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Essays on Women's Suffrage

What makes a good women's suffrage essay topic.

When it comes to writing a Women's Suffrage essay, choosing the right topic is crucial. A good essay topic should be thought-provoking, engaging, and relevant to the subject matter. Here are some recommendations on how to brainstorm and choose an essay topic:

• Brainstorm: Start by brainstorming ideas related to women's suffrage, such as historical events, key figures, and societal impacts. Consider the different aspects of women's suffrage, such as political, social, and cultural factors.
• Consider the audience: Think about who will be reading your essay and what topics would resonate with them. Consider the interests and perspectives of your audience when choosing a topic.
• Relevance: Choose a topic that is relevant to the current social and political climate. Look for topics that address ongoing issues related to gender equality and women's rights.
• Uniqueness: Avoid common and overused topics. Instead, look for unique and lesser-known aspects of women's suffrage that will set your essay apart.

Best Women's Suffrage Essay Topics

When it comes to Women's Suffrage essay topics, there are plenty of options to choose from. Here are some creative and stand-out essay topics to consider:

• The role of women's suffrage in shaping modern democracy
• Intersectionality and the fight for women's suffrage
• The impact of women's suffrage on the feminist movement
• Women of color in the suffrage movement
• The global impact of women's suffrage movements
• The portrayal of women's suffrage in literature and media
• Women's suffrage and the labor movement
• Suffragettes and their role in the fight for women's rights
• The legacy of women's suffrage in contemporary politics
• Women's suffrage and the LGBTQ+ rights movement
• The role of men in the women's suffrage movement
• Women's suffrage and the fight for reproductive rights
• Indigenous women in the suffrage movement
• The impact of women's suffrage on education and academia
• Women's suffrage and the impact on family dynamics
• The role of religious institutions in the women's suffrage movement
• Women's suffrage and the fight for economic equality
• The role of grassroots activism in the women's suffrage movement
• Women's suffrage and the fight for disability rights
• The impact of women's suffrage on the global stage

Women's Suffrage essay topics Prompts

Looking for some creative prompts to inspire your Women's Suffrage essay? Here are five engaging prompts to get you started:

• Imagine you are a suffragette in the early 20th century. Write a first-person account of your experiences and motivations for fighting for women's right to vote.
• Research and write about a lesser-known figure in the women's suffrage movement and their contributions to the cause.
• How has the fight for women's suffrage influenced other social justice movements? Explore the interconnectedness of women's rights with other movements for equality.
• Choose a specific region or country and examine the unique challenges and triumphs of the women's suffrage movement in that area.
• Create a multimedia presentation that showcases the visual and material culture of the women's suffrage movement, including posters, banners, and other artifacts.

When it comes to choosing a Women's Suffrage essay topic, the possibilities are endless. By considering relevance, uniqueness, and audience perspective, you can choose a topic that will engage readers and shed new light on this important historical movement.

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Women’s suffrage is the right of women by law to vote in national or local elections.

Women were excluded from voting in ancient Greece and republican Rome, as well as in the few democracies that had emerged in Europe by the end of the 18th century. When the franchise was widened, as it was in the United Kingdom in 1832, women continued to be denied all voting rights. The question of women’s voting rights finally became an issue in the 19th century, and the struggle was particularly intense in Great Britain and the United States. By the early years of the 20th century, women had won the right to vote in national elections in New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902), Finland (1906), and Norway (1913).

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Emmeline Pankhurst, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Lucy Burns.

Saudi Arabia gave women the right to vote in 2015, leaving Vatican City as the only place where women’s suffrage is still denied today. The U.N. first explicitly named women’s suffrage as a human right in 1979. Not all suffragists were women, and not all anti-suffragists were men. Susan B. Anthony (and 15 other women) voted illegally in the presidential election of 1872

1. Ramirez, F. O., Soysal, Y., & Shanahan, S. (1997). The changing logic of political citizenship: Cross-national acquisition of women's suffrage rights, 1890 to 1990. American sociological review, 735-745. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2657357) 2. Miller, G. (2008). Women's suffrage, political responsiveness, and child survival in American history. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(3), 1287-1327. (https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/123/3/1287/1928181) 3. Smith, H. L. (2014). The British Women's Suffrage Campaign 1866-1928: Revised 2nd Edition. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315833569/british-women-suffrage-campaign-1866-1928-harold-smith) 4. Abrams, B. A., & Settle, R. F. (1999). Women's suffrage and the growth of the welfare state. Public Choice, 100(3-4), 289-300. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018312829025) 5. Rover, C. (2019). Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain, 1866–1914. In Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain, 1866–1914. University of Toronto Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.3138/9781487575250/html?lang=de) 6. McCammon, H. J., & Campbell, K. E. (2001). Winning the vote in the West: The political successes of the women's suffrage movements, 1866-1919. Gender & Society, 15(1), 55-82. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/089124301015001004?journalCode=gasa) 7. Cockroft, I., & Croft, S. (2010). Art, Theatre and Women's Suffrage. Twickenham: Aurora Metro. (https://www.thesuffragettes.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/PR-Art-Theatre.pdf) 8. Towns, A. (2010). The Inter-American Commission of Women and Women's Suffrage, 1920–1945. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/interamerican-commission-of-women-and-womens-suffrage-19201945/D6536EB4143959408AEEEF48380A29BD Journal of Latin American Studies, 42(4), 779-807.

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Home / Modernizing America, 1889-1920 / Woman Suffrage / Arguments for and Against Suffrage

Arguments for and Against Suffrage

A pair of documents that present competing arguments for and against women gaining the right to vote.

Women in the Home

New York State Woman Suffrage Association,  Women in the Home , n.d. New-York Historical Society Library.

Ballot not a Panacea for Existing Evil

Alice Hill Chittenden,  Ballot not a Panacea for Existing Evil , 1913. New-York Historical Society Library.

By 1900, the fight over woman suffrage had persisted for over half a century, and a new momentum was building as women activists rallied on both sides of the debate. But suffragists and anti-suffragists had more in common than they wished to admit. Most women actively involved in the fight were white, educated, and financially stable. Even the arguments they used were similar. Both suffragists and anti-suffragists tended to favor a traditional view of womanhood that  embraced women in the home . It was the power and importance of the vote that created the difference between these opposing views.

Instead of promoting a vision of gender equality, suffragists usually argued that the vote would enable women to be better wives and mothers. Women voters, they said, would bring their moral superiority and domestic expertise to issues of public concern. Anti-suffragists argued that the vote directly threatened domestic life. They believed that women could more effectively promote change outside of the corrupt voting booth.

For more about the arguments against suffrage, watch the video below.

This video is from “ Women Have Always Worked ,” a free massive open online course produced in collaboration with Columbia University.

About the document.

Both documents exemplify the types of materials created by suffragists and anti-suffragists to share their beliefs with a wider audience. Articles and broadsides were distributed at meetings, rallies, and parades, and displayed in meeting rooms, coffee shops, and other public places.

The first document is a pro-suffrage broadside created by the New York State Woman Suffrage Association in New York City. The second document is an anti-suffrage essay written by Alice Hill Chittenden, president of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.

• broadside: A single-sided printed piece of paper; often used as a flyer or poster.
• municipal: Connected to a city, town, or local government.
• non-partisan: Neither supporting nor representing a political party.
• panacea: A solution that will cure all problems or symptoms.
• suffrage: The right of voting; in this era, suffrage often referred specifically to woman suffrage, or the right of women to vote.
• suffragists / anti-suffragists: People who fought for or against the expansion of suffrage.
• tuberculosis: A highly contagious and deadly disease.
• unwholesome: Unhealthy.

Discussion Questions

• What are the key arguments in each of these documents? Why do suffragists want the vote? Why do anti-suffragists want to prevent the vote?
• To what extent do these documents offer a similar view of women’s roles? What does this tell you about the differences between suffragists and anti-suffragists?
• Who is the audience for these materials? What did the authors hope to accomplish?

Suggested Activities

• Dive deeply into pro-suffrage arguments. Analyze the first document in tandem with Rose O’Neill’s poster “ Together for Home and Family ” and Adella Hunt Logan’s article “ Colored Women as Voters .”
• Consider how race played a role in the suffrage movement and how Black and white suffragists differed. Compare “Women in the Home” with Adella Hunt Logan’s article “ Colored Women as Voters ,” Fannie Barrier Williams’s article “ Fannie Barrier Williams Lauds Chicago Women ,” and the life stories of  Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells .
• Compare “Women in the Home” with the  illustration from  Life  magazine depicting the evils of urban life. How do these two pieces present a case for women taking on a more active role in social and political issues?
• Dive deep into anti-suffrage arguments. Analyze this document in tandem with  the photograph of Southern anti-suffragists .
• Compare both of these documents with the life story of  Emma Goldman , who opposed suffrage for radical reasons. How were her beliefs different from the anti-suffrage arguments presented by Alice Hill Chittenden? How might she have responded to both articles?

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Women's suffrage movement.

Women's suffrage is a broad topic! As you start your research, think about what specific area of the broader topic you could focus on for your project. Once you have a more specific idea identified, it can be helpful to write a research question that will then serve as your foundation for further research. You can check out the Shapiro Library FAQs on  writing research questions  for more information.

Linked below is a research starter This link opens in a new window that can give you background information about Women's suffrage. As an encyclopedia article, the research starter is a tertiary source, like other background/reference sources. It can be a useful tool to give yourself some background knowledge on your topic and help you decide how you would like to focus your research and which keywords might be helpful. Generally speaking, tertiary sources aren't acceptable sources to use in your papers because they summarize and condense information about a topic. The original research and primary sources reference sources that are discussed and cited within the source can be a good place to start.

Take a look at the Primary Sources and Secondary Sources pages for some recommendations for library databases to further research this topic!

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Primary Source Set Women's Suffrage

The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use. If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.

Teacher’s Guide

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In July 1848, the first calls for women’s suffrage were made from a convention in Seneca Falls, New York. This convention kicked off more than seventy years of organizing, parading, fundraising, advertising, and petitioning before the 19th amendment securing this right was approved by Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures. After the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, women used the organizing skills they had honed during in the Suffrage movement to continue to fight for equality.

The passage of the 19th amendment was the result of centuries of struggle, culminating in the late 19th century in a burst of public activism and civil disobedience that not only secured voting rights for women, but also helped define new possibilities for women’s participation in the public sphere.

Early Rights

Early in the history of the United States, women in New Jersey could legally vote, provided they met property requirements. However, this changed in 1807 when the State Assembly passed a law limiting suffrage to free white males. There would not be another law explicitly giving the vote to women until 1869, when the Wyoming territory granted women over 21 years of age the right to vote in all elections.

While some states explicitly prohibited women from voting, in 1872 New York did not, opening the door for Susan B. Anthony and a small group of suffragists to register and vote. They were arrested three weeks later on a charge of “criminal voting.” Anthony was found guilty and fined $100 plus court costs.

Early Activism and Organizations

The first large gathering of those fighting for women’s rights occurred in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. One outcome of the Seneca Falls Convention was the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence that called for civil, social, political, and religious rights for women. Many of the signers of the Declaration, including Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, would go on to become the leaders of a generation of suffrage activists.

In the decades that followed the Seneca Falls Convention, formal groups were established to lead American women in their bid for voting and other rights. Well-known organizations include the National Woman Suffrage Association and would eventually unify to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. These groups lobbied for local and state voting rights in addition to working at the national level.

The Congressional Union was formed in 1913 to accelerate and intensify the fight with more radical protest methods as had been done in Britain. The National Women’s Party, formed in 1916, was an outgrowth of this organization.

Other Activities

Suffrage leaders were involved in other progressive movements before and after the Seneca Falls convention in addition to their suffrage work. Susan B. Anthony, an outspoken advocate for suffrage, was also a well-known abolitionist. Anthony and other suffragists got their start by speaking on the anti-slavery circuit. Suffragists were also interested in the dress reform movement and temperance. Additionally, Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw suffrage as a way for women to access more equal marriages through divorce rights and property rights. For suffragists, these many causes fit together. With access to the ballot came an unprecedented power to affect change for these other social issues.

Suffragist Strategies and Shortfalls

In addition to organizing formal suffrage groups and rallying at conventions and meetings, supporters of universal suffrage employed a number of other strategies. Suffrage activists exercised their First Amendment rights to “peaceably assemble” and “petition for a government redress of grievances” first using traditional strategies, including lobbying lawmakers, and then implementing more radical -- for the time -- tactics such as public picketing and refusing bail after arrest. Individuals and groups published periodicals such as The Revolution, which focused on women’s rights but also covered politics and the labor movement. Activists campaigned in ways that were considered “unladylike,” such as marching in parades and giving street corner speeches. One radical strategy that had not been tried previously was regular picketing of the White House. Protesters carried banners naming President Wilson as an opponent of suffrage. The resulting arrests only served to bring more attention to the suffrage movement. The fight for suffrage rights escalated when the United States entered World War I in April 1917 and many women moved into the workforce.

Even while suffrage organizations and leaders professed goals of greater equality, they did not always include all women. White leaders were often exclusive and discriminatory. A group of African American women’s clubs was barred from joining the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission in 1919 on the eve of the 19th Amendment’s passage. Some white suffragists argued that enfranchising women would expand the “native” voting population. Despite this open racism, African American women organized and advocated for suffrage and equality throughout the movement. Some, like Mary Church Terrell, worked closely with white leaders while advocating for racial equality. Ida B. Wells, an anti-lynching activist, organized a separate organization for African American women, the Alpha Suffrage Club. In this way, the women’s suffrage movement, tainted with racism, was a problematic as it was progressive.

Anti-Suffrage Activism

Both women and men worked to oppose universal suffrage. Some argued that women wielded enough power within the home that there was no need for the American Woman Suffrage Association, which for power in society. State and national groups such as the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage and Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage were formed to actively resist suffrage rights for women. These groups were often opposed to any role for women outside the home, fearing the downfall of the family as well as a decrease in women’s work in communities and their ability to influence societal reforms.

A Continuing Legacy

Although women’s right to vote was secured by Constitutional amendment in 1920, the legacy of the suffragists continues to the present day. In fighting for the right to vote, women formed national political organizations, developed new strategies for protest, and brought women into the public sphere in new and more visible ways. These advances were not limited to their work for enfranchisement, but also laid the groundwork for civic action that has been emulated by those working for other civil rights causes.

Suggestions for Teachers

Select items that reflect different strategies used in the fight for equal suffrage. Study the items opposing suffrage and compare strategies. If time allows, brainstorm or research to identify other strategies used in the struggle for suffrage.

Use the anti-suffrage items to identify and study the arguments made by those opposed to suffrage. Study the maps to form a picture of which states and territories enfranchised women and which did not. Speculate about why there were differences in rights in different states and areas, and then look for evidence to support the hypothesis.

Study the political cartoons and select one for further analysis. What do you think was the cartoonist’s opinion of women’s suffrage? Who do you think was the audience for the cartoon? What methods does the cartoonist use to persuade the audience? If time allows, search the Library’s collections for another political cartoon about suffrage, identify the cartoonist’s opinion about women’s suffrage, and compare the methods each cartoon uses to make its point.

Examine several items reflecting the consequences for the suffragists’ actions. What can you discover about the treatment of suffragists from these items? Ask students to think about what causes they’d be willing to fight for, knowing there might be harsh consequences.

Additional Resources

By Popular Demand: “Votes for Women” Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920

Women's Suffrage Idea Book for Educators from HISTORY

Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote

National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection

Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman’s Party

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Series: Essays: Overview of Women's Suffrage

Women in America collectively organized in 1848 at the First Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY to fight for suffrage (or voting rights). Over the next seventy years, not everyone followed the same path in fighting for women's equal access to the vote. The history of the suffrage movement is one of disagreements as well as cooperation. Explore this essay series to learn more about the women's suffrage movement and the legacy of the 19th Amendment.

Article 1: Introduction: Women's Suffrage

In 1848 women and men met in Seneca Falls, New York to advance the cause for women’s rights. Learn more about convention organizers Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony and how they started the women's suffrage movement. Read more

Article 2: Ratification: Women's Suffrage

Discover the story behind the ratification of the 19th Amendment and how it empowered women in America. Read more

Article 3: In the Press: Women's Suffrage

Explore how the debate for women's suffrage played out in newspapers across America. Read more

Article 4: Anti-Suffragists: Women's Suffrage

Find out why some women and men were against women's suffrage. Read more

Article 5: Who was excluded?: Women's Suffrage

Not all women shared the same freedom to vote after the passage of the 19th Amendment. Find out why. Read more

Article 6: What happened after?: Women's History

Find out what happened after the passage of the 19th Amendment. Read more

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Article contents

The woman suffrage movement in the united states.

• Rebecca J. Mead Rebecca J. Mead Department of History, Northern Michigan University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.17
• Published online: 28 March 2018

Woman suffragists in the United States engaged in a sustained, difficult, and multigenerational struggle: seventy-two years elapsed between the Seneca Falls convention (1848) and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment (1920). During these years, activists gained confidence, developed skills, mobilized resources, learned to maneuver through the political process, and built a social movement. This essay describes key turning points and addresses internal tensions as well as external obstacles in the U.S. woman suffrage movement. It identifies important strategic, tactical, and rhetorical approaches that supported women’s claims for the vote and influenced public opinion, and shows how the movement was deeply connected to contemporaneous social, economic, and political contexts.

• woman suffrage
• voting rights
• women’s rights
• women’s movements
• constitutional amendments

Winning woman suffrage in the United States was a long, arduous process that required the dedication and hard work of several generations of women. Before the Civil War, most activists were radical pioneers frequently involved in the antislavery or other reform movements. Later, educational advances and the growth of the women’s-club movement mobilized large numbers of middle-class women, while wage work and trade-union participation galvanized working-class women. In the early 20th century , woman suffrage became a mass movement that effectively utilized modern publicity and outreach methods. Woman suffrage was never a “gift.” Skillful organization, mobilization, and activism were required to build a powerful social movement and achieve the long-sought goal.

Woman suffrage was a radical idea in the 19th century . Suffrage for non-elite white men was still limited in most countries and became the norm in the United States only in the decades before the Civil War—a time when women and people of color were considered deficient in the rational capacities and independent judgment necessary for responsible citizenship. Woman suffrage challenged the legal principle of coverture, which subsumed a married woman’s political and economic identity into her husband’s; it also challenged dominant gender roles that confined women to the domestic sphere. Additionally, suffragists often associated themselves with other radical or reformist political groups who supported the demand as a basic right, a strategy for enhancing democracy, or a practical way to gain allies.

Women’s Status and Women’s Rights in the New Republic

Prior to the American Revolution, property restrictions limited even white male suffrage. Yet some colonial women voted if they paid taxes, owned property, or functioned as independent heads of households, although this was uncommon. The idea of universal suffrage (i.e., voting rights for all citizens) arose from the democratic ideology of the Enlightenment. Revolutionary rhetoric did not automatically result in equal citizenship rights, but it did provide powerful philosophical arguments that supported future struggles. In 1776 , New Jersey enfranchised “all inhabitants” who were worth “fifty pounds” and had resided in the county for a year prior to an election. Coverture still prevented married New Jersey women from voting. But especially after 1797 , unmarried women voted with enough frequency to generate complaints about “petticoat electors” who played critical roles in contested elections, and in 1807 New Jersey disenfranchised women altogether as well as African Americans and aliens. 1

The American Revolution gave rise to the ideal of the “Republican Mother” who educated her children to become future citizens and exerted beneficial moral influences within her family, an ideal that ultimately held important implications for citizenship and voting. To meet the new country’s need for responsible citizens, many schools were established for women (although they did not meet the standards of comparable men’s schools), while the expansion of public elementary education increased the demand for female teachers. By definition, women farmers, slaves, textile-mill operatives, and indigents could not meet emerging middle-class norms of female domesticity. 2

Rapid economic, political, and social change exacerbated prostitution, excessive alcohol consumption, and other problems associated with poverty, particularly in the urbanizing northeast. In response, some urban middle-class women became involved in “moral reform” societies, the most significant of which was the antislavery movement. Both white and African American abolitionist women formed female antislavery societies, but they were criticized when they assumed public roles. Most famously, when Sarah and Angelina Grimké, the transplanted daughters of a slave owner, began to speak before large mixed-race and mixed-sex (“promiscuous”) audiences, they were harshly, even violently, attacked. When the Massachusetts Council of Congregational Ministers issued a pastoral letter in 1837 denouncing their behavior as unwomanly, the sisters responded by defending equality of conscience, emphasizing the importance of female participation in the abolitionist movement, and drawing parallels between slavery and the disadvantaged status of women. 3

The Seneca Falls Convention and the Beginnings of an Organized Women’s Movement

Elizabeth Cady was already deeply embedded in various reform networks in upstate New York when she married fellow activist Henry Stanton and accompanied him to London to attend the World Anti-Slavery Conference in 1840 . At the meeting, a fierce debate erupted over seating female delegates, and the women were forced to retreat to the gallery, where William Lloyd Garrison, the most prominent and radical of the American abolitionists, joined them in protest. Furious, Stanton discussed this injustice with another attendee, Quaker reformer Lucretia Mott, and the two conceived the idea of holding a women’s-rights convention. For the next few years, Stanton was preoccupied with her growing family, but she and Mott met again in 1848 and decided to organize a women’s-rights convention in the small town of Seneca Falls. They placed an announcement in the local newspaper and were astonished when 300 people showed up (including 40 men, most notably Frederick Douglass, a former slave and the country’s most prominent black abolitionist). Stanton opened the meeting by reading the “Declaration of Sentiments,” a document she had prepared by adapting the Declaration of Independence to address women’s issues. Stanton listed many grievances, including lack of access to education, employment opportunities, and an independent political voice for women. Companion resolutions were all approved unanimously except the demand for woman suffrage, which passed by a small margin after a vigorous discussion. The convention at Seneca Falls is traditionally seen as the beginning of the American women’s-rights movement, as well as launching Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s long career as its premier intellectual force. The enthusiasm generated at Seneca Falls quickly led to more women’s-rights conventions. Beginning in 1850 , similar gatherings were held nearly every year of the decade. 4

Conventions and new women’s-rights publications, including The Lily (Amelia Bloomer) and The Una (Paulina Wright Davis), helped activists stay in contact, discuss ideas, develop leadership skills, gain publicity, and attract new recruits, including Susan B. Anthony, a Quaker, temperance activist, and abolitionist. Initial efforts focused on convincing state legislatures to rectify married women’s legal disadvantages with regard to property rights, child guardianship, and divorce. In 1854 , Anthony traveled throughout New York State, organized a petition drive, planned a women’s-rights convention, and secured a hearing before the legislature that was addressed by Stanton. Thus Anthony and Stanton began their fifty-year partnership.

1a. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, ca 1891. Their partnership lasted for over 50 years, although neither lived to see the final accomplishment of their goal.

1b. “The Apotheosis of Suffrage” (1896). Stanton and Anthony’s founding role in the women rights movements is acknowledged by their elevation to the national pantheon by their NAWSA colleagues.

Other important early white activists included Lucy Stone, Abby Kelley Foster, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Clarina Howard Nichols, and Frances Gage. Important African American suffragists included Sojourner Truth, Sarah Redmond, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Amelia Shadd, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Harriet Forten Purvis, Charlotte Forten, and Margaretta Forten. 5 The early women’s-rights movement included both black and white activists, yet relations sometimes became tense when white women ignored or appropriated African American experiences to suit their own purposes. For example, at a women’s-rights convention in 1851 , Sojourner Truth made brief remarks describing the hard work of slave women and citing religious examples to support women’s rights. Some accounts report resistance to allowing Truth to speak and introducing slavery references, but convention president Frances Gage intervened. Gage subsequently edited and reported Truth’s speech in the form of the famous “Ain’t I a Woman” version, which is problematic in its use of dialect and other editorial interventions. 6 After the Civil War, connections between race and gender equity became more problematic as racial attitudes hardened. Racial violence escalated during Reconstruction and continued for decades, while legal discrimination became firmly entrenched, legitimated by scientific racialist theories.

Reconstruction, Civil Rights, and Woman Suffrage

Women’s-rights advocates interrupted their efforts during the Civil War to concentrate on war work, but subsequent debates over the Reconstruction Amendments created new opportunities to reintroduce demands for women’s enfranchisement. Woman suffragists objected strenuously when the Fourteenth Amendment defined national citizenship and voting requirements by introducing the word “male” into the Constitution for the first time. The Fifteenth Amendment established the right of freed black men to vote, but failed to extend the vote to any women, creating a controversy that split the suffrage movement. Some suffragists, including Lucy Stone, her husband and fellow reformer Henry Blackwell, and most (but not all) prominent black activists supported the Fifteenth Amendment, arguing that black men needed the vote more urgently than women did, and expressing concerns that woman suffrage might prevent the amendment from passing. Stanton and Anthony vehemently disagreed and publicly opposed the amendment as they continued to demand universal suffrage. The American Equal Rights Association (AERA), organized in 1866 to promote both causes, supported the Reconstruction Amendments, and proposed the submission of a separate woman-suffrage amendment, first introduced as a Senate resolution in December 1868 . 7

In 1867 , the AERA became involved in two Kansas state suffrage referenda relating to woman and African American suffrage amendments. Stone, Blackwell, Stanton, and Anthony all actively participated, but the growing rift among suffragists soon became evident. The AERA tried to link the issues of black and women’s rights, but suffragists were disappointed when the Republican Party publicly opposed the woman-suffrage referendum. Stanton and Anthony’s overtures to dissenting Democrats—especially George Francis Train, an Irish Democrat, controversial financier, and outspoken racist, generated additional controversy. After a bitter struggle, the Kansas referenda for woman and black suffrage both failed. This crucial campaign effectively severed the connection between voting rights for blacks and women. 8

Convinced by their Kansas experiences that male political support was unreliable, Stanton and Anthony established the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), an independent women’s-rights organization under female leadership, in 1869 . Several months later, Stone, Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and others established the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Initially these two groups pursued different strategies. A federal woman-suffrage amendment seemed unlikely to pass, so the AWSA concentrated on changing state constitutions. The NWSA articulated a broader women’s-rights agenda and sought suffrage at the federal level. The two organizations worked independently until they merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890 . Each group published a women’s-rights journal. With Train’s financial backing, Anthony founded The Revolution early in 1868 and published many articles related to the problems of working women, prostitution, the sexual double standard, discriminatory divorce laws, criticisms of established religion, and denunciations of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Revolution was very influential but unable to compete with the Woman’s Journal , introduced by the AWSA in 1870 . Although the Woman’s Journal was widely read until it ceased publication in 1931 , it was only one of many women’s-rights periodicals published during this period. 9

As part of its federal strategy, the NWSA also proposed a bold reinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, the “New Departure,” arguing that suffrage was a right of national citizenship and since women were citizens they should be able to vote. The Revolution urged women to go to their local polls and use the New Departure argument to try to vote, and a few succeeded. Anthony’s own attempt led to her trial and conviction for violating election laws, but she was not punished (except for a $50 fine, which she refused to pay), eliminating the possibility of legal appeal. In 1875 , the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the New Departure, reasoning in Minor v. Happersett . A Missouri suffrage leader, Virginia Minor, had sued the state for the right to vote, but the court unanimously held that while Minor was indeed a citizen, the right to vote was not one of the “privileges and immunities” that the Constitution granted to citizens. 10

The national woman-suffrage organizations were influential, but there were many independent, often regional, journalists and activists who addressed women’s rights during the postwar period. Few were as colorful or sensational as Victoria Woodhull, who addressed the House Judiciary Committee in 1871 —the first woman ever to do so—and made powerful constitutional arguments that persuaded a minority of representatives. Both Woodhull and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, aroused controversy. At various times one or both were journalists, stockbrokers, Spiritualists, and labor activists, but Woodhull’s public advocacy of “free love” generated the most vehement criticism. Her basic position was that the right to divorce, remarry, and bear children should be individual decisions, but most of her contemporaries considered these ideas quite scandalous. Woodhull ran for president in 1872 as the nominee of the Equal Rights party, the first woman to do so. Initially Woodhull received some support from other suffragists, but as her notoriety grew, so did suffragists’ concerns about being compromised by association, and many began to repudiate or distance themselves from her ideas and activities (at least in public). 11

Social Change, Women’s Organizations, and Suffrage in the Late 19th Century

Many women became interested in suffrage through their membership in other activities and organizations, especially as a result of the rapid growth of the women’s-club movement. When the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) was established in 1890 , it represented 200 groups and 20,000 women; by 1900 , the GFWC claimed 150,000 members. Often initiated for educational or cultural purposes, discussions frequently turned to social issues such as child welfare, temperance, poverty, and public health. Women who became interested in reform soon realized that they had little political influence without the vote. The GFWC did not officially endorse suffrage until 1914 , however, because the diversity of its constituent groups made the subject contentious and consensus difficult.

African American clubwomen, barred from membership in white women’s organizations, formed the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 . In addition to community work and suffrage agitation, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Church Terrell, and other prominent black women challenged contemporary negative stereotypes about African Americans and worked to increase public awareness of racial segregation, disfranchisement, and violence.

2. Ida B. Wells-Barnett (L) and Mary Church Terrell (R). Both women were prominent African American journalists and activists. Both were founding members of the NAACP and active in NAWSA. Among their many achievements, Wells-Barnett established the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, while Terrell was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women.

Many white women were indifferent to these issues, however, and some openly expressed the prejudices of the dominant society in their exclusionary rhetoric and organizational policies. 12

The largest of the many new national women’s organizations was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), established in 1874 . Under the dynamic leadership of Frances Willard, the WCTU emphasized the impact of alcohol abuse on women and families in its agenda of “home protection,” but quickly adopted a much broader social-welfare program, established alliances with labor and reform groups, and supported woman suffrage as a means to achieve its goals. Liquor-control efforts provoked powerful opposition, leading many woman suffragists to distance themselves publicly from the temperance movement even as they appreciated the dedication of WCTU suffragists. 13

The expansion of women’s opportunities for higher education provided another catalyst for suffrage activism. In addition to the many public agricultural and technical colleges established under the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Act, the establishment of a number of private women’s colleges began with Vassar in 1861 . Believing that education would be the key to women’s advancement, founders and administrators set high standards and offered curricula very similar to those at men’s institutions. After graduation, many women who found themselves largely excluded from professional training and employment opportunities channeled their skills and energies into civic engagement and social reform, especially with the rapid expansion of the American settlement house movement after the establishment of Hull House in Chicago in 1889 . As community centers located in poor neighborhoods, settlement houses offered a variety of classes and services, but when social workers realized that their efforts alone could not eradicate problems related to chronic poverty, many became active in reform politics. In addition, new protective and industrial associations tried to help impoverished working women living alone in the cities. While middle-class moral judgments often alienated their intended beneficiaries, these efforts began to establish ties with working-class constituencies and labor organizations that would eventually gain support for woman suffrage. 14

As industrial development, urbanization, and immigration increased, the growing numbers of women in the work force provided new arguments for woman suffrage. Working men understood that few working-class women could depend upon adequate male support, but they were hostile to low-wage female competition because it undermined their own abilities to fulfill the dominant male gender role of family breadwinner. The skilled trades and craft unions discouraged or discriminated against women, although the more progressive Knights of Labor included minorities and women. Urban working-class men were understandably reluctant to grant more power to middle-class women who condemned them as dirty, drunken immigrants and/or violent radicals. Their opposition defeated many state campaigns until working-class suffragists began to characterize the vote as a way to protect female wage earners and to empower the working class as a whole. 15

These socioeconomic and political developments would eventually strengthen support for woman suffrage, but suffragists still faced enormous difficulties. Small, poorly funded groups gathered signatures on petitions and lobbied state legislators to authorize public referenda on the right of women to vote. When successful, they faced the daunting challenge of organizing a statewide campaign. Many suffragists were politically inexperienced and criticized for violating prescriptive gender norms, but over time they built organizations, developed management and leadership skills, articulated effective arguments, and learned to maneuver through the political system. They experienced many disappointing defeats in the process: between 1870 and 1910 , seventeen states held referenda on woman suffrage, but most failed. By 1911 , only twenty-nine states allowed some form of partial woman suffrage: school, tax, bond, municipal, primary, or presidential. Partial suffrage was better than nothing, but it reduced the pressure for full suffrage and did not always motivate women to vote; when women did not turn out to vote, opponents asserted that they were not interested in politics. 16

Women Win the Vote in the West

Reviewing the record in 1916 , NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt counted 480 state legislative campaigns and forty-one state referenda resulting in only nine state or territorial victories, all in the western United States. 17 Indeed, by the end of 1914 , almost every western state and territory had enfranchised its female citizens.

3. “The Awakening” by Henry Mayer (1915). This poster highlights the significance of the western woman suffrage state victories, which enfranchised four million women in the region and established important examples and precedents.

These western successes stand in profound contrast to the east, where few women voted until after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment ( 1920 ), and to the South, where no women could vote and most African American men were effectively disfranchised. Early explanations attributed this unusual history to a putative “frontier” effect (a combination of greater female freedom and respect for women’s contributions to regional development), or western boosterism (efforts to attract settlers), but these reasons are too simplistic. 18 Western women gained the right to vote largely due to the unsettled state of regional politics, the complex nature of race relations, broad alliances between suffragists and farmer-labor-progressive reformers, and sophisticated activism by western women. The success of woman suffrage required building a strong movement, but it was inseparable from the larger political environment, and the west provided suffragists with unusual opportunities. 19

Initially the territorial status of most western areas gave Congress and tiny territorial legislatures the power to decide who could vote. Every application for statehood required a proposed constitution, and the process always involved debates about voting qualifications. Wyoming Territory surprised the nation by adopting woman suffrage in 1869 , although its reasons for doing so remain unclear since there were some dedicated individuals, but no organized movement and little prior discussion. Most likely, the Democratic legislature hoped to embarrass the Republican governor, who signed the bill partly in deference to his wife. In Utah woman suffrage became entangled in the polygamy controversy. Determined to abolish this practice, some Republicans in the U.S. Congress suggested the enfranchisement of Utah women so that they could vote against polygamy. State Democratic Mormon politicians believed correctly that Utah women would vote to support polygamy and authorized woman suffrage in 1870 . In 1887 , Congress punitively disfranchised all Utah voters until the Mormons repudiated polygamy in 1890 , and the church leadership capitulated. The men of Utah were re-enfranchised in 1893 , but women had to wait until statehood in 1896 . In 1883 , the Washington territorial legislature passed a woman suffrage with bipartisan support, as an experiment which could be corrected, if necessary, when Washington became a state. Feeling threatened, vice and liquor interests organized a series of court challenges until the territorial supreme court finally dismissed the law in 1888 . Delegates to the 1889 constitutional convention refused to include the provision because they feared rejection by Congress, but the convention authorized separate suffrage and prohibition referenda on the ratification ballot. Organizers had little time to prepare for statewide campaigns, and both measures met firm defeat. 20

In the 1890s, the rise of the Populist movement provided the context for the first two successful state referenda in Colorado ( 1893 ) and Idaho ( 1896 ). Largely characterized as a western agrarian insurgency advocating an anti-monopoly and democratization agenda, Populism arose from predecessor organizations, such as the Grange and the Farmers Alliances, in which women were actively involved. At the state level, Populist suffragists had some success convincing their colleagues, but at the national level Populists sacrificed their more radical demands to gain broader support, especially after they merged with the Democratic Party in 1896 . Woman suffrage referenda failed in South Dakota in 1890 , and in Kansas and Washington in 1894 despite energetic efforts. NAWSA organizer Carrie Chapman Catt rose to national prominence as a result of her work in the 1893 Colorado campaign, and in 1896 , Susan B. Anthony personally took charge in California. During these campaigns, Anthony and other suffragists made strenuous and sometimes successful efforts to gain endorsements from political parties, but they already knew from bitter experience that unless all the parties supported the measure, the issue of woman suffrage succumbed to divisive partisanship. 21

Challenges and Opportunities at the Turn of the Century

These disappointments had a chilling effect on the suffrage movement leading to a period sometimes described as “the doldrums.” The older first-generation radicals passed on (Stanton died in 1902 , Anthony in 1906 ), and most of the younger leaders (e.g., Rachel Foster Avery, May Wright Sewall, and Harriet Taylor Upton)—privileged women who shared prevailing notions about proper female behavior and resisted radical public-outreach methods—failed to bring innovative new ideas and strategies to the movement. They also alienated key constituencies by complaining publicly that they could not vote but “inferior” (racial-ethnic, working-class, immigrant) men could. Suffrage leaders used economic arguments focused on the growing population of “self-supporting women,” but they rarely cooperated with working-class women and usually chose avoidance or discrimination over collaboration with African American suffragist colleagues. 22

In the 1890s, NASWA turned its attention to the South. Activists in that region’s nascent movement argued that enfranchising white women would provide a gentler way to maintain white supremacy than the harsh measures being implemented to disfranchise African American men. Anti-black sentiments had marred the suffrage movement for many years. Indeed, Southern suffragists like Kate Gordon and Laura Clay protested that the presence of African American women in the suffrage movement undermined their strategy of enfranchising and mobilizing white women to outvote African Americans in order to preserve white hegemony. Personally uncomfortable with these attitudes, Anthony endeavored to keep the race issue separate from woman suffrage, but she did so by reluctantly endorsing “educated suffrage” (i.e., literacy qualifications) and rejecting appeals for help from black suffragists. She even asked her old friend, Frederick Douglass, not to attend the 1895 NAWSA convention in Atlanta for fear of offending southern suffragists. In New Orleans in 1903 , the NAWSA convention excluded black suffragists and approved of literacy requirements, though it was already clear that this “southern strategy” was not working. In the 1890s, southern states passed many measures to disfranchise black men but firmly rejected woman suffrage even with literacy and other restrictions attached. NAWSA retreated from blatant racism and from hopeless Southern state campaigns, but continued to tolerate segregationist policies within the organization and blocked efforts to address issues of racial injustice. NAWSA’s racist practices persisted throughout the struggle for a federal woman suffrage amendment and into the ratification process partly due to the difficulty of overcoming the implacable opposition of conservative states’ rights Southern politicians. 23

During the 1890s, state anti-suffrage organizations began to form, and the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS) was established in New York in 1911 . Suffragists routinely blamed their losses on the “liquor interests” (although political bosses and manufacturers also worried about the consequences of enfranchising reform-minded women) and dismissed women who opposed suffrage as pawns of these interests, but this was not always the case. Some female anti-suffragists supported reform more broadly, belonged to the same clubs as suffragists, and adopted many of the same innovative public-outreach and mass-marketing techniques. Yet many anti-suffragists opposed enfranchisement because they believed that direct female engagement in the dirty business of party politics and voting would deprive women of their claims to moral superiority and nonpartisanship. 24

Modern Suffragists and the Progressive Movement

By 1900 , a new generation of suffragists was growing impatient with what they perceived as timid leaders and tired, ineffective methods and began to employ more assertive public tactics. It was a period of massive political discontent throughout the entire country as many people felt disoriented by rapid modernization and concerned about its consequences. Ideas that had seemed too radical or regional when articulated by Populists in the 1890s now found mainstream support among middle-class urbanites involved in the Progressive reform movement. In the 1890s, Populism failed as a national political force, but it remained influential locally and regionally and appeared, reincarnated, in western Progressivism. 25 Although similar developments were occurring in the east, politically innovative western environments once again contributed to suffrage success. The breakthrough suffrage victories occurred in Washington state ( 1910 ) and California ( 1911 ), quickly followed by Oregon and Arizona ( 1912 ), and Nevada and Montana ( 1914 ). In Washington state, NAWSA organizer Emma Smith DeVoe became the leader of the state organization. DeVoe stressed the importance of good publicity and systematic canvassing while insisting upon ladylike decorum. Suffragists attended meetings of churches and ethnic associations and won endorsements from farmer and labor groups, often through the activism of working-class women. Those who rejected DeVoe’s leadership or moderate approach worked independently, often organizing parades and large public meetings. In 1910 , the referendum passed in every county and city in Washington state, breathing new life into the movement. 26

In California, where a strong progressive political insurgency won the referendum in 1911 , suffragists organized a massive public campaign. They held large public rallies, used automobiles to give speeches on street corners and in front of factories, produced a flood of printed material utilizing striking designs and colors, and coordinated professional press work. Working-class women organized their own suffrage group, the Wage Earners Suffrage League, while Chinese, Italian, African American, and Latina suffragists also worked within their communities. The NAWSA provided foreign-language literature generated locally by the members of the College Equal Suffrage League. Members of the WCTU worked vigorously but quietly. On election day, volunteers carefully watched polling places to discourage fraud, then held their breath for two days until they learned that the measure had passed by a mere 3,587 votes. They realized that victory would not have been possible without an impressive increase in urban working-class support since the last failed referendum in 1896 . 27

These new campaign tactics were quickly adopted by suffragists in other western states, frequently causing tensions between cautious older women and younger activists. In Oregon, for example, the region’s pioneer veteran suffragist, Abigail Scott Duniway, rejected public campaigns, arguing that they alerted and mobilized powerful opponents (mainly the liquor and vice interests). She insisted upon what she called the “still hunt” approach: quiet lobbying and speaking to groups to gain endorsements. Duniway also antagonized WCTU activists by insisting on a strict separation between suffrage and prohibition, especially if both measures were on the same ballot.

In 1902 , Oregon was the second state to adopt the initiative, a Progressive reform that allowed reformers to bypass uncooperative legislature and place measures directly on the ballot. Oregon suffragists subsequently utilized this process to place woman suffrage before voters every two years, but it did not pass until 1912 after frustrated younger women finally wrested control of the state organization from Duniway and implemented the modern model. 28

By 1915 , all western states and territories except New Mexico had adopted woman suffrage. These successes validated the efficacy of dramatic new tactics and created four million new women voters who could be enlisted to support the revived struggle for the federal amendment. In addition, many experienced western suffragists headed east, where similar developments were occurring, most notably in the rise of the National Woman’s Party, but where the opposition was also better organized and funded.

Catalyzed by the Progressive impetus and the excitement surrounding the 1912 presidential campaign, six states held suffrage referenda that year. Three western successes in Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona were counterbalanced by defeats in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan. In Ohio, the “liquor interests” publicly boasted of defeating the measure; failure in Wisconsin was also attributed to the opposition of the state’s important brewing industry. In Michigan, massive electoral irregularities turned initial reports of victory into a loss (by only 760 votes). In 1914 , two western states approved woman suffrage (Montana and Nevada), but in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, and Ohio, hard-fought campaigns resulted in defeat. In 1915 , there were referenda in four major eastern states, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. If any of these large, urbanized, industrial states passed the measure, the eastern stalemate would be broken, but all failed in spite of massive efforts. The opposition seemed insurmountable in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, where state laws prohibited immediate resubmission, thus suffragists focused on New York, the most heavily industrialized, urbanized, and populated state, and the one with more representatives in Congress than any of the others. 29

The NAWSA Struggles to Keep Up

The still quite frequent assertion that the U.S. suffrage movement was languishing in “the doldrums” during these years rests partly on unquestioned and erroneous assumptions that “the suffrage movement” means events in the east and the activities of the NAWSA. Indeed, the NAWSA leadership seemed to lack the ability to develop more successful strategies and tactics, could not consolidate or focus the energies and innovations of the new generation of suffragists, and were often resistant or openly hostile to their ideas and methods. When Anthony relinquished the NAWSA presidency in 1900 , two women emerged as potential successors, Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw. For several years, Catt had urged major administrative changes and systematic campaign plans coordinated by a strong central state organization under national supervision. Shaw was an old friend of Anthony who had overcome an impoverished background to earn divinity and medical degrees. She has often been described as a brilliant orator but a poor administrator, but a recent study has challenged this conclusion (while not completely overturning it) by noting that this judgment reflects biases in the original sources and overlooks the growth and diversification of the NAWSA membership, its increasingly sophisticated organizational structure, improved fund-raising techniques, and other significant developments during the decade of Shaw’s leadership. 30 Shaw succeeded Catt as president in 1904 when family health issues forced Catt to “retire,” but she remained actively involved in the international suffrage movement and later reestablished herself on the national scene through her work in New York state.

Transnational connections and influences had been important from the earliest days of the movement. In 1888 , American leaders established the International Council of Women (ICW) hoping to promote international suffrage activism, but were disappointed because the organization avoided controversial issues (like suffrage) to focus on moral reform and pacifism. In 1902 , Catt and other frustrated suffragists established the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA). The topic of transnational suffrage activism has received significant scholarly attention recently, revealing extensive and dynamic connections among suffragists worldwide from the mid-1800s well into the 20th century . 31

By the time Catt returned to the U.S. movement in New York in 1909 , she observed many promising developments, especially the growing numbers of women at work and involved in various social-reform activities. Suffragists used affiliations with labor unions and reform groups to form cross-class suffrage coalitions and to appeal to urban working-class voters. They largely abandoned elitist, nativist, and racist rhetoric (at least in public) and emphasized arguments that linked political rights and economic justice for women of all classes. In New York, Harriot Stanton Blatch (Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter) formed the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women in 1907 , which included experienced women trade unionists and suffragists like Leonora O’Reilly and Rosa Schneiderman. Blatch, a suffragist with strong labor and socialist sympathies, had previously lived in England and formed close associations with the British suffragettes. American suffragists consciously repudiated British militancy and violence, however, preferring clever, creative, and colorful activities that gained public attention and sympathy, like the annual suffrage parades Blatch began organizing in 1910 .

4. Suffrage parade in New York City, 23 Oct. 1915. In the early 1900s, the struggle for woman suffrage became a mass and public movement. Suffragists organized highly visible and colorful events, such as this pre-referendum parade in which 20,000 women marched in clear order to send a clear message of their determined purpose.

The basic demand for equal economic justice did not eliminate internal class conflict, however. Late in 1910 , the Equality League became the Women’s Political Union (WPU), indicating a shift to elite leadership and increasing British influence. In 1911 , O’Reilly left to form a separate Wage Earners’ League for Woman Suffrage. 32

In 1909 , Catt formed the Woman Suffrage Party (WSP) hoping to channel these energies and coordinate the movement under her direction. She soon controlled the state association and consolidated most of the state suffrage groups (with the notable exception of the WPU). After an intense lobbying effort, the legislature authorized a referendum vote in 1915 , and the suffragists mounted a huge campaign over the next ten months. They held thousands of outdoor meetings and events, targeted outreach to crucial constituencies, and flooded the state with literature. Catt’s plans included systematic door-to-door canvassing, which eventually reached over half the state’s voters. On election day, the measure lost by a narrow margin, but within days suffragists raised $100,000 and began the work all over again. After another massive campaign, woman suffrage passed in New York in 1917 by over 100,000 votes. The same year, seven states, including Arkansas, granted some form of partial suffrage. In 1918 , woman-suffrage referenda passed in Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma. The eastern blockade was broken, and the South had begun to crack. 33

While Catt exercised masterful managerial and strategic skills in New York, the NAWSA was having trouble keeping up, and Shaw came under increasing criticism from her NAWSA colleagues. Prominent suffragists such as Katherine McCormick, Harriet Laidlaw, and Jane Addams attempted to fill the perceived leadership gap, but many believed that Catt was the only one with the organizational skills to rescue what she herself described as a “bankrupt concern.” Catt resumed the NAWSA presidency in 1915 and began implementing her ideas for bureaucratic reorganization, legislative and partisan lobbying, and systematic campaigning. The previous year, Catt had secretly introduced her “Winning Plan,” which included winning a few targeted campaigns in the east and South under national direction, gaining party endorsements, and renewing the struggle for a federal amendment. Women voters were instructed to lobby their legislators; suffragists in states where referenda successes were considered possible were to coordinate their efforts under national direction; and the goal in the South was some form of partial suffrage. 34 None of these were new ideas, but Catt brought them together in this master plan, which she eventually implemented with remarkable success, but her hostility to militancy, independent activism, and rival leaders intensified when confronted with a dynamic new force, Alice Paul.

Alice Paul and the Congressional Union

Paul did not single-handedly reinvigorate a moribund U.S. suffrage movement, but she was a brilliant organizer and an inspiring leader who soon attracted a cadre of radical and committed activists frustrated by the apparent conservatism and inefficacy of the NAWSA leadership. Determined to win the federal amendment, they aimed to make life miserable for politicians until they achieved their objective. Paul learned this strategy from the British suffragettes during her involvement with them and transplanted it to the United States. As a Quaker, however, Paul rejected their violent tactics and developed other provocative and militant methods. She had an extraordinary talent for organizing highly public suffrage events. Her spirit was contagious and her goal compelling even for mainstream suffragists opposed to radical tactics.

Early in 1913 , Paul and her friend Lucy Burns revived the NAWSA’s quiescent Congressional Committee, initially with that organization’s blessing, but controversy and schism soon followed. Within two months of their arrival in Washington, DC, they had organized a massive suffrage parade, held on March 3, the day before Woodrow Wilson’s presidential inauguration. When the marchers were attacked by a mob and the police failed to protect them, the suffrage movement gained massive publicity and considerable sympathy. In April, Paul and Burns formed an independent organization, the Congressional Union (CU), quickly gathered 200,000 signatures on petitions, and started lobbying President Wilson and other prominent politicians. Paul lost her position as chair of the NAWSA Congressional Committee at the 1913 convention because she defied the national leadership’s efforts to tame her, and she rejected all subsequent reconciliatory approaches. 35

The split deepened when the CU implemented the British suffragette policy of “holding the party in power responsible” by sending organizers into nine western states to persuade women voters to oppose Democratic candidates during the 1914 election. Although politicians insisted that this effort had no impact on their campaigns, half of them lost, and soon thereafter woman suffrage was reintroduced in Congress for the first time in two decades. The proposed Shafroth-Palmer Amendment was not the “Anthony Amendment,” however, which since 1878 had simply stated that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” The Shafroth-Palmer Amendment defined woman suffrage as a “states’ rights” issue, dictated a return to arduous state campaigns (which had largely been unsuccessful), and allowed discrimination against black women. The current NAWSA Congressional Committee chair, Hannah McCormick, endorsed it without consulting the organization’s board, and the proposal received some support from suffragists who saw no alternative to compromise with the Southern states’ rights bloc in Congress. Most suffragists rejected it, however, and continued to demand action at the federal level. After formally organizing the National Woman’s Party (NWP), Paul’s group reprised their attacks on western Democrats in the 1916 election.

5. “Women of Colorado” (1916). One of the first efforts of the NWP was to “hold the party in power” (i.e., the Democrats) responsible for lack of progress on the woman suffrage amendment. In 1914, their efforts to persuade western women voters to vote against the Democratic party were not very effective, but frightened politicians soon moved the amendment forward in Congress. In 1916, the NWP repeated this operation and posted this billboard.

This tactic infuriated Catt since it undermined her efforts to lobby politicians to gain their support. 36

Suffrage during World War I

When the United States entered the war in April 1917 , neither organization abandoned the suffrage struggle. In spite of earlier pacifist activism by Catt and others, the NAWSA urged women to engage in both war work and suffrage agitation, hoping that patriotic efforts would gain additional public support for the cause. The NWP concentrated exclusively on suffrage, continued using militant tactics, and introduced propaganda ridiculing claims that America could fight for democracy while denying women at home the right to vote. Most famously, in January 1917 the NWP began silent picketing outside the White House. Initially tolerated by the Wilson administration, harassment and violence by onlookers escalated, and in June arrests of the picketers began, ultimately affecting 218 women.

6. Picketing the White House. By August 1917, the Congressional Union (later the NWP) had been silently picketing the White House since January, tensions were running high, and crowd attacks on picketers increased. Arrests had begun in June, followed by months-long prison sentences, for the charge of “obstructing traffic.”

At first, charges were dismissed or sentences minimal, but penalties increased over the next few months. Some of the women began hunger strikes to protest the heavy punishment, bad conditions, and brutal treatment in prison; in response, authorities subjected them to forced feeding. Faced with terrible publicity, officials finally released all picketers in late November. That fall, both houses of Congress began to move toward voting on a federal amendment. By this time, all suffragists were focused intently on the federal amendment, but the NWP activists made it clear that they were not going to stop until they got it or died trying. 37

Women’s contributions to national war efforts did affect public opinion, but female enfranchisement did not follow immediately or easily. In January 1918 , President Wilson endorsed suffrage the day before the House of Representatives would vote again on the federal amendment, but the outcome was highly uncertain. Great efforts were made to guarantee every positive vote: several ailing representatives dragged themselves or were carried in, while another left his wife’s deathbed (at her urging), then returned for her funeral. Three roll calls were necessary to establish that the measure had passed with exactly the required two-thirds majority, supported by a significant number of western congressmen responding to pressure from enfranchised female constituents.

The Final Struggle for the Federal Amendment

Hopes for a quick victory were soon shattered. Wilson was preoccupied with the war, so an impatient NWP resumed militant demonstrations that generated more arrests, jail sentences, and publicity. It took a year and a half for the Senate to vote, and only at the instigation of hostile senators confident that it would lose. On September 30, Wilson took the unusual step of addressing the Senate during the debate, describing enfranchisement as only fair considering all the contributions women had made to the war effort, but states’-rights advocates remained adamantly opposed, and it lost by two votes. By December, even the NAWSA threatened to mobilize against unsympathetic politicians in the 1918 elections, and both suffrage organizations did so. In February 1919 , the Senate defeated the amendment again—by one vote—but six more state legislatures had granted women the vote by the time Wilson called Congress into special session in May. This time the measure carried in the House by a wide majority (thanks to the election of over one hundred new pro-suffrage legislators) and passed the Senate on June 4 by a two-vote majority. 38

Ratification of the amendment required another long struggle. It came quickly in states where suffrage organizations remained active, but the process dragged on into 1920 . Finally only one more state was needed, but most of the holdouts were in the South. The battle came to a head in August in Tennessee, with relentless lobbying by pro- and anti-suffrage forces and reports of threats, bribes, and drunken legislators. The state senate passed the measure easily, but in the house there were numerous delays engineered by the opposition, and suffragists believed that they lacked the last votes needed for passage. When the roll call reached Harry Burn, a young Republican from the eastern mountains, he unexpectedly voted “aye,” later explaining that his mother had written urging him to support the measure.

7. Alice Paul and NWP members in August 1920 celebrating passage of the Nineteenth Amendment with a toast to the final 36 th star on the woman suffrage flag.

Thus the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution squeaked to victory. 39

Gaining the right to vote was a huge accomplishment, but it did not automatically guarantee women other political rights (e.g., running for office or serving on juries), nor did it rectify many other discriminatory practices embedded in the law. To address these issues, the NWP introduced the federal Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 , but nearly a century later, it remains unratified. To prepare women for their new civic responsibilities, in 1920 Catt converted the NAWSA into the League of Women Voters (LWV), an organization still dedicated to nonpartisan educational activity. Until recently, analyses of the impact of female enfranchisement focused on the national level during the conservative decade of the 1920s and found little to report: women did not form a solid voting bloc, so major parties soon lost interest in cultivating their support, and few women were elected to office. More recent research suggests a more complicated dynamic, especially at the state level. Although technically enfranchised, spurious restrictions and violence prevented African American women and men from voting for decades, especially in the South. Thus winning the vote did not guarantee all American women full equality, but it recognized their fundamental right of self-representation, permanently changed the composition of the polity, and provided the necessary foundation for subsequent achievements.

Discussion of the Literature

There has been relatively little scholarly interest in the U.S. suffrage movement in recent years. Since this topic was the primary focus of attention as the field of women’s history began to develop, perhaps people think it has been thoroughly examined. That assumption is incorrect for at least two reasons. First, more recent research has identified and investigated previously unexplored aspects, resulting in many new insights, while other topics still deserve fuller attention. Second, we still lack an up-to-date synthetic account that incorporates the findings of these studies, although several excellent essay collections are available. Scholars continue to rely upon the monumental work, The History of Woman Suffrage , compiled by NAWSA activists conscious of the need to document their historic struggle, but it is best treated with caution as a collection of primary sources. In 1959 , Eleanor Flexner published a now-classic synthesis, Century of Struggle (enlarged by Ellen Fitzpatrick and reprinted in 1996 ). This book remains the standard account, but it includes discussions of various contributing factors that have since been well studied as separate topics (e.g., women’s access to education and wage work). No one since has taken on the daunting task of producing a comprehensive account of this vitally important movement.

With surprisingly few modifications, the narrative of the U.S. suffrage struggle has remained static: the Seneca Falls convention was the moment the movement began; it split over controversies precipitated by the Reconstruction Amendments, western victories were anomalous, and the “doldrums” of the 20th century were followed by reinvigoration in the 1910s, culminating in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. The many summary essays available online and books for young people may or may not integrate recent findings, but they all repeat this dominant narrative, so it is past time for a new synthesis that amends, refines, and expands our understanding of this long, complicated, and difficult struggle.

Heavily influenced by the publication of Aileen Kraditor’s book, The Ideas of the Woman’s Suffrage Movement ( 1965 ), subsequent studies thoroughly disrupted any lingering notions about a coherent suffrage “sisterhood.” Kraditor argued that late 19th-century suffragists stopped emphasizing the “justice” of their cause in favor of “expediency” arguments focused on how the vote could be used to achieve other goals. This argument set up a false dichotomy since suffrage arguments based on rights and justice continued to be frequently and powerfully employed, while the exercise of the vote has always been a commonly accepted means to achieve political objectives. Yet there is no doubt that Kraditor’s work made a huge contribution by revealing a movement deeply affected by the elitism, racism, and nativism of many suffragists. It stimulated extensive investigation into problematic tensions among different groups of suffragists as well as analyses of the negative impacts on their audiences.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the feminist movement revived interest in women’s history and in the suffrage movement. The connections to a contemporaneous women’s-rights struggle led some writers to adopt an excessively heroic interpretation, but it did rescue several major figures from relative obscurity, most notably Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul. Beginning in 1975 with the publication of Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 1848–1869 , Ellen DuBois produced a series of carefully researched works that have had a major impact on the field. For several decades, many studies appeared that identified various groups of previously unrecognized activists (especially African American women, but also anti-suffragists), produced detailed regional studies, examined the influence of suffrage journalism, traced transnational suffrage connections, and reevaluated the consequences of female enfranchisement. In addition, many other scholars considered suffrage as an important element of other women’s reform initiatives, or examined the vote in the context of larger discussions of citizenship. Suffrage itself has not always fared well in these analyses. Was it a narrow goal that diverted attention and energy away from a larger feminist agenda? Ultimately was it even much of an achievement? These questions have received much attention in recent scholarship, especially those considering the impacts of women voters on political processes.

Regional studies of the South and the west have expanded our knowledge of suffrage activity beyond a narrow, eastern-based, focus on NAWSA, but this information remains inadequately integrated into “national” histories of the movement. Ironically, Southern stumbling blocks and the baneful effects of the “southern strategy” are better understood than the contributions of western victories to ultimate success. Many of the most recent studies examine important but previously overlooked state leaders and organizations, but they remain largely isolated from the national context. Some scholars have explored beyond U.S. borders, examining suffrage movements in other countries, the importance of transnational interconnections from the beginning of the movement, and associations with U.S. imperialism. Suffrage rhetoric, media strategies, advertising, and imagery have also received attention, but many texts present pictures and narrative without much analysis, especially those written for popular audiences.

Historians who study woman suffrage tend to focus on women’s organizations and activities, including efforts to build coalitions and influence politicians. Studies by political scientists have often focused on identifying the situations and processes by which the idea appealed to some groups of men and worked its way through the political system. Early efforts to find correlations between demographic characteristics and voting patterns on other issues found few links (with the exception of support for prohibition, even though the suffragists were aware of how problematic that relationship could be). Corinne McConnaughy’s recent book, The Woman Suffrage Movement in America , analyzed the successes and/or failures of efforts to establish political or reform coalitions and influence legislators, but her study is limited to five states and the U.S. Congress. An extensive body of work of Holly J. McCammon and others has emphasized the “various political and gendered opportunities” that encouraged the mobilization of women, as well as and the ways in which they adapted their tactics to fit specific circumstances and framed their arguments to appeal to particular groups. Thus better interdisciplinary integration would be valuable in future research and essential in any new synthetic account.

Currently, much of the interest in suffrage relates to its impact after the vote was won, with considerable debate over the consequences. Such studies examine female voter turnout, women’s relationships with the major political parties, their success (or lack thereof) in running for office, and the impact of the vote on achieving various reforms. Several recent publications by Kristi Anderson, Melanie Gustafson, and others reveal a great deal of female political involvement in the 1920s, usually at the local, state, or regional levels. Other analysts, including Nancy Cott and Anna Harvey, are more pessimistic in discussing how the national women’s movement split and fizzled out in the 1920s once the common goal had been achieved, racial and class divisions increased, political parties became indifferent, and inexperienced women voters adapted poorly to partisan politics.

In a recent essay, “Getting Right with Women’s Suffrage,” Jean Baker reviewed these various developments and suggested ways to revitalize suffrage studies. These include: better integration into survey courses and related examinations of the American political system, renewed attention to organizational requirements for individual and associational leadership, expanded emphasis on transnational activism, and continued discussion of suffrage in the context of citizenship definitions and nation building. Additional work on specialized aspects will always be welcome, but better integration of our existing knowledge is necessary to provide a firmer foundation for future scholarship in this important field.

Primary Sources

The best collection of primary sources remains the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage , edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper. Keenly aware of the historic significance of their work, suffragists thoroughly documented their efforts and published the first volume in 1887 . As a collection of reports, conference proceedings, state histories, and other material, it remains invaluable. Because the authors were themselves activists in the suffrage movement, however, this volume also reveals their biases and rivalries and must be used carefully in conjunction with other sources. It is available in a reprint edition, as a CD, and online ( Internet Archive ). 40 A selection of these materials is available in The Concise History of Woman Suffrage, edited by Mari Jo and Paul Buhle. A more recent book of primary sources is Women’s Suffrage in America , edited by Elizabeth Frost-Knappman and Kathryn Cullen-Dupont , which combines a variety of documents with introductory essays and chronologies. 41

Available on microfilm are The Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and History of Women Microfilm Collection . 42

Major archival repositories include the following: the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, DC, contains the Susan B. Anthony Papers, Blackwell Family Papers, Nannie Helen Burroughs Papers, Carrie Chapman Catt Papers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers, Mary Church Terrell Papers, National American Woman Suffrage Association Records, the National Woman’s Party Papers, and the League of Women Voters Collection. The Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, holds the Blackwell Family Papers, Carrie Chapman Catt papers, Olympia Brown Papers (microfilm), Elizabeth Boynton Harbert Papers, Harriet Burton Laidlaw Papers, Catharine Waugh McCulloch Papers, Leonora O’Reilly Papers, Anna Howard Shaw Papers, Sue Shelton White Papers, Matilda Joslyn Gage Papers, Maud Wood Park Papers (microfilm), New York Association Opposed to Political Suffrage for Women Papers, and the Women’s Rights Collection. Many of these collections are available on microfilm.

Other major repositories holding specific archival collections, and much additional related material, include the New York Public Library and the Sophia Smith Collection, Women’s History Archives at Smith College, Northampton, MA. A wealth of information can be found all over the country in university collections, and in state and local historical societies and archives.

Links to Digital Materials

• The Library of Congress , The Seneca Falls Convention.
• The Library of Congress , Woman Suffrage Teacher’s Guide .
• National Archives: Teaching With Documents: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment .
• National Women’s History Museum , including online exhibits on “Political Culture and Imagery of American Woman Suffrage” and “Votes for Women”.
• The History Channel , “History of Woman’s Suffrage in America”.
• “The Fight for Woman Suffrage” .
• PBS , “Not for Ourselves Alone.”
• Alexander Street Press , “‘Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600–2000” (database available through subscription only).

Further Reading

• Adams, Katherine H. , and Michael L. Keene . Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign . Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
• Anderson, Bonnie . Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement, 1830–1860 . New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Anderson, Kristi . After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics before the New Deal . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
• Baker, Jean H. , ed. Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited . New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Baker, Jean H. “Getting Right with Women’s Suffrage.” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 5.1 (January 2006): 7–17.
• Beeton, Beverly . Women Vote in the West: The Woman Suffrage Movement, 1869–1896 . New York: Garland Press, 1986.
• Cott, Nancy F. The Grounding of Modern Feminism . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.
• DuBois, Ellen Carol . Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 1848–1869 . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978.
• DuBois, Ellen Carol . Woman Suffrage and Women’s Rights . New York: New York University Press, 1998.
• Finnegan, Margaret . Selling Suffrage: Consumer Culture and Votes for Women . New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
• Flexner, Eleanor , and Ellen Fitzpatrick . Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States . Revised edition. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1996.
• Gordon, Ann D. , and Bettye Collier-Thomas , eds. African American Women and the Vote, 1837–1965 . Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.
• Graham, Sara Hunter . Woman Suffrage and the New Democracy . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
• Green, Elna C. Southern Strategies: Southern Women and the Woman Suffrage Question . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
• Gustafson, Melanie , Kristie Miller , and Elisabeth Israels Perry , eds. We Have Come to Stay: American Women and Political Parties, 1880–1960 . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.
• Harvey, Anna L. Voters without Leverage: Women in American Politics, 1920–1970 . Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
• Kraditor, Aileen S. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890–1920 . New York: W. W. Norton, 1965.
• McConnaughy, Corrine M. The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment . Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
• Marilley, Suzanne M. Woman Suffrage and the Origins of Liberal Feminism in the United States, 1820–1920 . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.
• Materson, Lisa G. For the Freedom of Her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois, 1877–1932 . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
• Mead, Rebecca J. How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868–1914 . New York: New York University Press, 2004.
• Scott, Anne F. , and Andrew W. Scott . One Half the People: The Fight for Woman Suffrage . New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1975.
• Sherr, Lynn . Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words . New York: Random House, 1995.
• Sneider, Allison . Suffragists in an Imperial Age: U.S. Expansion and the Woman Question, 1870–1929 . New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn . African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920 . Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998.
• Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill . New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States . New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill , ed. One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement . Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press, 1995.
• Zahniser, J. D. , and Amelia Fry . Alice Paul: Claiming Power . New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

1. Jan Ellen Lewis , “Rethinking Women’s Suffrage in New Jersey, 1776–1807,” Rutgers Law Review 63.3 (2011): 1017–1035.

2. Linda Kerber , Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998); and Margaret A. Nash , Women’s Education in the United States, 1790– 1840 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

3. Kathryn Kish Sklar , Women’s Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830–1870: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000).

4. Many authors have addressed these events and their significance; see, for example, Ellen Carol DuBois , Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 1848–1869 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978), 21–52, and Sally M. McMillen , Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). In addition to Stanton’s autobiography, there are many biographies, most recently Lori Ginzberg , Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life (New York: Hill and Wang, 2009).

5. Eleanor Flexner , Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States , rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1975), 82–92; and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn , African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 13–35.

6. There is no definitive version of the text and no agreement whether Truth was met with approval or resistance when she rose to speak. It took almost 150 years for the historical record to be corrected; see Nell Irvin Painter , “Representing Truth: Sojourner Truth’s Knowing and Becoming Known,” The Journal of American History 81.2 (September 1994): 461–492.

7. DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage , 52–78, 162–202; Terborg-Penn, African American Women , 23–35; and Flexner, Century of StruggleI , 145–152.

8. DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage , 84–103.

9. DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage , 79–161; Flexner, Century of Struggle , 153–156; and Martha M. Solomon , ed., A Voice of Their Own: The Woman Suffrage Press, 1840–1910 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002).

10. Ellen Carol DuBois , “Taking the Law into Our Own Hands: Bradwell, Minor, and Suffrage Militance in the 1870s,” in Woman Suffrage and Women’s Rights , ed. Ellen Carol DuBois (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 114–138; and Flexner, Century of Struggle , 156–158;

11. For a recent review of several biographies of Woodhull, see Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz , “A Victoria Woodhull for the 1990s,” Reviews in American History 27.1 (March 1999): 87–97.

12. Karen J. Blair , The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood Redefined, 1868–1914 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1980).

13. Ruth Bordin , Frances Willard: A Biography (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986).

14. Barbara Miller Solomon , In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986); Robyn Muncy , Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform: 1890–1935 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1991); and Kathryn Kish Sklar , Florence Kelley and the Nation’s Work: The Rise of Women’s Political Culture, 1830–1900 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).

15. Flexner, Century of Struggle , 134–144, 197–207, 236–240.

16. Flexner, Century of Struggle , 228, 269–270, 300, 319–320.

17. NAWSA , Victory: How the Women Won It: A Centennial Symposium (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1940), 53, 72–73.

18. Alan P. Grimes , The Puritan Ethic and Woman Suffrage (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967); T. A. Larson produced many articles about woman suffrage in various states that are still factually informative, but the analytical arguments of both these authors are now considered obsolete.

19. Rebecca J. Mead , How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868–1914 (New York: New York University Press, 2004); Holly J. McCammon and Karen E. Campbell , “Winning the Vote in the West: The Political Successes of the Women’s Suffrage Movements, 1866–1919,” Gender and Society 15.1 (February 2001): 55–82; and Beverly Beeton , Women Vote in the West: The Woman Suffrage Movement, 1869–1896 (New York: Garland Press, 1986).

20. Mead, How the Vote Was Won ; 35–52; and Allison L. Sneider , Suffragists in an Imperial Age: U.S. Expansion and the Woman Question, 1870–1929 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 57–86.

21. Mead, How the Vote Was Won , 53–95; Suzanne M. Marilley , Woman Suffrage and the Origins of Liberal Feminism in the United States, 1820– 1920 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), 124–158; Flexner, Century of Struggle , 228–231; Michael L. Goldberg , An Army of Women: Gender and Politics in Gilded Age Kansas (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997); and Susan Scheiber Edelman , “‘A Red Hot Suffrage Campaign’: The Woman Suffrage Cause in California, 1896,” California Supreme Court Historical Society Yearbook 2 (1995): 51–131.

22. Aileen S. Kraditor , The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890–1920 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1965), 123–218.

23. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement , 213–214; and Terborg-Penn, African American Women , 109–135. The Southern suffrage movement was not monolithic in its goals and methods, but it was dominated by elite women, some more volubly racist or conservative than others. See Marjorie Spruill Wheeler , New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States (New York, Oxford University Press, 1993); and Elna C. Green , Southern Strategies: Southern Women and the Woman Suffrage Question (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).

24. Susan E. Marshall , Splintered Sisterhood: Gender and Class in the Campaign against Woman Suffrage (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997); and Susan Goodier , No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-suffrage Movement (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013).

25. The Progressive movement has been studied exhaustively, and there are many studies describing women’s involvement. For a general review of its impact on woman suffrage, see Eileen L. McDonagh and H. Douglas Price , “Woman Suffrage in the Progressive Era: Patterns of Opposition and Support in Referenda Voting, 1910–1918,” American Political Science Review 79.2 (June 1985): 415–435.

26. Mead, How the Vote Was Won , 97–118. After winning the vote, DeVoe organized a National Council of Women Voters to focus the power of western women voters on the federal amendment effort, working briefly with the Congressional Union until shifting to support Catt’s Winning Plan; see Jennifer M. Ross-Nazzal , Winning the West for Women: The Life of Suffragist Emma Smith DeVoe (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011).

27. Mead, How the Vote Was Won , 119–149; Gayle Anne Gullett , Becoming Citizens: The Emergence and Development of the California Women’s Movement, 1880–1911 (Urbana, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000); and Susan Englander , Class Coalition and Class Conflict in the California Woman Suffrage Movement, 1907–1912: The San Francisco Wage Earners’ Suffrage League (Lewiston, NY: Mellen Research University Press, 1989).

28. Mead, How the Vote Was Won , 101–107; see also Ruth Barnes Moynihan , Rebel for Rights: Abigail Scott Duniway (London: Yale University Press, 1983).

29. Flexner, Century of Struggle , 269–270, 279–281.

30. Trisha Franzen , Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 1–15.

31. See, for example, Bonnie Anderson , Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement, 1830–1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); Leila J. Rupp , Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997); and Patricia Greenwood Harrison , Connecting Links: The British and American Woman Suffrage Movements, 1900–1914 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000).

32. Ellen Carol DuBois , Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 88–147; and Annelise Orleck , Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 1900–1965 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 87–113.

33. Flexner, Century of Struggle , 258–263, 281, 300–301. DuBois, Harriot Stanton Blatch , 88–181. Convinced that a second campaign in 1917 would fail, Blatch did not participate.

34. Flexner, Century of Struggle , 266–267, 281–285; and Robert Booth Fowler, “Carrie Chapman Catt, Strategist,” in One Woman, One Vote , ed. Wheeler, 295–314. There are several biographies of Catt available; see, for example, Jacqueline Van Voris , Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life (New York: Feminist Press of the City University of New York, 1987).

35. J. D. Zahniser and Amelia Fry , Alice Paul: Claiming Power (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014); and Katherine H. Adams and Michael L. Keene , Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008).

36. Adams and Keene, Alice Paul , 141–156; Inez Haynes Irwin Gilmore , The Story of the Woman’s Party . Reprint. (New York: Kraus Reprint, 1971); and Linda G. Ford , “Álice Paul and the Triumph of Militancy,” in One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement , ed. Marjorie Spruill Wheeler (Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press: 1995), 277–294.

37. Adams and Keene, Alice Paul , 157–241; see also Kimberly Jensen , Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008).

38. Eileen L. McDonagh , “Issues and Constituencies in the Progressive Era: House Roll Call Voting on the Nineteenth Amendment, 1913–1919,” Journal of Politics 51.1 (February 1989): 119–136.

39. Flexner, Century of Struggle , 286–303, 317–337.

40. Salem, NY: Ayer, 1985; and Louisville, KT: Bank of Wisdom.

41. Facts on File Eyewitness History Series (2005).

42. The Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony , eds. Patricia G. Holland and Ann D. Gordon (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, c. 1991); History of Women Microfilm Collection (New Haven, CT, Research Publications, 1976–1979).

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Women’s Suffrage in America Essay (Critical Writing)

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Suffrage is the right to vote, and women’s suffrage is the right of women to take part in the process of voting. Women in different parts of the globe suffer from denial of this right from time to time. This has often led to rise of activist movements such as feminism, in an effort to secure equal rights for women in voting (Foner 5-15).

This situation has also made several authors and researchers write books and articles regarding women’s right to vote. This paper illustrates the thoughts and comments of Professor Kuhlman and Professor Woodworth-Ney, regarding the issue of women’s suffrage in America.

Professors Kuhlman and Woodworth-Ney, both of Idaho State University, have no sharp, contrasting views about women’s suffrage. They have more similarities than differences. They see a trend whereby women in each state of the United States have been fighting for their rights since time immemorial, including the time of the two world wars. This led to the formation of the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment in 1920. Consequently, there was the enactment of several legislations regarding women’s right to vote, thereafter.

Woodworth-Ney looks at women’s suffrage from a consideration of women’s history (Woodworth-Ney 55-85). On the contrary, Kuhlman is inclined towards war, and how it led to women’s denial of their rights, especially the right to vote for democratic leaders. Woodworth-Ney talks about women’s rights as mothers and landowners, whereas Kuhlman is more concerned with their rights as widows and war victims (Kuhlman 66-125).

Kuhlman is more stringent than Woodworth-Ney. She is of the notion that women should have been granted the right to vote at the same time with men. They agree that women were denied the right to vote for a long time, until women’s rights movements brought women’s suffering into the limelight of the society. However, it was not an easy task to grant women this right.

Besides women’s suffrage, the professors and Foner bring out the reproductive role of women and the existing role of patriarchal societies, as well as culture. Women got the right to vote, but they are not fully emancipated from cultural practices that keep them in the private (domestic) sector of societies (Woodworth-Ney 122).

They continue to do most of the household chores while men are at work. Moreover, they rarely hold leadership positions due to cultural practices which suggest that virtuous women are just wives and mothers, who should stay at home (Kuhlman 201). Therefore, women’s suffrage did not address the subordinate role of women in society. The patriarchal society still influences political, social and economic sectors, not only in the United States, but also in the world.

Allowing women to vote was revolutionary. Foner says that the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States constitution was not a solution to women’s problems, as observed by the Radical Republicans (Foner 23). This statement already shows that there was a tag of war between the government and women’s rights activists, regarding women’s right to vote. The transformation was a radical change prompted by activists and women’s rights movements. It came out of pressure by the movements on the government.

In conclusion, the global struggle for women’s suffrage has been an ongoing process, with women’s rights activists and movements emerging from time to time. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that people have certain inalienable rights such as the right to life and engage in the democratic process of their countries. Therefore, women ought to be granted an equal right to vote for leaders of their choice.

Works Cited

Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History (Custom Seagull 3 rd Ed.) . New York: W.W. Norton. 2004. Print.

Kuhlman, Erika. Of Little Comfort: War Widows, Fallen Soldiers, and the Remaking of the Nation after the Great War. New York: NYU Press, 2012. Print.

Woodworth-Ney, Laura. Women in the American West (Cultures in the American West ). Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2018, November 30). Women’s Suffrage in America. https://ivypanda.com/essays/womens-suffrage-in-america/

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19th Amendment

By: History.com Editors

Updated: July 23, 2024 | Original: March 5, 2010

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women’s suffrage , and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest. In 1848, the movement for women’s rights launched on a national level with the Seneca Falls Convention , organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott . 

Following the convention, the demand for the vote became a centerpiece of the women’s rights movement. Stanton and Mott, along with Susan B. Anthony and other activists, raised public awareness and lobbied the government to grant voting rights to women. After a lengthy battle, these groups finally emerged victorious with the passage of the 19th Amendment .

Despite the passage of the amendment and the decades-long contributions of Black women to achieve suffrage , poll taxes, local laws and other restrictions continued to block women of color from voting . Black men and women also faced intimidation and often violent opposition at the polls or when attempting to register to vote. It would take more than 40 years for all women to achieve voting equality.

Women’s Suffrage

During America’s early history, women were denied some of the basic rights enjoyed by male citizens.

For example, married women couldn’t own property and had no legal claim to any money they might earn, and no female had the right to vote. Women were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, not politics.

The campaign for women’s suffrage was a small but growing movement in the decades before the Civil War . Starting in the 1820s, various reform groups proliferated across the U.S. including temperance leagues , the abolitionist movement and religious groups. Women played a prominent role in a number of them.

Meanwhile, many American women were resisting the notion that the ideal woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family. Combined, these factors contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen in the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

It was not until 1848 that the movement for women’s rights began to organize at the national level.

In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York (where Stanton lived). More than 300 people—mostly women, but also some men—attended, including former African-American slave and activist Frederick Douglass .

In addition to their belief that women should be afforded better opportunities for education and employment, most of the delegates at the Seneca Falls Convention agreed that American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

Declaration of Sentiments

A group of delegates led by Stanton produced a “Declaration of Sentiments” document, modeled after the Declaration of Independence , which stated: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

What this meant, among other things, was that the delegates believed women should have the right to vote.

Following the convention, the idea of voting rights for women was mocked in the press and some delegates withdrew their support for the Declaration of Sentiments. Nonetheless, Stanton and Mott persisted—they went on to spearhead additional women’s rights conferences and they were eventually joined in their advocacy work by Susan B. Anthony and other activists.

Susan B. Anthony and the Long Push for Women’s Suffrage

Historian Yohuru Williams recaps the efforts of women to secure the right to vote in the 19th century.

19th Amendment: A Timeline of the Fight for All Women’s Right to Vote

From Seneca Falls to the civil rights movement, see what events led to the ratification of the 19th amendment and later acts supporting Black and Native American women's right to vote.

How Suffragists Pioneered Aggressive New Tactics to Push for the Vote

Women infused their protests with creativity, PR savvy and in‑your‑face urgency.

National Suffrage Groups Established

With the onset of the Civil War, the suffrage movement lost some momentum, as many women turned their attention to assisting in efforts related to the conflict between the states.

After the war, women’s suffrage endured another setback, when the women’s rights movement found itself divided over the issue of voting rights for Black men. Stanton and some other suffrage leaders objected to the proposed 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , which would give Black men the right to vote, but failed to extend the same privilege to American women of any skin color.

In 1869, Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) with their eyes on a federal constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote.

That same year, abolitionists Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell founded the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA); the group’s leaders supported the 15th Amendment and feared it would not pass if it included voting rights for women. ( The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870. )

The AWSA believed women’s enfranchisement could best be gained through amendments to individual state constitutions. Despite the divisions between the two organizations, there was a victory for voting rights in 1869 when the Wyoming Territory granted all-female residents age 21 and older the right to vote. (When Wyoming was admitted to the Union in 1890, women’s suffrage remained part of the state constitution.)

5 Black Suffragists Who Fought for the 19th Amendment—And Much More

Obtaining the vote was just one item on a long civil rights agenda.

How Suffragists Raced to Secure Women’s Right to Vote Ahead of the 1920 Election

The 19th Amendment was ratified just in time to include women voters in the presidential election.

The 16‑Year‑Old Chinese Immigrant Who Helped Lead a 1912 US Suffrage March

Mabel Ping‑Hua Lee fought for the rights of women on two sides of the world.

By 1878, the NWSA and the collective suffrage movement had gathered enough influence to lobby the U.S. Congress for a constitutional amendment. Congress responded by forming committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate to study and debate the issue. However, when the proposal finally reached the Senate floor in 1886, it was defeated.

In 1890, the NWSA and the AWSA merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The new organization’s strategy was to lobby for women’s voting rights on a state-by-state basis. Within six years, Colorado, Utah and Idaho adopted amendments to their state constitutions granting women the right to vote. In 1900, with Stanton and Anthony advancing in age, Carrie Chapman Catt stepped up to lead NAWSA.

Black Women in the Suffrage Movement

During debate over the 15th Amendment, white suffragist leaders like Stanton and Anthony had argued fiercely against Black men getting the vote before white women. Such a stance led to a break with their abolitionist allies, like Douglass, and ignored the distinct viewpoints and goals of Black women, led by prominent activists like Sojourner Truth and Frances E.W. Harper , fighting alongside them for the right to vote. 

As the fight for voting rights continued, Black women in the suffrage movement continued to experience discrimination from white suffragists who wanted to distance their fight for voting rights from the question of race. 

Pushed out of national suffrage organizations, Black suffragists founded their own groups, including the National Association of Colored Women Clubs (NACWC), founded in 1896 by a group of women including Harper, Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells-Barnett . They fought hard for the passage of the 19th Amendment, seeing the women’s right to vote as a crucial tool to winning legal protections for Black women (as well as Black men) against continued repression and violence.

The Woman Who Became Governor 11 Years Before Women’s Suffrage

Carrie B. Shelton had the power to veto bills as Oregon governor—but she couldn’t vote.

The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the 19th Amendment

American women achieved the right to vote on August 18, 1920, thanks in part to a Tennessee legislator with a very influential mother.

American Women Fought for Suffrage for 70 Years. It Took WWI to Finally Achieve It

World War I helped women around the world get the vote.

State-level Successes for Voting Rights

The turn of the 20th century brought renewed momentum to the women's suffrage cause. Although the deaths of Stanton in 1902 and Anthony in 1906 appeared to be setbacks, the NASWA under the leadership of Catt achieved rolling successes for women’s enfranchisement at state levels.

Between 1910 and 1918, the Alaska Territory, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington extended voting rights to women.

Also during this time, through the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later, the Women’s Political Union), Stanton’s daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch introduced parades, pickets and marches as means of calling attention to the cause. These tactics succeeded in raising awareness and led to unrest in Washington, D.C.

Did you know? Wyoming, the first state to grant voting rights to women, was also the first state to elect a female governor. Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977) was elected governor of the Equality State—Wyoming's official nickname—in 1924. And from 1933 to 1953, she served as the first woman director of the U.S. Mint.

Protest and Progress

On the eve of the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, protesters thronged a massive suffrage parade in the nation’s capital, and hundreds of women were injured. That same year, Alice Paul founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, which later became the National Woman’s Party.

The organization staged numerous demonstrations and regularly picketed the White House , among other militant tactics. As a result of these actions, some group members were arrested and served jail time.

In 1918, President Wilson switched his stand on women’s voting rights from objection to support through the influence of Catt, who had a less-combative style than Paul. Wilson also tied the proposed suffrage amendment to America’s involvement in World War I and the increased role women had played in the war efforts.

When the amendment came up for vote, Wilson addressed the Senate in favor of suffrage. As reported in The New York Times on October 1, 1918, Wilson said, “I regard the extension of suffrage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are engaged.”

However, despite Wilson’s newfound support, the amendment proposal failed in the Senate by two votes. Another year passed before Congress took up the measure again.

The Final Struggle For Passage

On May 21, 1919, U.S. Representative James R. Mann, a Republican from Illinois and chairman of the Suffrage Committee, proposed the House resolution to approve the Susan Anthony Amendment granting women the right to vote. The measure passed the House 304 to 89—a full 42 votes above the required two-thirds majority.

Two weeks later, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Senate passed the 19th Amendment by two votes over its two-thirds required majority, 56-25. The amendment was then sent to the states for ratification.

Within six days of the ratification cycle, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin each ratified the amendment. Kansas, New York and Ohio followed on June 16, 1919. By March of the following year, a total of 35 states had approved the amendment, just shy of the three-fourths required for ratification.

Southern states were adamantly opposed to the amendment, however, and seven of them—Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia—had already rejected it before Tennessee’s vote on August 18, 1920. It was up to Tennessee to tip the scale for woman suffrage.

The outlook appeared bleak, given the outcomes in other Southern states and given the position of Tennessee’s state legislators in their 48-48 tie. The state’s decision came down to 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, a Republican from McMinn County, to cast the deciding vote.

Although Burn opposed the amendment, his mother convinced him to approve it. Mrs. Burn reportedly wrote to her son: “Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.”

With Burn’s vote, the 19th Amendment was fully ratified.

When Did Women Get the Right to Vote?

On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was certified by U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, and women finally achieved the long-sought right to vote throughout the United States.

On November 2 of that same year, more than 8 million women across the U.S. voted in elections for the first time.

It took over 60 years for the remaining 12 states to ratify the 19th Amendment. Mississippi was the last to do so, on March 22, 1984.

What Is the 19 Amendment?

The 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote, and reads:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

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• How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:

• Start with a question
• Write your initial answer
• Develop your answer
• Refine your thesis statement

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Table of contents

What is a thesis statement, placement of the thesis statement, step 1: start with a question, step 2: write your initial answer, step 3: develop your answer, step 4: refine your thesis statement, types of thesis statements, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis statements.

A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.

The best thesis statements are:

• Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweet—don’t use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
• Contentious: Your thesis shouldn’t be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
• Coherent: Everything mentioned in your thesis statement must be supported and explained in the rest of your paper.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.

You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about it—a clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.

You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?

For example, you might ask:

After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .

Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.

In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.

The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.

In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.

The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.

A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:

• Why you hold this position
• What they’ll learn from your essay
• The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

• In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
• In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

• Ask a question about your topic .
• Write your initial answer.
• Develop your answer by including reasons.
• Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

Cite this Scribbr article

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The Path to Women’s Suffrage

As the United States spread west of the Mississippi River, those who followed their dreams of a better life often included complete families: father, mother, and children taking whatever fit in the wagon or hand cart to a new opportunity across the Rocky Mountains through an opening called South Pass in what is now known as the state of Wyoming. This discovery gave those willing to risk what was familiar for the chance to expand their horizons in a new location with possibly better soil, better climate, or to explore what their own future could be away from the crowded cities they left behind. What a promising idea: expand your horizons.

The features of each new territory became known quickly. These territories grew in population large enough for statehood, meaning the form of government established by the U.S. Constitution could now be organized on local state, county, and city levels. The decision to include women in the governing decisions in these new territories and states caught the attention of those attempting to gain voting rights for women nationally through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Suffrage organizers visited newly enfranchised women’s groups to help to make the right to vote universal nationally.

This unit will discuss the role of Westward Expansion with the country borders now from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean; how Overland Trails, and the transcontinental railroad paved the way for women’s suffrage in the newly created territory and state governments. This unit also helps students use primary documents related to efforts to extend the newly acquired voting rights, any disenfranchisement by federal legislation or an individual state, and the regaining of voting rights already experienced through a constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote universally throughout the United States. This unit will also acknowledge those persons who were not included when the nineteenth amendment was finally ratified.

The Language Arts portion of the Common Core as well as the Reading Standards for Social Studies guidelines will form the instructional basis of this unit plan. Specifically, there is an emphasis on vocabulary skills, literacy in geography through map activities, drawing comparisons, and the use of primary and secondary documents for discussion with peers. Class discussions of video presentations will assist students in building a timeline from the 1800’s to 1920 when the constitutional amendment became law. A readers’ theater activity is also planned to increase student participation. Students will be expected to write short descriptions of the primary document exercise or video presentation at the end of the class session. A short review will prepare students for a formative assessment of the unit contents. This assessment will allow students to use visual art skills or established essay principles to demonstrate mastery of their chosen unit main idea.

The grade 7 format of this unit plan can be adapted for use with U.S. History I, U.S. History II, and U.S. Government and Citizenship course standards established by state and local school boards or charter schools. The reader’s theatre activity has a simpler version website link to give students with limited reading ability a chance to participate without the embarrassment of trying to pronounce complicated words in a public setting.

Course Description:

A unit designed to expand student horizons as they analyze maps and primary documents and share stories of the Westward Expansion relating to gaining women’s suffrage through ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Each lesson of The Path to Women’s Suffrage unit is designed for a 55 minute lesson.

The objective of this unit is to:

• Introduce how changes in the U.S. boundary created opportunities to include women in the governance of state, and local government
• Examine the efforts of those seeking voting rights for women nationally as various strategies were applied
• Use primary documents to discuss the issues presented by those for and against women’s suffrage
• Create a timeline showing the steps needed to get the nineteenth amendment signed and ratified
• Discuss how the nineteenth amendment changed the U.S., the struggles to extend voting to groups prevented from voting in 1920, and the importance of voting rights prior to the 2020 presidential election
• Complete and record a student formative assessment to document student mastery of a unit main idea.

All downloadable materials are available below under the Procedures section.

• Vocabulary Walk photos printed and displayed around classroom [i]
• Vocabulary Worksheet [ii]
• Generic Vocabulary Worksheet [iii] or worksheet provided by individual school districts or charter schools
• Timer for vocabulary walk and shared reading activities
•  Power point outline per day
• Overland Trails description page for small group read/pair/share exercise: Trail used by Marcus Whitman that became the Oregon Trail, California Trail including 1841 crossing by Bidwell-Bartleson group, Hastings Cutoff used by the Donner Party, Mormon Trail, Mormon Battalion extension of Santa Fe Trail, Transcontinental Railroad.
• Graphic Organizer for Overland Trails discussion
• General graphic organizers, i.e. Venn diagram needed for compare and contrast exercises, and Cornell Note page as lessons require
• Seneca Falls Convention video
• Declaration of Sentiments document
• Declaration of Independence document
• Video guided note sheet template
• Census requirements for changes from territory to statehood.
• Suffrage effort description page for territories or states granting women’s suffrage: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Nevada
• Graphic Organizer: Women’s Suffrage Comparison
• Political Cartoons for and against suffrage after newspaper column hints polygamy might end if Utah women could vote
• Legislation taking suffrage from Utah Territory residents (men & women) – Edmunds Tucker Act 1887)
•  Reader’s Theatre script showing Utah Territory reaction to losing voting rights
•  Map of areas granting women’s suffrage before 1920; Map showing states that ratified the 19 th amendment
• Video on women’s suffrage organizer Alice Paul
• Video showing picketing in front of the White House
• Review document
• Clean flyswatter (1 per team)
• White board and dry erase markers
• Review game cards (laminated), and adhesive to mount game cards on a wall or white board
• Color pencils
• Blank and lined paper to complete formative assessment

A dependable computer with an internet connection, a lcd projector to facilitate displaying each power point outline, and school permission to access YouTube videos are required for this unit instruction. The maps, pictures, and pair/share/ documents can be loaded to a Canvas site to reduce copying expenses.

Day 1 Introduction Lesson Downloads: Documents | PowerPoint Preparation before class: post pictures of vocabulary term or phrase around the classroom. Leave pictures in place until this unit is complete. Be sure slides are in full screen mode to begin the lesson.

Starter: Describe how people traveled across the U.S. without cars, trains, or airplanes. (3 min.)

I Can Statement: I can connect the vocabulary terms for this unit to the definition.

• Students will be able to use the vocabulary term or phrase in a sentence.

Vocabulary Walk:

• Demonstrate how students will complete the worksheet using the example picture matching the first term phrase.
• Distribute vocabulary worksheet chosen for this activity.
• Demonstrate how to complete the tasks relating to each picture displayed for the vocabulary walk.
• Direct students of four (or less) into groups. Give each group with a card with an alphabet letter to help tell them apart. Place the name of one student from each group beside a list on the board.
• Write the vocabulary picture where each group will begin the activity on the board beside their group letter. Give student groups 3 minutes to examine each picture. Each team member will complete definition, use of the term, and write the sentence on their individual worksheet. (This activity could take 30 min.)
• When all vocabulary terms are complete, ask students to share their definition and sentence with the class to give all students a definition and sentence sample. (10 min.)

Westward Expansion Introduction:

• Ask students to use the back of the vocabulary worksheet to write the main ideas of the video.
• Show video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlszTacqsSc (accessed 8-2-2019) – begin at 2 minutes into the video. Stop video at 6 minutes.
• Ask random students to share one of the main ideas they wrote from seeing the video (2 min.)

Exit question:

• Choose a vocabulary term or phrase and sentence from the Vocabulary Walk Worksheet.
• On a separate paper or in the textbox provided in the digital student lesson version, write a paragraph describing how the chosen vocabulary term or phrase applies to the Westward Expansion video. Remind students to sign their name above the paragraph before turning in their exit page as they leave the classroom.

Day 2 Westward Expansion Opens New Opportunities

Downloads: Documents | PowerPoint Starter: Based on the Westward Exploration video, which Overland Trail would you choose if you lived between 1838 and 1869? Why? (5 min.)

I Can Statement: I can explore how the U. S. western border changed from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

Objectives:

• Students will be given a short excerpt about one of the Overland Trail events before and after the U.S./Mexico War. Students will complete a graphic organizer to explain features of each trail discussed.
• Students will complete guided notetaking to write the main ideas of a video about the trail created by members of an infantry battalion before being discharged from service during the U.S./Mexico War.
• Students will discuss the impact of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Overland Trail small group read/pair/share (total 15 min).

• Distribute Overland Trail graphic organizer.
• Give student teams used for vocabulary walk five minutes to read a trail overview document to their partner or group using a 12 inch whisper (describe that a 12 inch whisper means the next row can’t hear what’s being read).
• Each group member writes the main ideas of their assigned trail experience.
• A representative of each group shares their topic main idea to complete the organizer to help all students complete the form.

Power Point slides and video using Overland Trail maps.

• Slides showing the Overland Trail maps will help list main features each student notice about specific trail maps on a blank paper.
• Ask students to describe the impact of winning the U.S./Mexico War presented during the video on the Mormon Battalion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEXW9MPQ1e8 (accessed 8-1-2019). (15 minutes)
• Use the Mormon Battalion trail map to point out the events discharged battalion members attended on their way back east to rejoin their families (gold discovery at Sutter’s Fort, burial of Donner Party remains at the Breen cabin near Truckee, California with Kearny). (10 min.)

Questions to consider:

• What impact did the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and Telegraph have on the development of the West?
• What impact did the railroad and telegraph have on women of the period?  Choral reading of the article provided.  (Teacher may have to read article aloud if students will not participate)
• Draw a T-chart on the board. Ask students to list positive and negative impacts the transcontinental railroad provided. Students need to add this t-chart to their notes. Students will write their position on the positive or negative impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on the note page. (10 min.)

Day 3 Women’s Suffrage Efforts Begin

Downloads: Documents | PowerPoint Starter: Considering the Overland Trails discussed yesterday, describe what contribution you think women made to the journey between Missouri and the unsettled west. (3 min.)

I Can Statement: I can describe early efforts to give women the right to vote while examining two primary documents.

• Describe the significance of the Seneca Falls Convention while examining two primary documents.
• Use primary documents to compare and contrast parts of the Declaration of Sentiments with the Declaration of Independence.

Seneca Falls Convention:

• While people were trying to come west, let’s look at an event that happened in Seneca Falls, New York. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcYhuG1y3bc ( accessed 8-1-2019) What Happened at the Seneca Falls Convention? [video lasts almost 5 min.]
• Ask students to write at least 3 ideas they learned from the video using a video note guide. Inform students they could be asked to share one of their notes from the video. (5 min.)
• Video review discussion: Who were the organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention? Who did organizers hope would notice this meeting? What were convention organizers trying to achieve? What document were organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention using as the pattern for the Declaration of Sentiments? (10 min.)

Primary Document Comparison:

• Distribute a copy of the Declaration of Sentiments and a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
• Ask for a volunteer to read each paragraph of the Declaration of Sentiments (a set number of sentences might be needed during the longer paragraphs). As each paragraph is shared, read the corresponding text from the Declaration of Independence. (10 min.)
• Use a graphic organizer (Venn diagram) to record how the two documents are the same and how the wording is different.
• Ask students to write the main idea of a paragraph from the Declaration of Sentiments that caught their attention. (5 min.) (Share at least three points).

Readers’ Theater Participation Request:

• Ask students in each class to volunteer to read the parts of the Readers’ Theater for the next class. A list of speaking parts will be included in the power point. (If an alternate version is needed, access the Better Days 2020 website under Education, elementary tabs. A 4 th grade readers’ theater is available. Adjust the power point slide to reflect the speaking parts used in the simpler version.)

Exit Ticket:

Write one difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Sentiments approved at the Seneca Falls Convention.

Day 4 Women’s Suffrage in the New Settlements

Downloads: Documents | PowerPoint Starter: Describe how organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention could get their message to women living west of the Rocky Mountains. (3 min.)

I Can Statement: I can describe when at least two territories gave women the right to vote and why.

• Students will receive instruction using a Cornell note (if this is a new concept) to answer questions about life in the west before statehood.
• Students will examine the reasons territories gave women voting rights before statehood.
• Students will analyze territory suffrage success strategies discussed as national suffragists visited women who could vote.
• Students will examine how a census affected territories prior to statehood.
• Students will examine the impact of federal laws designed to remove voting rights for a specific group

Map Skill Review: Show U.S. map after 1850. What is the most frequently used word on this map?

The Territories and Women’s Suffrage:

• Instruct students how to use a Cornell note (if the concept is new to them) to answer a question introduced by a small group read/pair/share (initial reading of text provided 5 min). Which territories offered voting to women first? How did the vote for women become law in each territory? Did women in any territory lose the vote before 1900? Who were leaders in the territory voting movements?
• Territory efforts: Wyoming [Why did the Wyoming Territorial Legislature offer voting rights to women?]
• Utah (newspaper article suggesting women in Utah vote to stop polygamy) [What did those willing to offer women voting rights in the Utah Territory want in return?]
• Utah Territorial Legislature bill giving Utah women suffrage [Why were Utah government leaders willing to write laws granting women voting rights?]
• Colorado [What did Colorado legislators hope to gain by offering women voting rights?]
• Idaho [How did the Idaho women’s voting rights act differ from laws created in nearby states?] (15 min. total)

Strategies for Women’s Suffrage in the Territories: (5 min.)

• Letter writing
• Magazines including The Woman’s Exponent
• Pamphlets (5 min.)

Census Impact on Territories:

• Original Census created with a population minimum for statehood
• Census on movement from territory to statehood

Access to voting successes and challenges:

• Wyoming, first territory to offer women’s suffrage
• Utah, first women to vote in an election after suffrage granted
• Which social or ethnic groups were not included in the original suffrage laws passed in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho? (5 min.)

Disenfranchise: Edmunds-Tucker Act 1887: (10 min)

• Edmunds-Tucker Act adds enforcement details to many parts of the Cullom Bill introduced but not passed in 1867.
• Distribute a Cornell Note page (or remind students how to make one) to list the changes the Edmunds-Tucker Act made in the Utah Territory from the power point slide and readings.
• Edmunds-Tucker Act important points: “ It required plural wives to testify against their husbands, dissolved the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (a loan institution that helped members of the church come to Utah from Europe), abolished the Nauvoo Legion militia, and provided a mechanism for acquiring the property of the church” Utah History Encyclopedia, “Polygamy,” by Jessie L. Embley, https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/p/POLYGAMY.shtml (accessed 8-6-2019).
• Edmunds-Tucker Act additional points of concern as contained in the Excerpts from the Edmunds-Tucker Act document: Ask for a volunteer to read aloud individual sections, (or make the document a choral reading exercise until sections 24 & 25) Section 11 (children of a plural wife legally labeled illegitimate) and Section 20 (women can’t vote). Ask a student with above average reading skills to read aloud Section 22 (Indians not taxed excluded from voting), Teacher should read both remaining sections asking students to follow along - Section 24 (no jury duty or voting unless taking an oath against polygamy), & Section 25 (schools now under federal control)]
• How would you react to changes created by the Edmunds-Tucker Act?
• How does the Edmunds-Tucker Act impact voting in the Utah Territory? (all women in Utah, men practicing or sympathetic to polygamy, and Indians not paying taxes - meaning living on reservations)
• Did any other territory restrict voting rights based on the polygamy issue? The statement about Idaho removed voting rights of Mormons is in the power point. (3 min.)

Readers’ Theater - Indignation Meeting speeches (15 min.)

“Great Indignation Meeting,” January 6, 1870 and January 13, 1870.

• On a blank paper, write the main ideas presented during the Readers’ Theater
• Students taking the speaking parts should come to the front of the room. The narrator(s) will announce each speaker.
• Parts needed for Readers Theater: Narrator, Resolutions presenter; Sarah Russell’s minute recording of Sarah Kimball’s speech; speech excerpts by Mrs. Wilmarth East, Eliza R. Snow (3 readers needed), Harriet Cook Young, Mrs. Hannah T. King, and Phoebe Woodruff.

Exit question: How much time or money would be needed to get voting rights back after 1887?

Day 5 The Nineteenth Amendment Ratification, Was Everyone Included?

Downloads: Documents | PowerPoint Starter: Explain the picture of Seraph Young voting on February 14, 1970. How does this primary document apply to casting Utah women’s first vote? (3 min.)

I Can Statement: I can explain the most effective strategies women’s suffrage supporters used to persuade law makers to create, sign, and ratify the Nineteenth amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

• Students will list the first four states that achieved statehood with women’s suffrage included in their state constitutions.
• Students will compare what the National Suffrage Association and American Suffrage Association wanted to get the amendment allowing women’s suffrage approved.
• Students will analyze a political cartoon for and against women’s suffrage.
• Students will analyze a map showing which states approved of women’s suffrage by August 1920.
• Students will describe how women tried to get attention for the Nineteenth Amendment approval.
• Students will create a timeline documenting the struggle for women’s suffrage.

Review Question:

• Why was the 1880 census important before the federal government granted statehood? (2 min.)

Suffrage Efforts Continue:

• Suffrage Efforts discussion dedicated to selected women holding political office in Utah by developer of this lesson plan) on federal level: Martha Hughes Cannon, 1 st woman senator, state level: Olene Walker, 1 st woman governor, and municipal level: Janice Fisher, 1 st West Valley City council woman. (Use First Utah Women Holding Political Office Tribute file to share more details.)
• State constitutions include women’s suffrage language for Wyoming & Utah. Strategies to include suffrage in Washington State and Nevada. (5 min.).
• Explain the positions of those agreeing with or opposed to the suffrage proposal for statehood. Leaders opposed to women’s suffrage used political cartoons. Ask students what message the cartoon displayed. (5 min.)
• Describe the differences between National suffrage vs State by state suffrage. (5 min.) Ask students to show with a thumbs up/down which strategy they thought would be more effective. Students use a T-chart to compare national suffrage vs state by state suffrage efforts. Map Skills: States offering women’s suffrage when approved for statehood. Based on the suffrage map (5 min.)
• Suffrage movement attention slows [use suffrage map with dates to show spaces between new states with suffrage]. Ask students to suggest strategies they might try to gain national women’s suffrage to add new tactics to petition, magazine, newspaper, letter writing, pamphlets already tried (personal meetings with government leaders, parades, picketing). (5 min.)
• Show video about Alice Paul, & Picketing in front of the White House (10 min.)

Nineteenth Amendment Results:

• Amendment passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate June 4, 1919
• Tennessee becomes the 36 th state to approve 19 th amendment on August 18, 1920. Amendment certified on August 26, 1920. Use map to show which states ratified the amendment.

Timeline activity:

• Select ten students willing to hold cards with suffrage highlights printed on them. Give students selected a random highlights card.
• Ask students with suffrage cards to stand in a line. Ask students to place the events in order. Begin with Seneca Falls Convention (1848), Wyoming Territorial Governor, John A. Campbell, signs bill giving women the right to vote (1869), Utah Territorial governor, Stephen A. Mann, signed Utah’s bill giving women right to vote Feb. 10, 1870, Utah women, Seraph Young, cast first women’s vote in a municipal election on Feb. 14, 1870, Federal government approves state constitutions giving women suffrage (states to approve women’s suffrage after 1893 (CO, UT, ID), Suffragists arrested for picketing in front of the White House (August 1917), 19 th Amendment bill passed House of Representatives and Senate (June 4, 1919), Tennessee becomes the 36 th state to ratify the 19 th Amendment Aug. 18, 1920, Nineteenth Amendment bill results certified (Aug. 26, 1920). (10 min.)

Exit Question: When is the most important date about voting after the Nineteenth Amendment became law? Explain your answer. (5 min.)

Day 6 Unit Review

Downloads: Documents | PowerPoint Preparation: set up a bench or set of chairs without desks where students can sit to answer the questions. Laminated cards with answers to the questions will be placed against a wall, white board, or other flat surface using attaching tools that will hold the card without damaging the surface. One clean flyswatter per team will be needed. Students may work in pairs to begin this activity. [iv]

Starter: How does passage of the Nineteenth Amendment apply today?  (3 min.)

I Can Statement: I can explain ideas about women’s suffrage studied during this unit.

Objective: Students will use a review document and game to reinforce concepts presented during the Path to Women’s Suffrage unit.

Review Document:

• Distribute the review document (or give the link to the document placed on Canvas) to each student. Give students 10 minutes to fill in all the blanks they can remember from the unit lessons (use a timer to keep review moving).

Review Game:

• Place students in groups of four creating individual teams with a white board and dry erase marker to write their answer if the first answer is incorrect.
•  Each team member will take their turn answering a question read by the teacher. Students not answering the question will check their review form to fill in any missing spaces.
• Each team will send a student to the bench where they will use a clean flyswatter to hit the laminated card (mounted at least five feet away from players) they believe has the correct answer.
• A scorekeeper will be needed for this activity.
• The teacher will give the first student with the correct answer a point for their team.
• Continue the game until all students have taken a turn to answer a question.
• Students with mobility issues can use a substitute runner to randomly hit the wall or board where answers are displayed. Team member seated will give their answer.
• Collect flyswatters, whiteboards and dry erase markers from students when timer rings.  (30 min.)

Review activity reflection:

• Students will be asked to write what they learned while playing the flyswatter game.
• Students can use the back of their review page (or add it to the electronic form) to write their reflection. Be prepared to share your reflection.
• Students may ask about one event during the review activity on The Path to Women’s Suffrage they want to better understand. (10 min.)

Day 7 Assessment Activity (poster, political cartoon, or essay)

Download: PowerPoint Preparation: A blank paper, pencil, and color pencils needed for the poster or political cartoon as individual student’s assessment document. A blank lined paper, and pencil needed for the reflective essay assessment document. Students may use their notes from the unit while completing the assessment, but not their neighbor for information. Students may need a reminder concerning school and/or district decency guidelines where artwork is concerned before students begin a poster or political cartoon assessment.

Starter: If you wanted to describe your opinion for or against the Nineteenth Amendment, what strategies used in this unit would you choose? (3 min.)

I Can Statement: I can show what I know about the struggle for or against the Nineteenth Amendment.

Assessment Activity:

• Divide white board into three sections: Poster, Political Cartoon, and Reflective Essay. Students will choose one of the three sections to complete the assessment.
• Under the Poster write: Choose one idea for or against giving women the right to vote presented during this unit. Create a Poster trying to persuade those seeing the poster to share the opinion seen on your poster. Drawings may be simple (stick figures are permitted). Color the drawings for added emphasis.
• Create a Political Cartoon expressing one idea for or against giving women the right to vote presented during this unit. The drawing and words are meant to persuade others to share your opinion. Drawings may be simple (stick figures are permitted). Color the drawings for added emphasis.
• Write Reflective Essay explaining your position for or against giving women the right to vote as if you were living in 1919.  This essay must be three paragraphs long. It needs an introduction with a thesis statement stating a for or against position, a body of information based on primary documents including maps and pictures, video presentations, or notes taken during this unit, and a conclusion. Place the source of primary document information used next to the sentence.
• Alternate Assessment: students who disturb students trying to complete the assessment as written expressing inability to draw may be offered a chance to complete a clean review page during the class period.

What if I finish early?

• Give students time to complete any blank areas of the review document.
• Students will turn in their review document as their exit ticket.

A formative assessment giving students three ways to show what they learned during the Path to Women’s Suffrage unit: draw a political cartoon or poster for or against women’s suffrage based on documents, videos, and class presentations, draw a timeline showing five steps important to the passage of the 19 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, write a three paragraph essay for or against extending women’s voting rights as if you were alive in 1920.

[i] Idea shared with permission by Stephannie Jones West, Minot, ND.

[ii] Worksheet shared with permission by Stephannie Jones West, Minot, ND.

[iii] Vocabulary form adapted from vocabulary form developed by Canyons School District, Sandy, Utah.

[iv] Review flyswatter game first used with World Geography teacher, Jeanette Bytendorp , Centennial Junior High, Davis School District, Kaysville UT.

• “Great Indignation Meeting of the Ladies of Salt Lake City to Protest against the Passage of Cullom’s Bill.” Deseret Evening News, (Salt Lake City, Utah), January 14, 1870, vol. 3, no.44, January 15, 1870, vol. 3, no. 45.
• Hall Knight, Dr. Stanley B. Kimball, 111 Days to Zion: The Day-By-Day Trek of the Mormon Pioneers , Deseret Press, Salt Lake City, 1978.
• https://www.betterdays2020.com/
• https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/the-first-fifty-years-of-relief-society/part-3/3-12?lang=eng
• Jill Mulvey Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of the Covenant, The Story of Relief Society , Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1992.
• John McCormick, The Utah Adventure: History of a Centennial State, Gibbs Smith, Salt Lake City, 1997, p. 167.
• Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835 – 1870 , Random House, New York, 2017.
• The Utah Journey , Gibbs Smith, Salt Lake City, 2009 (adapted from Utah, a Journey of Discovery Utah, a Journey of Discover , by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Utah’s Heritage , by George S. Ellsworth).
• Thomas G. Alexander, Utah, The Right Place , Gibbs Smith, Salt Lake City, 2003.

Language Arts Core, 7 th Grade

https://www.uen.org/core/core.do?courseNum=4270 (accessed 8-2-2019).

Reading: Literature Standard 1  Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Reading: Literature Standard 2  Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

Reading: Literature Standard 3  Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).

Reading: Literature Standard 4  Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.

Reading: Literature Standard 9  Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history.

Writing Standard 9  Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and

• Apply grade 7 Reading standards  to literature (e.g., “Compare and contrast a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history”).
• Apply grade 7 Reading standards  to literary nonfiction (e.g. “Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims”).

Speaking and Listening Standard 1  Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Follow rules for collegial discussions, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.

Speaking and Listening Standard 2  Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.

Speaking and Listening Standard 5  Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

The Path to Women’s Suffrage: Westward Movement to the 19 th Amendment

Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6–12

(based on Core Curriculum document https://www.uen.org/core/languagearts/downloads/6-12RdgLit_in_Hist_SS.pdf (accessed 8-2-2019).

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