because she and her friends were just trying to fight for an amendment that would guarantee women’s voting rights. NWSA kept on with their steps to achieve their goal. In 1878, the Women Suffrage Amendment, later became the Ninth Amendment, had first introduced in the Congress of United States. “Susan B. Anthony: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” (Cayton, 637) These words were main ground of the whole movement; voting rights should not signify by sex but by nationality.

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and a leader of the British suffrage movement; a movement that helped women win the right to vote. Since 1848 women wanted to recognize their own rights and started the Women 's Rights Movement. The movement was protesting against the fact that women were not afforded the same rights as men. Since women were excluded from the political government, they pressured the government to grant them political rights. As part of the movement, in 1913, Pankhurst carried her appeal to the United States, where she delivered her famous speech Why Are We Militant.

August of 1920, the year that became a remarkable change for women, allowing them to vote. Before that, women weren’t allowed to vote and women such as Susan B. Anthony fought for that right. In her letter “On Women’s Right to Vote”, she furthers her purpose by telling all the citizens of the United States that women are people too and are entitled the right to vote just as their male companions. Throughout the speech, Anthony uses pathos, ethos, logos and other rhetorical devices to push her point across. In her letter, her second paragraph she states the US Constitution., giving her major credibility.

Carrie Chapman Catt uses a lot of ideas about democracy in her speech that was logical. Catt uses logic to appeal to her audience from the first reason of women suffrage inevitability to the end of the speech. Catt uses the Declaration of independence, which turn out to be the basic rule of government (Catt, 1917). This is because it states that all men (women) are created equal and Catt used that along with the quote from Woodrow Wilson that states “we are fighting for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts: for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government” (Catt, 1917). The logic in Wilson’s quote as it relates to women’s suffrage is if democracy is the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government than why do women not allow to vote because they too submit to authority as men do.

Mary Wollstonecraft was a key component in the movement of rights for women. Her philosophies on equality were a precursor for women around the world who would join together and fight back against the injustice they faced due to their gender. Wollstonecraft promoted her ideals during the middle of the 18th century at a point in time where rights for women were non-existent and she lived her whole life without any true rights of her own. Years after her death, her values were continued by women who were trying to gain the right the vote. The fight for the rights of women has continued since then and still continues in modern feminist movements.

In the year 1913, Emmeline Pankhurst went to Hartford, Connecticut to deliver a speech to American women, invigorating them to support the suffragettes’ cause in England. Before one can understand the speech, one must know the historical context that landed Pankhurst in Connecticut. When feminism was becoming more common in Europe after World War I, many judged feminists harshly, describing them as a “shrieking sisterhood” and manly, neglecting their duties at home. The negative feedback made many women negligent to describe themselves as feminists(“Feminism in

Thousands of women have screamed at the top of their lungs, clawed at the patriarchy, and tirelessly fought for their rights as citizens of the United States of America. From the beginning of mankind, women have been labeled as inferior to men not only physically, but mentally and intellectually as well. Only in 1920 did women gain the right to voice their opinions in government elections with a vote, while wealthy white men received the expected right since the creation of the United States. A pioneer in women’s suffrage, Susan B. Anthony publicly spoke out against this hypocrisy in a time when women were only seen as child bearers and household keepers. Using the United State’s very own Constitution and Declaration as ammunition, Anthony wrote countless speeches and called for the right to vote in a country that boasted equality and freedom for all, yet women were not included.

Once the reform movement began, however, abolitionist women realized their rights could be compared to those of slaves, and a few bold women decided to do something about the inequality of men and women (Finkelman 405). What these ladies decided to do, of course, was start the women’s rights movement. A few of these brave women who spoke out were Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. Stanton formed a friendship with Anthony and their two distinct personalities did so much to further the women’s rights movement (Schmittroth and McCall 246). Their differing personalities allowed them to work efficiently, for example, “Anthony would tend to

Considering all of this, it can be seen that the creation of W.S.P.U. and the emergence of the suffragette movement promoted the idea rebel women, in a society which had fix ideals about women and their role within society. The struggle for women’s suffrage was not easy to pull off and the achievement of the vote took several years. The very first achievement in terms of the vote for women came in at 1918 when women over the age of 30 were allowed to vote, but the fully to vote women came in the year 1928 in the United

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.

Suffragette was the name granted to these women. One of history’s most famous suffragettes was a woman named Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton accomplished many things in her lifetime. One of her most memorable moments was when she gave the speech The Destructive Male at the 1868 Women’s Suffrage Convention. With this speech she passionately states how the intelligent, wise female is kept from having any involvement in the world and how this affects our nation since

Minnie had finally achieved what she had spent so much time fighting for but this accomplishment was great and it was a milestone for women in the state of teas but it wasn’t enough for Minnie she set her sights out for something bigger and better which was an amendment that would grant women throughout America the right to vote. In order to achieve this Minnie made arrangements with United States Senator from Texas Morris Sheppard in 1917 for a conference in his Washington, D.C. office for women to state their perspectives on the proposed suffrage amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Minnie and NAWSA lobbyist Maud Wood Park, who would become the first president of the League of Women Voters, initiated a campaign for constituents to flood the offices of their representatives with telegrams in favor of passage. The United States House of Representatives passed the first version of the Nineteenth Amendment on January 10, 1918, but it failed in the United States Senate. This failure did not stop Minnie nor her supporters in fact it inspired them more.

According to the textbook, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the Woman Suffrage Association and started working towards getting the women the right to vote (Kirk, G. & Okazawa-Rey, M. 2013). Finally in 1920, the nineteenth amendment was presented and allowed the women in the United States the right to vote (Kirk, G. & Okazawa-Rey, M. (2013). When thinking about how the women felt about not be able to speak up with voting situations is horrible. We are truly blessed that there were women who spoke their mind and changed the women’s lives for the

She began going to anti-slavery conferences leading to her acquaintance with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Anthony was also involved in the temperance movement, revolving around completely stopping the production and consumption to all alcoholic beverages. While working with this Susan became inspired to fight for women 's rights. This inspired her so much because once she was refused the chance to speak at a temperance convention because she was a woman. She then realized that if women wanted to be addressed in the political world she would need to make sure that all women would gain the right to vote.