-
Th first gathering for women's rights was in Seneca Falls, United States. Was organized principally by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The 13 resolutions set forth in Stanton’s “Declaration” was the goal of achieving the “sacred right of franchise.”
-
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a Massachusetts teacher, agitated against the denial of basic economic freedoms to women.
They forged a lifetime alliance as women’s rights activists. -
two distinct factions of the suffrage movement emerged. Stanton and Anthony created the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and Lucy Stone formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
-
The first state to grant women complete voting rights was Wyoming
-
California Senator Aaron Sargent introduced in Congress a women’s suffrage amendment in 1878, the overall campaign stalled. Eventually, 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.
-
The AWSA was better funded and the larger of the two groups, but it had only a regional reach. The NWSA, which was based in New York, relied on its statewide network but also drew recruits from around the nation, largely on the basis of the extensive speaking circuit of Stanton and Anthony.
Neither group attracted broad support from women, or persuaded male politicians or voters to adopt its cause. -
The nation experienced a surge of volunteerism in progressive causes, members of women’s clubs and professional societies, temperance advocates, and participants in local civic and charity organizations, provided new momentum for the NWSA and the AWSA.
-
Seeking to capitalize on their newfound “constituency,” the two groups united to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Led initially by Stanton and then by Anthony, the NAWSA began to draw on the support of women activists in organizations as diverse as the Women’s Trade Union League, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and the National Consumer’s League.
-
-
-
states extended the franchise to women: Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon.
-
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.
-
-
Catt proved fought for the rights in the western states.
Arkansas and New York granted partial and full voting rights, respectively. Beginning in 1917, President Wilson (a convert to the suffrage cause) urged Congress to pass a voting rights amendment. -
when Montana’s Jeannette Rankin (elected two years after her state enfranchised women) was sworn into the 65th Congress on April 2, as the first woman to serve in the national legislature.
-
on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment, providing full voting rights for women nationally, was ratified when Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.