Why Is Lucy Burns Important To The Women's Rights Movement?

The seemingly endless battle for civil rights was one fought long and hard and during the 20th century a time of fruition occurred that allowed for concrete and tangible progress though the efforts of many, including key black intellectual revolutionaries. The call to freedom, and the fight for civil liberties to be bestowed upon people of color, who for hundreds of years were perceived as subordinate was happening. Change was fought through self-determination, and a burgeoning of powerful ideologies that laid the foundation for movement to be made.

Alice joins the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). February 1913 Alice and Lucy Burns helped found the Congressional Union for Women’s Suffrage but after not getting enough help from NAWSA financially and having different ideals as well, they decide to leave the organization. March 3, 1913 Alice organizes a suffragist parade the day before President Wilson’s inauguration.

This all started to change with the suffrage movement in that women started to enter the professional workforce, obtain higher levels of education, and became more involved in political life resulting in a shift of gender roles as women were entering long held male domains (McCammon et al., 2001, p. 53). Haferkamp and Smelser (1992) discuss further changes regarding social equality and how in the 1970’s the social movements of the 1960’s shifted towards women’s rights. This is when women focused on equal opportunities both in private and public capacities (Haferkamp & Smelser, 1992, p.

She grabbed America’s attention through various tactics, including marches and picketing in front of the White House, and fought for equality until her death. As a young girl, Alice Paul had originally been introduced to the women’s suffrage movement through her mother, who would often take her to

Alice Paul empowered women all across the world to fight for women’s suffrage. Alice Paul is a brave woman who fought for what she believed in and persevere through anything that came in her way. Paul formed organizations to spread the word about women’s suffrage and to get people on board to support their cause. Alice Paul protested using many tactics such as marches, rallies, hunger strikes, and picketing outside of White House. Alice Paul is a woman who fought for women’s suffrage through the formation of organizations, assembling protests, rallies, parades and the ratification of the 19th amendment.

Alice Paul was raised and also taught, by her parents, that women and men are both equal. She grew up to be a caseworker in London which led her to realizing the struggles of women’s rights. She wanted to do something about how women did not have the ability to vote so she joined England’s suffragists. Which led to Alice to learn how to generate publicity. The knowledge Alice gained from being an activist was through arrests, force feedings, imprisonments, and hunger strikes.

Some of the adjustments made during this time included women holding a higher social status, attending Ivy League colleges, defending a client in court, and holding high-ranked political offices. The bringing about of these new changes not only helped the feminist group progress but helped encourage other innovated groups to progress as well. Today their example has helped shape feminist groups that are still pushing for more of an equal status to men. Although not easy, women were able to overcome many unique challenges during this era and therefore made it possible for women to gain equal rights reshaping our country to what it is

During the 1800’s, those who saw social prejudice or corruption started many reform movements to correct the difficulties in America. The Second Great Awakening really helped shape the United States into a religious nation and paved the way through the reform movements, while stressing individual choice that caused an uprising in denominations leading to followers by the masses. Antislavery abolitionism became a movement mostly because of influence from the religious revival that was taking place, and demonstrating to all of those religious that slavery is a sin.

“I have encountered riotous mobs and have been hung in effigy, but my motto is: Men's rights are nothing more. Women's rights are nothing less.” Susan B. Anthony

This gained them national attention towards their problems. A major setback women experienced was men realizing that women were trying to take over their workplaces. Many employers would tell women that a position was not available and then a man would come and get hired, even if the women was more qualified.(Vintee Sawhney, unicorn.edu) The case Bowe vs. Colgate-Palmolive rules that “ women meeting the physical requirements could work in many jobs that had been for men only”( National Women’s History Project). The 1960s was a decade of change on the women image.

Numerous laws and Acts were passed that involved women’s rights and though the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was newly established, it became clear

The women’s rights movement being an extensive movement helped women to occupy better jobs and higher positions “Increased access to leadership positions is an important achievement because – in terms of gender – the field is more level now: some women will be allies, some are not, but no one is excluded only for being a woman”. Today, women can choose to occupy the jobs that were once titled only for men and they have an equal employment opportunity “Because of workplace rights, women enjoy freedom to work in almost any position they choose. They join the armed forces, work as cab drivers, own businesses and become executives in large corporations” Women can now become ministers, juries, senates, and even the president “1975 — In Taylor v. Louisiana, the court denies states the right to exclude women from juries….1981 — Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed as the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice… 1997 — Madeleine Albright is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State. She is the first woman in this position.”

The Women’s Movement was a symbolic movement in achieving political and civil equality. It assisted women lifestyles in the United States, granting them equal opportunities as men. Therefore, the Equal Rights Amendment guaranteed equal rights with men and the Equal Pay Act guaranteed equal pay. But these opportunities rarely helped women since they were prohibited and discriminated from universities and communal school, young girls have to be taught at home by mothers due to the segregation from males and females. In the 1960s, organizations were predominantly constructed for women since they were driven away from society of men and can’t attend schools and colleges.

Civil rights demonstrates that all people, no matter what race, religion, color or class, are equal and have equal rights. Although the civil rights time period is a subject that is not talked about much today, it was years ago when there was a lot of segregation and discrimination. There were many African Americans who made a difference in their fight for civil rights, but not many white people tried to make that same difference. Jane Addams was one of the few white people who made this effort; she had an even bigger impact on civil rights since she was female and wealthy, along with her skin color.

Alice Paul was the leader of The National Women’s Party. She had a more militant strategy than NAWSA. She wanted to have parades, public protests, and picketed of the White House during World War One. The picketers were arrested and jailed. In jail they went on hunger strikes.