TY - JOUR
AU - Mintz, Steven
AB - “The right of citizens of the United States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.” Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Seventy-two years separated the original call for women's suffrage at the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Only two women who participated in the Seneca Falls convention were still alive when the Nineteenth Amendment went into effect. The extension of the vote to women was achieved only after prolonged struggle, which included 480 campaigns to persuade state legislatures to adopt suffrage amendments to state constitutions; 56 statewide referenda among male voters; and 47 campaigns to convince state constitutional conventions to adopt women's suffrage provisions. Only one of the original 13 states allowed any women to vote. Between 1776 and 1807 New Jersey granted single and widowed women with property the right to vote. In 1838, Kentucky authorized women to vote in school elections, and many other states followed suit. After the Civil War, women's rights supporters split over whether they should push to include women in the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to African American men. In 1869, two competing organizations emerged, each with its own strategies and goals. The National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, favored a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote along with divorce reform, property rights for women, and dress reform. The American Woman Suffrage Association, led by former abolitionist Lucy Stone, favored a state-by-state approach and a single-minded focus on suffrage. The first breakthroughs for women's suffrage took place in the West. In 1869, Wyoming territory was the first government in the world to give women the vote on equal terms with men. It was followed by Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. In the West, support for suffrage was intermixed with a variety of seemingly unrelated issues. Some westerners favored women's suffrage as a way to attract settlers; others believed that it would attract women and help “civilize” the region. In Utah, suffrage was related to efforts to maintain a Mormon voting majority within the state. In 1890, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Instead of arguing for suffrage in terms of equal rights, the new organization's leaders contended that the vote for women was necessary to clean up politics and fight social evil. Some suffrage supporters made the ugly argument that giving the vote to women would guarantee that white, native-born voters would outnumber immigrant and nonwhite voters. After 1900, the suffrage campaign developed a new, broader constituency, drawing support from many women who had received a college education or who held white-collar jobs. Beginning in 1910, seven additional western states adopted women's suffrage. In 1915, Carrie Chapman Catt, a former schoolteacher, became head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and developed a new political strategy to win the vote. Named the “Winning Plan,” it called for state laws that would give women the vote and for ratification of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Her strategy included the defeat of several key U.S. senators and the identification of supporters ready to lobby in every state legislative district in the country. The two broadsides on the following pages present the arguments used to persuade men to vote in favor of women's suffrage. while some arguments were based on the notion that women deserve equal treatment under the law, others reflect the notion that motherhood made women particularly sensitive to corruption and gave them a special concern for education and children's welfare. Meanwhile, a group of younger women, many of whom had received graduate education abroad and held professional jobs, adopted more confrontational tactics. Led by Alice Paul, a Philadelphia Quaker who formed the National Woman's Party, their strategies included picketing, marches, outdoor rallies, and hunger strikes in jail. The combination of Catt's careful organizing and Paul's militant tactics helped make suffrage an inescapable issue. By 1916, a million American women already had the vote in national elections and were an influential force. Still, opposition remained intense. Some opponents claimed that politics was too corrupt for women. Liquor manufacturers and saloon owners feared that women would vote to ban alcohol sales, while some business interests worried that women would vote against the use of child labor and for limitations on work hours. In 1920, the United States became the twenty-seventh nation to give women the vote, after countries such as Denmark, Mexico, New Zealand, and Russia. World War I played a critical role in promoting women's suffrage, since it seemed to prove that the allies were fighting for democracy. Women's suffrage had a big impact on politics during the 1920s. Women voters were more likely than men to attach priority to issues involving children, education, and health care. They also tended to be strong advocates of peace. Many of the issues that dominated American politics during the 1920s—education, the establishment of maternal and infant health care clinics, pacifism, and prohibition—reflected women's mounting political influence. A Teacher's Guide to the Gilder Lehrman Collection Documents In Steven Mintz's introduction he notes that suffragists offered two different arguments in favor of a woman's right to vote: Women deserve equal rights, including the ballot. Women will elevate politics and promote reform. Examine both documents included in the reading and list two reasons supporting a woman's right to vote that reflect each of the two arguments noted above. Are there any specific reasons listed in the two documents that would have won your support for suffrage? Explain Of the two arguments (Women deserve equal rights and Suffrage will promote reform), which would you have most supported? Why? How can we account for the fact that some women did not support a woman's right to vote? Why is the right to vote considered one of the cornerstones of democracy? What arguments did proponents of women's suffrage advance? If a 19th-century suffragist visited us today, would that visitor be pleased with the changes that have taken place in women's rights? Explain. Figures and Tables View largeDownload slide Women's suffrage broadside (Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC08963). View largeDownload slide Women's suffrage broadside (Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC08963). View largeDownload slide Women's suffrage broadside (Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC08962) View largeDownload slide Women's suffrage broadside (Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC08962) Copyright © 2007, Organization of American Historians
TI - The Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
JF - OAH Magazine of History
DO - 10.1093/maghis/21.3.47
DA - 2007-07-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/the-passage-of-the-nineteenth-amendment-aW3ROPW9eJ
SP - 47
EP - 50
VL - 21
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -