Women's Suffrage Movement in the US (1865-1920)

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    Women's Suffrage Movement

  • Seneca Falls Convention

  • NWSA is formed

    Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association.
  • AWSA is formed

    Founders Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell form the AWSA in response to a split in the American Equal Rights Association over the 15th Ammendment to the US Constitution.
  • Wyoming Passes 1st Women's Suffrage Law

    The territory of Wyoming passes the first women's suffrage law. The following year, women begin serving on juries in the territory. Other territories in the west try to pass the same law to attract settlers to their area. The west becomes the hotbead of reform for the real goal being the national government in the east to pass same law.
  • The Split

    The progressive era saw the culmination of the women's suffrage movement which grew out of the abolition movement. Women were angered over the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments with no address made to women's equality.
  • Susan B. Anthony & 13 others Arrested (Primary Source Article)

  • The Merger

    The AWSA & the NWSA combined to form the NAWSA. Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony were the first two presidents. A notable successor was Carrie Chapman Catt.
    The NAWSA made the vote their main objective concentrating on a state by state approach.
  • "Solitude of Self" (Primary Source Quote)

    “Whatever the theories may be of woman’s dependence on man...he cannot bear her burdens.”
    —Elizabeth Cady Stanton
  • The Progressive Era

    The industrial reform culminated in the Progressive Movement, which runs 1892-1920's. In 1892 the People's or Populist Party formed from farm leaders coming together with the vestiges of the Knights of Labor. Also, the Suffraget Movement of England was beginning to rip at Victorian mores and SocialDarwinistic values. It will be from this Progressive movement that the American women's suffrage movement will have its first successes.
  • Apotheosis of Suffrage (Sketch Primary Source)

    Apotheosis of Suffrage (Sketch Primary Source)
  • Muller vs. Oregon

    Muller v. Oregon upholds law limiting women's work hours. The Consumer's League asked Louis D. Brandeis to argue the case before the Supreme Court resulting in "Brandeis Brief", a socioeconomic study of evidence that long hours damaged the individual and society. After the Bradeis Brief special legislation to protect women, children and workers was widely accepted and technique of reform standard practice.
  • Election Day! (Cartoon)

    Election Day! (Cartoon)
  • Triangle Shirtwaist (Video-1 hr) PBS

  • The California Referendum and New York Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

    California passed a referendum that failed to passed 15 years earlier granting the vote to women. By 1914, most states of the West followed California's example. With the West won, large numbers of working women begin to agitate for the vote, concentrating on NY in the wake of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire which killed 150 women.
  • Alice Paul (Video- 5 mins)

  • Many Arrests (Photo ca. 1910-1915)

  • New York Passes Right to Vote

    New York passes a bill granting women the right to vote. Suffragists then shift focus to the national level lead by a new organization. The Congressional Union lead by Alice Paul and Alva Belmont.
  • Wilson Refuses

    Women push for an amendment to the constitution which President Wilson refuses to support. Militant women picket the whitehouse with some notable names. Many are arrested and sentenced to sixty days in the work house. While in the workhouse the suffragists were subjected to forced feedings and beatings.
  • Wilson Relents

    The story of workhouse abuse leaks to the press. After this, Wilson then relents and pardons suffragists. He ultimately lends his support for passage of the 19th Amendment.
  • Congressional Approval

    Congress approves and sends to the states for required 3/4ths majority vote necessary for ratification into the Constitution.
  • Score!

    The neccessary 3/4 of states ratify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the rigtht to vote. The social and political impact is felt immediately.
  • 19th Amendment (Primary Sources 1-photo & 1 gov. doc)

  • Women's Rights Historic Park (Experiencial History Link)