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The first gathering devoted to women’s rights
I was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, About 100 people attended the convention, where a "Declaration of Sentiments, complaints and resolutions" I was drafted to clarify the only truth; That all men and women are created equal. -
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Lifetime Alliance
Initially, women reformers addressed social and institutional barriers that limited women’s rights; including family responsibilities, a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and the absence of a voice in political debates. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a Massachusetts teacher, met in 1850 and forged a lifetime alliance as women’s rights activists. -
Agitated against the denial of basic economic freedoms to women.
They unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to include women in the provisions of the 14th and 15th Amendments (extending citizenship rights and granting voting rights to freedmen, respectively). -
Creation of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).
Stanton and Anthony created the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), which directed its efforts toward changing federal law and opposed the 15th Amendment because it excluded women. -
Voting Rights.
the NWSA also shifted its efforts to the individual states where reformers hoped to start a ripple effect to win voting rights at the federal level. -
Fall of effort.
Neither group (AWSA, NWSA) attracted broad support from women, or persuaded male politicians or voters to adopt its cause. Susan B. Anthony and Ida H. Harper cowrote, “In the indifference, the inertia, the apathy of women, lies the greatest obstacle to their enfranchisement.” -
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The Union for the effort.
The determination of these women to expand their sphere of activities further outside the home helped legitimate the suffrage movement and provided new momentum for the NWSA and the AWSA. The two groups united to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). -
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Growth of the NAWSA.
The NAWSA was founded un three other western states—Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), and Idaho (1896). -
Voting Right.
In Illinois, future Congresswoman Ruth Hanna McCormick helped lead the fight for suffrage as a lobbyist in Springfield, when the state legislature granted women the right to vote in 1913; this marked the first such victory for women in a state east of the Mississippi River. A year later, Montana granted women the right to vote, thanks in part to the efforts of another future Congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin. -
Voting Right.
Arkansas and New York granted partial and full voting rights. -
Approval of the voting rights.
The House of Representatives initially passed a voting rights amendment. -
Aproval of the voting rigths.
The Senate passed a voting rights amendment. -
Finally.
The 19th Amendment, providing full voting rights for women nationally, was ratified when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.
