Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton adamantly refused to support the amendments, often employing racist language to imply that white women were just as deserving of the vote as African American men, if not more so. By the suffrage movement had split in two over this question, not to reunite until In the end both sides were necessary to win ratification, just as the 19th century split had allowed competing personalities with different approaches to advance the movement in their own ways.
By the early 20th century, women had already moved far beyond the domestic sphere and boldly entered public life, yet a fundamental responsibility and privilege of citizenship—the right to vote—was arbitrarily denied to half the population. The 19th Amendment changed that increasingly untenable situation, representing a breakthrough for American women as well as a major step forward for American democracy. That river is enriched by the waters of each tributary, but with the passage of time it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish the special contributions of any one of the tributaries.
While the United States still lacks truly universal suffrage and gender equity remains a widely debated issue, the 19th Amendment represented a giant step toward both goals and left a firm constitutional foundation for future progress. When Susan B.
As is the case of all Brookings publications, the conclusions and recommendations presented in this article are solely those of its authors and do not reflect the views of the Brookings Institution, its management, or its scholars. Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen examines the history of women entering the labor force and analyzes both the challenges that remain today and potential solutions to meet those challenges.
General ret. Lori J. Middle-class incomes have risen modestly in recent decades, and most of any gains in their incomes are the result of more working women.
Susan Ware. May Passage of the 19th Amendment: An incomplete victory. This proth-Amendment faction formed a group called the American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for the franchise on a state-by-state basis.
This animosity eventually faded, and in the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Starting in , some states in the West began to extend the vote to women for the first time in almost 20 years. Idaho and Utah had given women the right to vote at the end of the 19th century. Still, southern and eastern states resisted. Finally, on August 18, , the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. And on November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The 19th Amendment to the U. More than 20 nations around the world had granted women the When neither group attracted broad public support, suffrage leaders recognized their division had become an impediment to progress.
The determination of these women to expand their sphere of activities further outside the home helped the suffrage movement go mainstream and provided new momentum for its supporters.
For the next 20 years, the NAWSA worked as a nonpartisan organization focused on gaining the vote in the states as a precursor to a federal suffrage amendment. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott. But the suffrage movement was only so welcoming. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, civil rights and voting rights came under constant attack in large sections of the country as state policies and court decisions effectively nullified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
As the system of segregation known as Jim Crow crystallized in the South, African Americans saw protections for their civil and political rights disappear, and few Members of Congress or suffrage advocates were willing to fight for any additional federal safeguards. Their voices, however, could only be heard outside of Congress.
In the House and Senate, those voices had fallen silent: from to no African-American legislator served in Congress. The promise of the Reconstruction Era—that American democracy could be more just and more representative—was undermined by an organized political movement working to restrict voting rights and exclude millions of Americans from the political process.
Women had won complete voting rights in Wyoming in , but almost 25 years had elapsed without another victory. Some scholars suggest that the West proved to be more progressive in extending the vote to women, in part, in order to attract women westward and to boost the population. The National Organization for Women NOW , had to argue the issue all the way to the Supreme Court to make it possible for a woman today to hold any job for which she is qualified.
And so now we see women in literally thousands of occupations which would have been almost unthinkable just one generation ago: dentist, bus driver, veterinarian, airline pilot, and phone installer, just to name a few. The Equal Rights Amendment Is Re-Introduced Then, in , the Equal Rights Amendment, which had languished in Congress for almost fifty years, was finally passed and sent to the states for ratification. Unlike so many other issues which were battled-out in Congress or through the courts, this issue came to each state to decide individually.
Marches were staged in key states that brought out hundreds of thousands of supporters. House meetings, walk-a-thons, door-to-door canvassing, and events of every imaginable kind were held by ordinary women, many of whom had never done anything political in their lives before.
But Elizabeth Cady Stanton proved prophetic once again. Opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment, organized by Phyllis Schlafly, feared that a statement like the ERA in the Constitution would give the government too much control over our personal lives.
They charged that passage of the ERA would lead to men abandoning their families, unisex toilets, gay marriages, and women being drafted. And the media, purportedly in the interest of balanced reporting, gave equal weight to these deceptive arguments just as they had when the possibility of women winning voting rights was being debated.
And, just like had happened with woman suffrage, there were still very few women in state legislatures to vote their support, so male legislators once again had it in their power to decide if women should have equal rights. When the deadline for ratification came in , the ERA was just three states short of the 38 needed to write it into the U.
Despite polls consistently showing a large majority of the population supporting the ERA, it was considered by many politicians to be just too controversial. Allowing women to go to college? That would shrink their reproductive organs! Employ women in jobs for pay outside their homes? That would destroy families! Cast votes in national elections? Why should they bother themselves with such matters? Participate in sports? No lady would ever want to perspire!
These and other issues that were once considered scandalous and unthinkable are now almost universally accepted in this country.
Much of the discussion has moved beyond the issue of equal rights and into territory that is controversial, even among feminists. To name a few:. Whatever choices we make for our own lives, most of us envision a world for our daughters, nieces and granddaughters where all girls and women will have the opportunity to develop their unique skills and talents and pursue their dreams.
Not only have women won the right to vote; we are being elected to public office at all levels of government. Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress, in By , three generations later, women were still less than three percent of our congressional representatives.
In the world of work, large numbers of women have entered the professions, the trades, and businesses of every kind. We have opened the ranks of the clergy, the military, the newsroom. The remaining injustices are being tackled daily in the courts and conference rooms, the homes and organizations, workplaces and playing fields of America. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end. Share your email to receive NWHA news and updates:. Support the work of NWHA by making a tax deductible donation today!
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