Mrs. Ann Hewitt

THE NINETEENTH AMENDMENT

Who: Founding Sisters• Elizabeth Cady Stanton• Susan B. Anthony• Lucretia Mott• Lucy Stone• Alice Paul• Carrie Chapman Catt• Jeanette Rankin• Thousands of other men and women

Suffrage leaders Mott, Anthony, and Stanton in U.S. Capitol basement

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)• Introduced to the law and gender inequalities by her father who was a judge• Refused to say “obey” in her wedding vows and to be known by her husband’s name• Became involved in abolition and women’s rights•Helped to organize the Seneca Falls Convention • Published books and wrote many speeches that were performed by others

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)• Became interested in women’s rights when an elementary teacher refused to teach her long division• Active in abolition and temperance movements as well• Founded National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 with Stanton• Arrested for illegally voting in the 1872 • "Where, under our Declaration of

Independence, does the Saxon man get his power to deprive all women and Negroes of their inalienable rights?"

Lucretia Mott (1793 –1880)• Became interested in women’s rights when male co-workers were paid three times she was• Became a Quaker minister and preached abolition• Co-organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention•Worked for more equality in marriage and divorce

Lucy Stone (1818–1893)• Raised by an abusive father• Fought to become educated• Joins women’s movement to improve the lives of women• Began public speaking about temperance and slavery as well• Encouraged women to wear bloomers• "If a woman earned a dollar by

scrubbing, her husband had a right to take the dollar and go and get drunk with it and beat her afterwards. It was his dollar."

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)• Inspired to act after being sexually harassed in the workplace after being widowed• Traveled extensively to encourage suffrage in the states•Works out a compromise between various suffrage groups over methods to operation• Founded the League of Women Voters• “We are working for the ballot as a

matter of justice and as a step for human betterment."

Alice Paul (1885–1977)• Used parades and speeches to

draw attention to women’s rights• Later used non-violent civil

disobedience to attract publicity (first group in US History)

• Arrested for picketing and sentenced to prison

• Hunger-strike was met with torture techniques by officials

• Public pressure pushed passage of the amendment

• Worked on Equal Rights Amendment through the 1970’s

Jeanette Rankin (1880-1973)• Thought that social conditions were worsened by lack of female suffrage• Claimed that women were taxed without representation• Felt that women who could vote would be able to better care for their families• First woman elected to Congress from Montana in 1916• Voted against US entry into World War I and II

What: Major Issues•Who is a citizen?•What are the rights of citizens?•Husbands and fathers directed the lives of women, making women essentially property•Women were prohibited from inheriting property, signing contracts, serving on juries and voting in elections. • Few employment options, and women were usually paid half of the wages of a man for the same work• Because women had no input into laws, is it fair to make them live under them?

Where •Worldwide Movement

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When • Began as an issue during colonial times• Took root during reform era of the 1840’s-50’s.• Support declined after the Civil war• Rebounded in the 1880’s-90’s as part of the Temperance Movement• Becomes law after World War I

Why: Arguments For• The vote would help women to get rid of other inequalities•Women would want more moral laws than men•Women are capable of understanding politics•Other countries are giving women the vote• The vote is a democratic right•Women pay taxes and so should have a say in what happened to that money• Some uneducated working men could vote but well-educated “respectable” women could not

Why Not: Arguments Against•Women were represented by their husbands and fathers•Women would be morally corrupted by politics•Women are too emotional for logical thought•Women had “separate spheres”•Women could not fight in the army•Most women don’t want to vote• The system works, why change it?•Women would stop getting married and having children, thus ending humanity

How: Abolition•Women were allowed to participate in abolition meetings and some became well-known speakers and writers•Many began to make comparisons between the status of women and slaves

Seneca Falls Convention•Meeting held July 19-20, 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York• Planned by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and other local women•Discussed the role of women in society including legal and social issues•Wrote and approved the Declaration of Sentiments

Declaration of Sentiments•He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.•Having deprived her of this first right as a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.•He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.•He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.• After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.

Post-Civil War Conflict•Many women thought that they could received rights along with/in place of African-American men• 15th Amendment does not mention gender•Movement splits between those who want gender included and those who want to add a separate amendment for women later

Women’s Suffrage Amendment Proposed• In January 1878 a suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress• Congressmen had no incentive to act on this issue

• The amendment was buried in committee for nine years, and when the full Senate finally considered it in 1887, it was defeated by a vote of sixteen to thirty-four • It would not come to a vote again in the Senate until 1914

State by state Strategy•Who can vote is usually determined by the states• Suffragettes begin a series of state-level campaigns to win the ballot for women. • As women could vote in some states, they voted for representatives who would push the issue at the national level

Protest Movement• A parade was planned for the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration in 1913 kicked off protests

Parade was lead by lawyer Inez Milholland dressed in white on a white house

More than 5,000 people marched

Protests continue when WWI begins

• Many thought that protests at the White House during wartime was unpatriotic • Women were arrested for “obstructing traffic” and sentenced to prison • Many suffragettes in prison started a hunger strike • Prison officials respond by beating women and forced feedings • People were appalled at the treatment of women in prison

Wilson agrees to support the amendment after public outcry over treatment of protesters

Ratification• The suffrage amendment was finally approved by the Senate on June 4, 1919•On August 24, 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth and final state to ratify.

Ratification

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Impacts• People thought that women voting would greatly change the make up of the political parties • Few changes actually occurred• Since 1964, more women vote than men in every election

Modern Day Debates• Feminism: a collection of movements intending to establish and defend equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women• Equal Rights Amendment that would have made gender discrimination illegal fails in 1982 to be ratified• Various laws have been passed protecting women from discrimination in the workplace and schools.•Women still make up far less than half of the representatives in government and make less money than men•Women’s reproductive rights still a controversial issue•Many countries still deny women basic rights

Women’s pay compared to men’s pay