Page 223 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes 9.4 Women’s Quest for Equality

For young women today who see role models like Condoleezza Rice serving as the newly appointed
Secretary of State to President Bush, and New York Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton being touted as
a possible 2008 presidential candidate, it’s hard to imagine a time in America when women could not
vote, or own property, or go to work at a job of their choosing. But, it wasn’t that long ago.
This March, as we celebrate National Women’s History Month, we look back at some of the great
women leaders of our past, like Susan B. Anthony, a key proponent in earning women the right to
vote, and Alice Paul, another suffragist who was born in Mount Laurel.
In the face of considerable opposition, these activists organized, picketed, marched—even chained
themselves to the White House fence—to obtain the liberties that American Women so freely enjoy
today.
While much has been gained, women’s rights proponents agree that more is yet to be done, such as
securing equal pay for equal work, and obtaining an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Only with continued diligence, these activists say, can women protect the freedoms they worked so
hard to obtain and advance the women’s rights movement forward for generations to come.
The vote—a ‘towering milestone’
While the women’s rights effort has achieved numerous victories over the years, the vote remains a
“towering milestone,” says Lucienne Beard, program director at the Alice Paul Institute in Mount
Laurel.
More than 100 years in the making, the women’s suffrage movement began as far back as the early
1800s, when women began receiving more education, getting more involved in politics, and
questioning why they weren’t allowed to vote.
America saw “one of the first public appeals for woman suffrage” in 1848, when two women, Lucretia
Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, held a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York.
There, male and female participants signed a Declaration of Sentiments, which called for the end of
discrimination against women not only with regard to voting, but in all aspects of society.
National suffrage groups form
In 1869, Congress passed the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed all men of
different race and color the right to vote but did not secure voting rights specifically for women. That
same year suffragists formed two national organizations—the National Woman Suffrage Association
and the American Woman Suffrage Association.
Stanton, who had headed the Seneca Falls Convention, and Susan B. Anthony led the National Woman
Suffrage Association. In 1872, Anthony gained widespread attention after she was arrested and fined
for leading a group of women to vote illegally in a presidential election in Rochester, New York.
The American Woman Suffrage Association was headed by Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry
Blackwell, and took a more conservative approach, seeking to obtain women’s voting rights on a
state-by-state basis. In 1890, the two organizations merged to become the National American Woman
Suffrage Association.
New generation of leaders emerge
While the struggle for suffrage waged on, some of its earliest proponents, like Stanton and Anthony,
did not live to realize their dreams. During the early 1900s, a new generation of leaders began to
emerge, engaging middle-class women, working-class women, young people and radicals alike in
the battle for the vote. Some of these leaders undertook widespread lobbying efforts, while others,
like Alice Paul, organized active protests, like marches and picketing.
In 1920, the efforts of these activists and their predecessors finally paid off. It was then that the 19th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, providing that “The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

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