1. The American Women’s Suffrage Movement
right to vote = suffrage = enfranchisement

2. In the early 1800s, many women were involved in the abolition (anti-slavery) and temperance (no alcohol) movements
A group of women and men gathered at a conference in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848
This conference was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
Conference attendees wrote the Declaration of Sentiments
Seneca Falls, New York 1848

3. Declaration of Sentiments
Read the Declaration of Sentiments and answer the questions on your paper.
Declaration of Sentiments

4. Declaration of Sentiments
Why did the women at Seneca Falls choose to copy the Declaration of Independence?
What were 3 things they complained about?
Are you surprised by any of the grievances?
Do any of the grievances seem like they’re still true today?
Declaration of Sentiments

5. Granted African-American men the right to vote
Disappointed many women who thought African-American men and women would be enfranchised together
African Americans were split over whether men should get vote before women
Fifteenth Amendment, 1870

6. Frederick Douglass, 1869
“When women, because they are women are dragged from their houses and hung upon lamp posts; when their children are torn from their arms, and their brains dashed upon the pavement Then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own.”
But was this not true for black women?
“Yes, yes, yes. It is true for the black woman but not because she is a woman but because she is black!”

7. “There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women … And if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before.”
Sojourner Truth, 1869

8. Who do you agree with more, Frederick Douglass, or Sojourner Truth? Why?
Douglass or Truth?

9. Before 1910 National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)
Big leaders: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Two big strategies:
Try to win suffrage state by state
Try to pass a Constitutional Amendment (but this would need to be ratified by 36 states – or three-fourths)
Before 1910

10. In the late 1800s, Susan B. Anthony tried several times to introduce an Amendment bill for women’s suffrage, but it was always killed in the Senate.
Susan B. Anthony

11. Those who opposed extending the right to vote to women were called anti-suffragists. Many anti’s were women.
Anti-suffragists
Political cartoon mocking anti’s: “O Save Us, Senators, from Ourselves!”

12. In the 19th, and early 20th Centuries, why do you think so many people opposed women’s suffrage?
Brainstorm

13. Beliefs of Anti-Suffragists
Women were high-strung, irrational, and emotional
Women were not smart or educated enough
Women should stay at home
Women were too physically frail; they would get tired just walking to the polling station
Women would become masculine if they voted
Beliefs of Anti-Suffragists

14. Molly Elliot Seawell and Anti-Suffrage Newspaper
Read documents A and B and answer the questions on your paper.
Molly Elliot Seawell and Anti-Suffrage Newspaper

15. Molly Elliot Seawell and Anti-Suffrage Newspaper
Do the assumptions of anti-suffragists line up with what you already know about women at this time (Jane Addams, Progressives, etc.)?
According to these documents, why were people opposed to women’s suffrage?
Are you surprised that many anti-suffragists were women?
Molly Elliot Seawell and Anti-Suffrage Newspaper

16. “Woman devotes her time to gossip and clothes because she has nothing else to talk about. Give her broader interests and she will come to be frivolous and vain.”

17. Map of Women’s Suffrage Before 1920
Using the map, hypothesize why you think Western states were more open to suffrage than Eastern on your paper.
Many of these states were sparsely populated, and if women counted, they would have more representation.
The west, in general, has been less tied to tradition.
The populist movement, which took hold in the 1880s and 1890s, politicized many women.
In utah, the Mormons supported women’s suffrage so that women could vote in support of polygamy.

18. The Next Generation Elizabeth Cady Stanton died in 1902
Susan B. Anthony died in 1906
But in the early 1900s many young, middle-class women were going to college and joining the suffrage movement
Many working-class women also joined the cause, hoping the right to vote would help improve working conditions

19. Based on the next two slides be prepared to defend one strategy over the other in their attempt to gain Women’s suffrage.
The Next Generation

20. National American Woman Suffrage Association
Carrie Chapman Catt led the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She believed in:
Careful state-by-state strategy
Supporting President Wilson even though he didn’t outright support suffrage because Democrats were a safer bet than Republicans
Acting ladylike so as not to embarrass the movement

21. National Woman’s Party
Alice Paul led the NWP and believed in more aggressive strategies:
Focused on passing a Constitutional Amendment
Adopted un-ladylike strategies from British suffragettes (e.g. heckling politicians, picketing)
Refused to support President Wilson if he wouldn’t support woman suffrage
NWP members were arrested for picketing in front of the White House. They were put in jail, went on a hunger strike, and were force-fed.

22. Who would you support? Carrie Chapman Catt Alice Paul State by state
Support Wilson
Acting ladylike
Constitutional Amendment
Won’t support Wilson
Act “unladylike” if necessary
Picketing, heckling politicians, getting arrested, hunger strikes
Who would you support?

23. 19th Amendment, 1920
Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify, and it passed by only 1 vote.
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.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.