The Women’s

Suffrage Movement
Emina Dervisevic, Travis Bach,
Arielle Xiong, & Emily Giang
 History &
Background
 What is Women Suffrage?
- movement fighting for
women’s civic right to vote

- local elections

- federal elections
Main Goals
1) To achieve voting rights for women

2) Establish women's suffrage as an

amendment in the Constitution
a) Achieve through Congressional
process
Background Knowledge
● Pre-Civil War era, American
women were already protesting
for their right to vote!

…but abolition and

freeing slaves
predominated American
politics
Additionally…

Elizabeth Ware
Packard
Women's Suffrage & The 19th
Amendment Explained - YouTube

click on link!
Women’s fight for
suffrage officially
begins!!
19th Century Origins
● Seneca Falls Convention: In
1848, Lucretia Mott and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton held
the first convention to “discuss
the social, civil, and religious ● In Worcester,
rights of women” Massachusetts 1852,
the first national
convention of Women’s
rights is held by a group
of notable Eastern
suffragettes
National Woman Suffrage Association
● The NWSA was officially formed in
1869
● It was created to achieve the goal of
gaining the right to vote for women
through an amendment to the U.S.
constitution
● Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton led the organization along
with Lucy Stone and Lucretia Mott
Failed Amendments for Women’s Suffrage
1878 - Congress considered
amending the constitution for
the women’s right to vote but the
bill failed horribly
1914 - Again congress considers
a women’s suffrage amendment,
however it fails yet again
World War 1 (1914-1918)
● Since the male workforce was fighting in
war, women had to step up to fill those
roles
● Women made massive contributions to
the country which supported the war
efforts
● Women were doing the same jobs as the
men who had voting rights, yet women
themselves couldn’t vote
 Analyzing History
→ Do you believe that the suffragists would have been as motivated to
fight for their right to vote without the 14th Amendment being
passed?

→ Were these women jealous of the newly freed African American

men who gained the right to vote?
 Analyzing History (cont.)
→ Without the interruption of the Civil War, do you think that women
suffrage would’ve been granted sooner? Why or why not?

→ How did WW1 affect the women’s suffrage movement?

19th Amendment
● Finally, the 19th
Amendment was ratified on
August 18th, 1920 which
granted women the right to
vote constitutionally
Suffragettes
that you should know
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- One of the founders of
the movement
- Born 1815 in New York
- Well-educated
- Captivating orator
- Abolitionist
 Susan B. Anthony
- One of the founders of the
movement
- Illegally voted (1872 election)
- Author of the Revolution paper

- Born in 1820 in Massachusetts

- Quaker
- Abolitionist
 Lucretia Mott
- Believed in giving
African-American women
the right to vote
- Born in 1793 in Massachusetts
- Quaker
- Feminist Activist
- Abolitionist
 Alice Paul
- Force-fed in prison
- Used militaristic tactics
- Hunger strikes

- Quaker
- National Women’s Party
- Picketed the White House
 Ida B. Wells
- Fought for African American
women’s right to vote

- Owned a press writing

against racial injustices in
society
 Charlotte Woodward
- Only woman from Seneca
Falls Convention that lived
to see women’s rights
achieved!!!

- Did not vote herself

 Different
Perspectives
of the women’s suffrage movement
Arguments for women’s suffrage
● The conditions for children were bad but
women couldn't change them without
voting.
● Women need the right to vote to help with
these conditions and make change
● We want to vote to be better mothers and
wives
● Men and Women are created equal
therefore they should be treated equal
Arguments against women’s suffrage
● Women will lose power if they gain the right
to vote
● Women do not have the time to vote
● It will threaten the family institution
● Women and men would be in competition
not cooperation
Arguments about including women of color
● Black women were often left out of
the conventions for the NAWSA
○ National Association of Colored
Women’s Club

● They were torn between racial

discrimination and women suffrage

● They had their race and sex affecting

their rights and opportunities
Quote by Sojourner Truth:
“There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a
word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights,
and not colored women theirs, you see the colored
men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it
was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are
stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will
take a great while to get it going again”
- Sojourner Truth, 1867
Discussion
 Analyzing Perspectives
→ Why do you think people were against women's
suffrage?

→ Why do you think suffragettes wanted to vote?

→ Why was women getting the right to vote such a

huge deal?
Bibliography
● https://www.britannica.com/topic/woman-suffrage
● https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizabeth-cady-stanton
● https://twu.edu/institute-womens-leadership/the-woman-suffrage-movement/#:~:text=Susan%20B.,Congressio
nal%20amendment%20to%20the%20Constitution.
● https://guides.monmouth.edu/Womens_Suffrage/Key_Figures
● https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/susan-b-anthony
● https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/lucretia-mott
● https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/woman-suffrage/arguments-for-and-against-suffrage/
● Social Welfare History Project Women’s Suffrage: The Movement (vcu.edu)
● Women’s Suffrage - The U.S. Movement, Leaders & 19th Amendment - HISTORY
● Charlotte Woodward - Women's Rights National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
● https://www.nps.gov/articles/womens-suffrage-wwi.htm
● https://www.nps.gov/articles/black-women-and-the-fight-for-voting-rights.htm
● Lucretia Mott - Biography, Women's Rights & Accomplishments - HISTORY
● https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment#:~:text=Passed%20by%20Congress%20June
%204,decades%20of%20agitation%20and%20protest.