The History of Women's Suffrage
by Josh France



 
 
 
 
 
 

     This section on women's history will show the events that led to the suffrage movement and what the outcome was after the movement, plus how those events are involved in today's society.  The women of the post suffrage era would not have the ability to the wide variety of professions were it not for their successes in the political arena for that time.  In the early 1900’s when women were barred from most professions and limited in the amount of money they could earn, a group of suffragists led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton started to develop the women into an influential and powerful leaders of this country.  The original women who started the suffrage movement had nothing to build on form former women groups.  Therefore these women were the pioneers of the women's movement.  The next era of women took the prior teaching of Anthony and Stanton and took it one step further with forming groups of women who not only talked about women's rights but also what they could do for country as well.  They final step in the suffrage movement was the making of allies with powerful men who could help them take what they have learned from the earlier groups and combine that with the new concepts to form a powerful gender.
     Because women were not yet influenced by any type of suffrage movement, in the eighteen twenties men were in control of all the United States.  The home, workplace, and society were in power by men and for men.  It was the menus belief at this time that women had no education therefore had no place in government or politics.  They were thought to be possessions of their husbands, and must therefore go along with whatever they say.  For years this is how men thought of women and how women though they were suppose to be.  Twenties years later two women decided that they had enough abuse at the hands of men.  In the summer of eighteen forty-eight two women Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony who founded the National Women’s Suffrage Association in eighteen sixty-nine met with a small group of people determined to give women a larger sphere of action than the laws and customs of that day allowed (Taylor 13).  At this time in our country women were denied the right to vote, made to give their husbands the land and property which they may have control of, plus nearly no say in legal or professional matters.  To give you an idea of what the women were up against on July thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight a group lead by T.H. Mundine wrote a declaration stating that all persons meeting age, residences, and citizenship requirements be deemed qualified electors “without distinction of sex” (Taylor 14).  This motion was referred to the state of Texas and in January eighteen sixty-nine, it was rejected on a vote of fifty-two – thirteen.  The motion that was shot down was not anything to major by today’s standards.  It was a simple bill to allow women to have a more reasonable portion of the burdens of government (Taylor 14).  As this example illustrates women had a huge wall to climb of they wanted to be even with men in societies eyes.
 
Suffrage Movement Leader
Susan B. Anthony

 
     After women got some rights for their gender the initial charge was on its way although the next one hundred and thirty years will still contain many obstacles for women.  In the late eighteen hundreds many large groups of women’s rights groups popped up, the most important being the National Woman Suffrage Association with Susan B Anthony.  Some of the other important groups were the Texas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which was lead by Helen Stoddard.  This group advocated suffrage as a means of securing prohibition legislation and social welfare reform.  The Texas Equal Rights Association mostly spoke on behalf of voting rights for women.  This was lead by Rebecca Henery Hayes and Alice McFadin McAnulty.  Annette Finnigan, who was one of the new generations of women who received a college education, Finnigan organized Texas suffragists into the Texas Woman Suffrage Association.  Before Annette Finnigan many of the women’s groups had stopped holding regular meetings.  Susan B Anthony’s groups were in the eighteen sixties and seventies.  After that many of the groups did not have the leadership it took to run these parties.  The new breed of women were college educated and able to gain the control and respect of their colleagues so they could bring back the suffrage movement and get the things that they have been fighting for so long.  This new leadership was much more respected by all people including men.  There new style was not to try and out number men or groups who put them down, but rather to out think them and use their education wisely.
     After the original women’s movement leaders moved on this new styles of woman’s movement lead with brains and wittiness rather than numbers remained in power for sometime, then an even newer style of group was beginning to emerge.  This new style was to combine both brains and numbers along with money to get what they wanted.  In about 1915 most all of the groups of women had begun to use this “large group” idea to make people listen to what they had to say.  Women’s groups would no longer sit by and try to get their point across.  They now marched on Washington and in their hometowns.  They also organized conventions with more than the local group to discuss how they should tackle the issue of women’s rights from a national stand point rather than just a local or regional.  The Texas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was the first union in the South to endorse women’s suffrage.  WCTU members were also the first union to hold a rally and demonstration “For a Dry Town” in 1915.  This was one of the first times that a women’s group held a state protest that had members from all other women’s groups in that state.
     While the women were doing a great job a gaining support with in them, men also started to help out.  One of the first men to really engage in the women’s movement was Dr. A Caswell Ellis, a university professor, who played a leading role in the final phase of the struggle for women’s right to vote.  He edited The Texas Democrat, a suffrage newspaper the circulated during the 1919 campaign for the state amendment (Temple 141).  Another man who greatly helped out the women’s suffrage movement was S. P. Brooks.  He was the president of Baylor University and his main objective for having women vote was he felt they would voting allies in reform causes, especially prohibition.  He expressed at a speech he gave to the Waco Equal Suffrage Association that women would hopefully help closes the saloons and proceeds with the prohibition laws.
     With Dr. A Caswell Ellis’s help women were aloud to vote in Texas in 1919.  This was not the case however all over the country.  It would take more than a year for the rest of the country to catch up.  One of the main ingredients for women to get the right to vote was the Texas Suffrage Ratification Proclamation.  On August 25, 1920 Governor William P. Hobby signed a Texas Suffrage Ratification Proclamation a designated September forth a state holiday.  He recommended that, “all the people suspend their labors on that day and honor the indomitable sprit of American womanhood.”  On August 26, 1920, the nineteenth Amendment to the U.S Constitution went into effect.  This act gave citizens of the United States right to vote and shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on the account of sex.  It also states that congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation (W.P. Hobby 196).  Essentially what this means is that know women have the right to vote and cannot be denied that right for any reason.  With this ratification taking place it gave hope to all women everywhere that they like Texas, they will get to have say in the political and governmental status of their nation.  The thing that they have wanted to do for the beginning of time, equality with men.
 
Women in protest during the 
suffrage movement
     While women were greatly helped out by this time period and the action that took place within women’s movements there still was never a conclusion and a truly fair treatment of women.  To this day women have not been treated equals to men.  This has been a constant battle for the past one hundred years and until the women are treated same as the men there will continue to be a problem between the two genders.
Work Cited:
Bergin, Ann. "How Will Women Manage"Arizona p.8-14. July 8, 1973.
Claflin, Tennie C. Constitutional Equality. New York: Woodhull, Claflin & CO, 1871.
Madsen, Carol C. Battle for the Ballot. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997.
Snapp, Meredith A. "Defeat the Democrats: The Congressional
Union for Women's Suffrage in Arizona." Journal of the West. Vol.14 p.131-139 1975.
Taylor, Elizabeth. Citizens at last. Austin: Ellen Temple, 1987.
Wilson, R.G. "Story of Woman's Vote" Arizona p.24-33. October 29, 1972.

 

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