The 19th Amendment: Equal Rights to Vote

Just one hundred years ago, women in the United States were not allowed to vote. The 19th amendment was not ratified until June 4, 1919. The 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. Women activists had been fighting decades to have such a right. There were many factors that made the 19th amendment possible such as women’s rights organizations, advocates, conventions, and marches. The women’s right movement paved the way to accomplishing the ratification of a female’s right to vote.

Did you know that women in the United States did not have the right to vote until the year 1920? Exactly 144 years after the United States was granted freedom from Great Britain. The women’s suffrage movement, however, did not actually start until 1848, and lasted up until they were granted the right to vote in 1920. Women all over the country were fighting for their right to vote in hopes of bettering their lives. The women’s suffrage movement was a long fought process by many people all over the world, over all different races, religions, even gender. (Cooney 1)

“Beginning in the 1800s, women organized petitioned and pocketed to won three right to vote but it took them decades to accomplish their purpose”(archive.com). The organized movement started at Seneca Falls, NY with a meeting called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The most influential leaders during the movements were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The Suffragists and Suffragettes were trying to prove to the public that women could be doing other things apart from looking after the children and taking care of the homes. The Seneca Falls convention was organized by a group of women who had been active in the antislavery movement. The Seneca Falls Declaration called for an increase in women’s rights in these areas, as well as in education for women and the jobs available to

The 19th Amendment is about women's rights. Women gained the right to vote when this amendment was ratified. This amendment was passed to show that women were slowly gaining the same rights as men.

With Seneca Falls, 1848, the movement began in earnest. Early suffragists often had ties to the abolitionist movement. (Lecture 18) With the Civil War era, suffragists split over voting rights for black men. There was a need for regrouping and rethinking in the face of a reconstructed nation because there was a push for black men to get the right to vote. There were Women’s Rights conventions every year up until the Civil War, and in 1851, a resolution that “resolved, the proper sphere, for all human beings is the largest and highest for which they are able to obtain”. (Lecture 24) This captures the true essence of both the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Abolitionist Movement. Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were Abolitionists and a majority of suffragettes were as well as well as involvement with the temperance movement. (Ibid) The question was raised, should women keep advocating for women’s rights or do they need to support the war? This resulted in the pause between 1861-1865 when there was not a women’s convention for the first time. Women were deeply involved with the Union cause and were vital to upholding society and keeping stores in business by serving as “deputy husbands”. (Ibid) Women also had a direct role serving in the war, some served as nurses in addition to some fighting for the cause. Sarah Edmunds Seelye was one of the few who fought under a man’s name, she served under Franklin Thompson for the 2nd Michigan Infantry until she deserted due to

The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920. The 19th Amendment provided men and women with equal voting rights. The United States Constitution created in 1789 unattended the subject of suffrage. In the beginning of the 1800s many women suffrage supporters marched, lectured and even practiced civil disobedience to achieve a big change in the constitution. It took decades to accomplish this around 1878 is when the amendment was first introduced in congress.

Despite the fact that all races were permitted to vote, women did not completely have that benefit until the nineteenth amendment was set up in 1920. The current development for women to vote traces back to the start of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, when supporters of a Constitutional Amendment, wanted to permit women to vote, gathered. While their development was moderated amid the Civil War years, the two noteworthy suffragist associations united after the war and pushed forward with the development that was completed, after numerous troublesome years in the nineteenth amendment. The nineteenth amendment expresses that the privileges of citizens of the United States should not be denied or compressed to vote due to gender differences.

Women’s rights to vote women couldn’t vote back in the late 1800’s. Women had to stay home and take care of the children, cook and clean the house and when their husbands get home take care of them too. Although women had to do all those things they were not paid equal for the things they did. Women were told it is not job to vote that it is a man’s job to do the voting and women to take care of everything else. Gaining the vote for American women, known as woman suffrage, was the single largest enfranchisement and extension of democratic rights in our nation’s history. Along

My topic of choice is the background behind the 19TH Amendment of the United States. Voting is important in the United States because its shows that we’re a part of a movement that allows us to vote for whose best for running our country. Well what if you were denied this right not because of your race, but your gender? Women were denied the right to vote for years because men felt that they weren’t an important part of decision making in America. They believed we were already busy with raising children, taking care of the home, and “serving” our husbands, that we shouldn’t have to deal with the pressure of voting.

The Women’s Suffrage Movement of the 1920’s worked to grant women the right to vote nationally, thereby allowing women more political equality. Due to many industrial and social changes during the early 19th century, many women were involved in social advocacy efforts, which eventually led them to advocate for their own right to vote and take part in government agencies. Women have been an integral part of society, working to help those in need, which then fueled a desire to advocate for their own social and political equality. While many women worked tirelessly for the vote, many obstacles, factions, and ultimately time would pass in order for women to see the vote on the national level. The 19th Amendment, providing women the right to vote, enable women further their pursuit for full inclusion in the working of American society.

In the early 1800's, many of the women in the United States were plain and simple getting fed up with their lack of writes. Men had dominated everything in the past and they were still continuing to do so. Women were finally ready to come forward and voice their opinions about how men and women are created equal. It was now time for women to go out and become what ever they want to be and not have to worry about the fact that they are females. The Seneca Falls Convention would soon be one of the biggest victories for women's rights.

In the 1900’s women did not have the same rights as men. They weren’t allowed to do certain things and are not considered equal. Once women started to protest this, the whole nation got involved and there were some disagreements. The amendment was first proposed in 1878 to Congress but not seriously considered. In the early 1900’s a Representative proposed the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to allow women the right to vote. After the amendment passed in the House of Representatives, the Senate also passed the amendment. The vote then went to the states and it was one shy state away from the two thirds requirement and it was all up to Tennessee to break the vote. The decision was all up to Republican Harry T. Burn who was against the amendment but his mom was the one to change his mind. With a change in Tennessee’s vote the amendment officially passed the nineteenth amendment on June 4, 1919. The whole question is who supported and who opposed the passing of the nineteenth amendment? The people who obviously supported the nineteenth amendment were the women across the nation. Some more than others but in some way all women wanted to be treated equal. There were even some men who supported the amendment like Frederick Douglass who was a former African-American slave. Even though it seems like a lot of people want this amendment to pass and agree to equal rights, there were people who did oppose to the passing of the amendment. Being mostly men, an even bigger group disagreed with

right to vote when the 19th amendment got ratified in the year 1920. Before the 19th amendment, only 4 states gave women the right to vote. The western states gave women the right to vote so that more people could come to their states. The women suffrage was run by strong women. Two of the women were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady. The women got the right to vote because they have been fighting for their rights since 1775, women were striking for their rights at their job to so that they can be equal as men, the women’s right convention that opened the new possibility for women, and the 4 states that gave women rights before the 19th amendment.

Up until the 1920s, women’s struggle for their right to vote seemed to be a futile one. They had been fighting for their suffrage for a long time, starting numerous women's rights movements and abolitionist activists groups to achieve their goal. “The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had enfranchised almost all white males (“The Fight for Women's Suffrage” ). This sparked women to play a more emphatic role in society. They began to participate in anti-slavery organizations, religious movements, and even meetings where they discussed that when the Constitution states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

Accordingly, frontier women gained the right to vote and over time other states granted females suffrage, in full or in part. Women became influential in elections and had an effect on who was elected into Congress. These members were then more obligated to vote for a women’s suffrage amendment to the Constitution. Finally, in 1920 the 19th Amendment was passed in part due to these members of Congress and because women had played a major role in supporting the country during World War I. The amendment stated that nobody could be denied the right to vote based on their gender. This was a great stepping stone for females that allowed them to participate in the world of politics and decide who their leaders were. No longer was the woman a voiceless bystander.