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Women's Suffrage Movement Essay

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The Women’s Suffrage Movement The Women’s Suffrage Movement began in the late 1800s. The well known movement was “a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States” (Sullivan, Onion, Mullen, 1). It was the largest single reform movement of the progressive era. It took activists and reforms nearly 100 years to win the right, and the campaign was not easy. During this time, women were not considered to be as important as men. The major issues were women's liberation, reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, and sexual harassment. They were not able to participate in any political activity. The women’s suffrage movement led women to live liberated and better lives. The Nineteenth …show more content…

At the time, most states had increased the franchise to all white men, despite how much money or property they had. At the same time, all sorts of reform groups were growing across the United States. Religious movements, moral reform societies, and anti slavery organizations played an important role. Many American women were beginning to protest against what historians have called the “Cult of True Womanhood” which means the only true woman was a wife and mother caring only for their home and family. Voting rights were proven to have been a “fraught issue since the founding of the United States, when mostly only white men were able to vote” (Kati, 1). The Fifteenth Amendment declared that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. However, women of all races at the time were still denied the right to …show more content…

A story began to surface about a woman named Virginia Minor who was known to help found the “Women’s Suffrage Association of Missouri”(Catt, 1). She attempted to register to vote in Missouri in 1872. She was turned away and decided to sue. This case eventually went to the supreme court. Her claim was unanimously rejected stating that the constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone. This verdict brought concern to suffragists and called to attention their desperate need for a constitutional amendment that stated no one could be denied access from the ballot on the basis of gender. Preparing for the 1916 vote, women began hosting parades and marches. Others walked from New York to Washington and took road trips across the

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