Women’s Suffrage Movement

When the United States Constitution was written, only white men had the right to vote. Women were not allowed to vote under the law. Women also did not have many other rights such as the right to own property or to be educated for certain jobs.

As time passed, many people came to feel that this was unfair and that women should have the same rights as men in our country. Women’s suffrage (right to vote) became an organized movement in 1848 at a convention in Seneca Falls,New York.

World Antislavery Convention – London, England (1840) · Motivated by the unequal treatment of women at the convention, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton decided to hold a women’s rights convention. Left: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Right: Lucretia Mott

Seneca Falls Convention – Seneca Falls, NY (1848) Delegates at the Seneca Falls Convention demanded the following: - equality for women at work, school, and in church - the right to vote This is a copy of the announcement placed in the Seneca County Courier advertising the Woman's Rights.

After enlisting Lucretia's husband, James Mott, to chair the meeting, they began to draft a "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments". Through the eve of the Convention, Stanton continued to write and revise the "Declaration" which she modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

Women’s Suffrage Parade in New York City

Discrimination Against Women · Women could not vote or hold political office. · A husband controlled his wife's wages and property. Famous Abolitionists AND Women’s Rights Activists · Lucretia Mott · Elizabeth Cady Stanton · Angelina and Sarah Grimké · Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth

“Election Day!”, 1909

Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. She was brought up in a Quaker family with long activist traditions. Early in her life she developed a sense of justice.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton In 1851 Stanton met Susan B. Anthony and for the next fifty years they worked together. Stanton wrote and gave speeches that called for the improvement of the legal and traditional rights of women, and Anthony organized and campaigned to achieve these goals.

Lucretia Mott Lucretia Mott helped to organize and call together the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York in July of 1848.

Sojourner Truth Truth became a speaker on women's rights issues after attending a Women's Rights Convention in 1850.

“Ain't I a Woman?”, by Sojourner Truth Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio, 1851. …That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?…

…Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him… …Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

The suffrage movement did not have much success in the beginning and it would be almost 80 years before U.S. laws would be changed. Many women and men worked very hard to bring about these much needed changes in the law. Here are a few important people from the suffrage movement:

You can stop here 8th grader If you want to learn more keep going the rest is what you will learn in 11th grade.

Carrie Chapman Catt Catt was president of the NAWSA when the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote was passed in 1920.

Esther Morris Esther Morris was the first woman to hold public office in the United States. She was a judge in the Wyoming Territory.

These women and other men and women across the country worked long and hard to convince the government and the people of the United States that the laws should be changed.

One thing that had to be done, was to let the people of each state vote on the idea.

The state of Tennessee was the 36th state to approve the law The state of Tennessee was the 36th state to approve the law. Their approval gave the amendment the majority it needed to become a law. Finally after years of hard work, the 19th Amendment was added to the Constitution of the United States in August of 1920.

(but really just the beginning) Amendment XIX 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. The End (but really just the beginning)