The Suffrage MovementThe Suffrage Movement

When the country was founded, in most states, only free, white men (usually land owners with a significant amount of property) could vote.

Women could vote in New Jersey, provided they could meet the property requirement, and in some local jurisdictions in other northern states. Men and women of color could also vote in these jurisdictions, provided they could meet the property requirement. Freed slaves could vote in four states.

When the country was founded, men and women who did not own property, including slaves, were largely denied the right to vote in many states.

In the early days of the United States, education for girls and women was very scarce. Even though there were public schools, often only boys were able to attend.

In the early 1800s there were some schools for girls, but they usually focused on etiquette and homecare. Some taught English.

In 1821 the first school to teach math and science to girls opened in Troy, New York.

Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts was the first women’s college to open in the U.S. in 1837.

Lucretia Mott was an abolitionist—she worked to end slavery. Many people did not like that fact that she and a few other women were outspoken about the issue of slavery.

Mott, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, decided to hold a meeting, or a convention, in Seneca Falls, New York, to raise awareness about women’s rights.

Lucretia Mott

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The women in charge of the Convention decided to rewrite the Declaration of Independence, and called it the Declaration of Sentiments. They wanted to show that women should be allowed to have all the rights and freedoms that men did at the time.

300 people attended the convention, including about 40 men who supported women’s rights. Frederick Douglass also spoke in support of women’s rights.

100 people signed the Declaration of Sentiments, 68 women and 32 men.

Frederick Douglass

After Seneca Falls, women started to organize and speak out more for women and the right to vote.

Women thought that after the Civil War, women may get the right to vote. They were wrong, however, and only African American males were granted this right.

Women living in the Wyoming territory were given the right to vote in 1869. They were the first allowed to do so.

Susan B. Anthony, along with a group of women, voted in an election in New York in 1872. Anthony was arrested two weeks later and tried. She was supposed to pay a fine of $100, but she never paid it.

In the early 1900s, women became more organized and held parades to get their message across.

Susan B. Anthony

During World War I, many men went to fight in Europe. This meant that the women needed to take over their jobs. Women proved that they could handle the same work as men, and could perform just as well. This was a big help for the Suffrage movement, and men started to realize that women could do more than they had been allowed to do.

The 19th Amendment went through Congress during 1919, and it finally became law on August 26, 1920 when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law.

Women have continued to fight for equality. Even though they were allowed to work, many times the jobs were not desirable, or they received less pay than men would for the same job.

In the 1960s women continued to fight for equality on a number of issues.

President Obama signed the Fair Pay Act in 2011, forcing companies to make sure they are paying women the same wages as they are men for the same job.

The information for this presentation primarily came from the book The Women Suffrage Movement, 1848-1920. It was written by Kristin Thoennes Keller.