The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Woman's Struggle for Equal Rights
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Women marched in a suffrage parade in Washington, DC, on March 3, 1913, one day before Woodrow Wilson's presidential inauguration. (Wikimedia)
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was an increase of women's clubs forming around America. Some prominent clubs known were the General Federation of Women's Clubs (Created in 1890) and the National Association of Colored Women (Created in 1896 and would later change to the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs) However, despite having the common cause for suffrage, Black women were not accepted by the white women to participate in the movement together. Yet, this exclusion did not stop Black women, as they formed the NACWC to support the struggle of the Black women and to push for the right to vote along with advocating for an end to discrimination prevalent throughout the United States. Women's suffrage had support from the leading women's organizations, such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (the largest women's organization that had advocated for the prohibition of alcohol) and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (the leading suffrage organization.)
A convention held by the National Association of Colored Women in 1896. (NACWC)
As the United States was entering World War I, the final push for women's suffrage was made by the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The NAWSA made its objective to obtain voting rights laws and to ratify an amendment on the U.S Constitution. Formed in 1912, the National Woman's Party (NWP) took a more aggressive approach to support the suffrage movement. Thousands of women would participate in marches in which they protested for a federal suffrage amendment. Starting 1917, the NWP would hold protests outside of the White House (leading to multiple arrests but overall was effective.)
Women (each representing their college) protest in front of the White House in February 1917. (Democrat and Chronicle)
Opinions were changing, and President Woodrow Wilson declared his support for the women's suffrage amendment in 1918. (History)
In January 1918, Woodrow Wilson gave a speech before Congress in which he openly expressed his support for women's right to vote. After one year, on June 4, 1919, the nineteenth amendment received the votes required from Congress in order to be sent to the state legislatures for its ratification. Finally, in 1920, the amendment was ratified, and the culmination of the decades-long women's suffrage movement was made known. The amendment read, "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."
CrashCourse. (2013, September 27). Women’s suffrage: Crash course US history #31. YouTube. https://youtu.be/HGEMscZE5dY?si=jRGbaQEVOYpSpCH2
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wikimedia Commons. Commons.wikimedia.org. Retrieved April 27, 2024, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=Women+Marching+in+Suffrage+Parade+in+Washington%2C+DC&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image
HISTORY. Woodrow Wilson - Presidency, Facts & Foreign Policy. (2019, June 6). HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/woodrow-wilson#&pid=women-suffrage-parade-supporting-wilson
Leonard, M. Visionary Women: 100 years of women’s suffrage in New York. Democrat and Chronicle. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2017/07/19/visionary-women-100-years-womens-suffrage-new-york/490746001/
Levy, M., & Smentkowski, B. P. (2017). Nineteenth Amendment | History & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nineteenth-Amendment
National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs | NACWC | Washington, DC. NACWC. https://www.nacwc.com/
GWLI STAFF. (2013, June 4). Woodrow Wilson and the Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reflection. Wilson Center. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/woodrow-wilson-and-the-womens-suffrage-movement-reflection
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