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The Seneca Falls convention was the first woman's rights convention in which they established their need for equality. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jane Hunt, Mary M’Clintock, and other activists organized the convention to protest for their unequal rights. The convention conveyed to women that they had to demand their constitutional rights. They proceeded to take a stand against the injustice that was faced upon them. Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 along with Susan B. Anthony because of the Seneca Falls Convention. With more people joining their fight, they could now lead a campaign in which they would finally be successful.

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Contents

1. What Was the Seneca Falls Convention?

2. Who Organized the Seneca Falls Convention

3. Declaration of Sentiments

4. The Resolutions

5. Reactions to the Seneca Falls Convention

6. The Fight for Women's Rights

The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States. Held in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, the meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which more than seven decades later ensured women the right to vote.
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What Was the Seneca Falls Convention?

Originally known as the Woman's Rights Convention, the Seneca Falls Convention fought for the social, civil and religious rights of women. The meeting was held from July 19 to 20, 1848 at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York.

Despite scarce publicity, 300 people-mostly area residents-showed up. On the first day, only women were allowed to attend (the second day was open to men).

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the meeting's organizers, began with a speech on the convention's goals and purpose:
"We are assembled to protest against a form of government, existing without the consent of the governed-to declare our right to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in case of separation, the children of her love."
The convention proceeded to discuss the 11 resolutions on women's rights. All passed unanimously except for the ninth resolution, which demanded the right to vote for women. Stanton and African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave impassioned speeches in its defense before it eventually (and barely) passed.

Who Organized the Seneca Falls Convention

The five women who organized the Seneca Falls Convention were also active in the abolitionist movement, which called for an end to slavery and racial discrimination. They included:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leading women's rights advocate who was a driving organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention. Stanton first became invested in women's rights after talking to her father, a law professor, and his students. She studied at Troy Female Seminary and worked on women's property rights reform in the early 1840s.

Lucretia Mott, a Quaker preacher from Philadelphia, was known for her anti-slavery, women's rights and religious reform activism.

Mary M'Clintock, the daughter of Quaker anti-slavery, temperance and women's rights activists. In 1833, M'Clintock and Mott organized the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. At the Seneca Falls Convention, M'Clintock was appointed secretary.

Martha Coffin Wright, Lucretia Mott's sister. In addition to being a lifelong proponent of women's rights, she was an abolitionist who ran a station on the Underground Railroad from her Auburn, New York, home.

Jane Hunt, another Quaker activist, was a member of M'Clintock's extended family through marriage.

Stanton and Mott first met in London in 1840, where they were attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention with their husbands. When the convention excluded women delegates solely based on their sex, the pair resolved to hold a women's rights convention.

Did you know? Susan B. Anthony did not attend the Seneca Falls Convention. She would meet Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 and spend the next fifty years fighting for women's rights alongside her, including co-founding the American Equal Rights Association.

Back in the United States, women's rights reformers had already begun contending for women's rights to speak out on moral and political issues beginning in the 1830s. Around the same time in New York, where Stanton lived, legal reformers had been discussing equality and challenging state laws prohibiting married women from owning property. By 1848, equal rights for women was a divisive issue.

In July of 1848, Stanton, frustrated with her role staying at home raising kids, convinced Mott, Wright and M'Clintock to help organize the Seneca Falls Convention and write its main manifesto, the Declaration of Sentiments.

Together, the five women drafted a notice to announce "a Convention to discuss the social, civic and religious condition and rights of Woman" around Hunt's tea table.
READ MORE: Early Women's Rights Activists Wanted Much More than Suffrage
Declaration of Sentiments

The Declaration of Sentiments was the Seneca Falls Convention's manifesto that described women's grievances and demands. Written primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, it distilled the importance of the Seneca Falls Convention: for women to fight for their Constitutionally guaranteed right to equality as U.S. citizens.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal," the document stated. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Sentiments asserted women's equality in politics, family, education, jobs, religion and morals.

The declaration began with 19 "abuses and usurpations" that were destined to destroy a woman's "confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life."

Because women didn't have the right to vote-a right given to "the most ignorant and degraded men"-they were forced to submit to laws to which they did not consent. Women were denied an education and issued an inferior role in the church.

Moreover, women were required to be obedient to their husbands and prevented from owning property, including the wages they earned (which technically belonged to their husbands). And they received unequal rights upon divorce.

In light of these abuses, the declaration called on women to "throw off such government."

The Resolutions

Next came a list of 11 resolutions, which demanded women be regarded as men's equals. The resolutions called on Americans to regard any laws that placed women in an inferior position to men as having "no force or authority." They resolved for women to have equal rights within the church and equal access to jobs.

The ninth resolution was the most controversial, as it called women "to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise," or the right to vote.

Although its passage led many women's rights proponents to withdraw their support, the ninth resolution went on to become the cornerstone of the women's suffrage movement.

Reactions to the Seneca Falls Convention

In New York and across the U.S., newspapers covered the convention, both in support and against its objectives.

Horace Greely, the influential editor of The New York Tribune, echoed the opinion of many people at the time. While skeptical of giving women the right to vote, he argued that if Americans really believed in the Constitution, women must attain equal rights:
"When a sincere republican is asked to say in sober earnest what adequate reason he can give, for refusing the demand of women to equal participation with men in political rights, he must answer, None at all. However unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right, and such must be conceded."
The Fight for Women's Rights

Two weeks later, on August 2, 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention reconvened at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York, to reaffirm the movement's goals with a larger audience.

In the following years, the convention's leaders continued to campaign for women's rights at state and nationwide events. Reformers frequently referred to the Declaration of Sentiments as they campaigned for women's rights.

Between 1848 and 1862, the participants of the Seneca Falls Convention used the Declaration of Sentiments to "employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf."

After 72 years of organized struggle, American women finally achieved the same rights as men at the polling box when, in 1920, women won the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In November 1920, more than 8 million American women cast their vote in the presidential election. These voters included many Black women, though many others were prevented from voting by discriminatory laws, intimidation and other tactics of disenfranchisement. Native American women (and men) did not secure suffrage until four years later, when the Indian Citizen Act made Native Americans U.S. citizens. By 1965, the Voting Rights Act protected the right to vote for all American citizens-men and women.
READ MORE: 7 Things You Might Not Know About the Women's Suffrage Movement
SOURCES

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. Rutgers University.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. National Park Service.
Jane Hunt. National Park Service.
Lucretia Mott. National Park Service.
Mary M'Clintock. National Park Service.
Martha C. Wright. National Park Service.
Report of the Women's Rights Convention. National Park Service.
Second Day of Seneca Falls Convention, July 20, 1848. Library of Congress.
Seneca Falls Convention. The Encyclopedia of New York State.
The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference, 1848. Fordham University.
The Seneca Falls Convention. Library of Congress.
The Seneca Falls Convention: Setting the National Stage for Women's Suffrage. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

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What Was the Seneca Falls Convention? Who Organized the Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments The Resolutions Reactions to the Seneca Falls Convention The Fight for Women's Rights The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States.

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1869 American Woman Suffrage Association

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1869 American Woman Suffrage Association

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The AWSA organization was primarily created so that women could finally have the chance to vote. This movement was created by Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and T.W. Higginson. This movement also supported African American women having the right to vote and eventually encouraged them to gain voting rights.

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), American political organization that worked from 1869 to 1890 to gain for women the right to vote.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the AWSA was created by Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, T.W. Higginson, and others when two factions of the woman suffrage movement split on the issues of tactics, philosophy, and even goals. Considered the more conservative organization, the AWSA encouraged male officers, supported the Republican Party, sought simple enfranchisement, and counted the abolitionists among its ranks. Its members also believed in the necessity of organizing on the state and local levels. To that end, they drafted a constitution that called for a focus on achieving the vote for women. Concentrating on organizing the state and local levels, the AWSA encouraged auxiliary state societies to be formed and provided an effective grassroots system for the dissemination of information about the woman suffrage movement. After more than two decades of independent operation, the AWSA merged with the more radical National Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Amy Tikkanen.

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American Woman Suffrage Association | American organization

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American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), American political organization that worked from 1869 to 1890 to gain for women the right to vote. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the AWSA was created by Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.

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1890 National American Woman Suffrage Association

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1890 National American Woman Suffrage Association

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The NAWSA was created by merging the 2 main rival women's rights groups, the AWSA, and the NWSA. One of the leading activists in this group was Susan B. Anthony who played a major role in the rights of women. They wanted to secure a constitutional amendment. They used parades, demonstrations, and petitions in order for their voices to be heard.

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Table of Contents

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), American organization created in 1890 by the merger of the two major rival women's rights organizations-the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association-after 21 years of independent operation. NAWSA was initially headed by past executives of the two merged groups, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony. The strategy of the newly formed organization was to push for the ratification of enough state suffrage amendments to force Congress to approve a federal amendment. Although some radical factions continued to address corollary issues, NAWSA's new approach focused the group's energies exclusively on recruiting new members and winning the vote for women.

From 1900 to 1904 NAWSA instigated what was known as the "society plan" to recruit college-educated, privileged, and politically influential members and to broaden its educational efforts. Despite the failure from 1896 to 1910 of a single new state to ratify a state suffrage amendment, much of the organizational groundwork had been laid. After a split led by Alice Paul and her formation of the National Woman's Party, NAWSA adopted the "Winning Plan" in an attempt to tap the energy and enthusiasm of the organization for a final push toward a federal amendment. Led by Carrie Chapman Catt, the organization coupled its drive for full woman suffrage with support of World War I and persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to throw his support behind what was to become the Nineteenth Amendment. Ratified by Congress in June 1919 and 36 states during 1919-20, the amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920, marking an end to a 72-year struggle.

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national american woman suffrage association

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National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

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National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), American organization created in 1890 by the merger of the two major rival women's rights organizations-the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association-after 21 years of independent operation. NAWSA was initially headed by past executives of the two merged groups, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B.

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1896 National Association of Colored Women

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1896 National Association of Colored Women

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The goal of the NACW was to have equal rights for African American Women. The NACW was formed in 1896, with the goal to "uplift" and improve the status of African Americans. It became the largest federation of African American women's club.

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Black women like Sojourner Truth, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Harriet Tubman participated in women's rights movements throughout the nineteenth century. Despite their efforts, black women as a whole were often excluded from organizations and their activities. Black female reformers understood that in addition to their sex, their race significantly affected their rights and available opportunities. White suffragists and their organizations ignored the challenges that African American women faced. They chose not to integrate issues of race into their campaigns.

In the 1880s, black reformers began organizing their own groups. In 1896, they founded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), which became the largest federation of local black women's clubs. (While the term "Colored Women" was a respectable term in the early twentieth century, the phrase is no longer in use today.) Suffragist Mary Church Terrell became the first president of the NACW.

Suffrage was an important goal for black female reformers. Unlike predominantly white suffrage organizations, however, the NACW advocated for a wide range of reforms to improve life for African Americans. Jim Crow laws in the South enforced segregation. Blacks and whites attended separate schools, used separate drinking fountains, and even swore on separate Bibles in court. Black students had fewer opportunities to receive a good education, much less go to an elite college, than white students. Schools for African Americans often had old textbooks and dilapidated buildings. The 1896 Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson supported Jim Crow laws as long as segregated facilities were "separate but equal." But, as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case ruled, separate facilities were never equal.

The NACW's motto was "Lifting as We Climb." They advocated for women's rights as well as to "uplift" and improve the status of African Americans. For example, black men officially had won the right to vote in 1870. Since then, impossible literacy tests, high poll taxes, and grandfather clauses prevented many of them from casting their ballots. NACW suffragists wanted the vote for women and to ensure that black men could vote too.

Racism persisted even in the most socially progressive movements of the era. The National American Woman Suffrage Association, the dominant white suffrage organization, held conventions that excluded black women. Black women were forced to march separately in suffrage parades. Furthermore, the History of Woman Suffrage volumes by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in the 1880s largely overlooked the contributions of black suffragists in favor of a history that featured white suffragists. The significance of black women in the movement was overlooked in the first suffrage histories, and is often overlooked today.

By Allison Lange, Ph.D.
Fall 2015

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Black women like Sojourner Truth, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Harriet Tubman participated in women's rights movements throughout the nineteenth century. Despite their efforts, black women as a whole were often excluded from organizations and their activities. Black female reformers understood that in addition to their sex, their race significantly affected their rights and available opportunities.

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1903 International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union

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1903 International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union

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The ILGWU's goal was to help women making garments to have better pay and safer working conditions. Dubinsky, who was the leader of this organization organized multiple strikes which eventually succeeded in more pay and reduced working hours. Other organizations were formed from this idea which later evolved into many organizations fighting for the same thing.

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Table of Contents

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), former industrial union in the United States and Canada that represented workers in the women's clothing industry. When the ILGWU was formed in 1900, most of its members were Jewish immigrants employed in sweatshops- i.e., small manufacturing establishments that employed workers under unfair and unsanitary conditions. Successful strikes in 1909 and 1910 in New York City by the ILGWU resulted in a " protocol of peace" between the women's clothing industry and labour. The protocol greatly improved conditions for the garment-makers; wages were increased, working hours were reduced, the union was recognized by the clothing manufacturers, and a board of arbitration was established to handle labour-management disputes. David Dubinsky, who later served as the union's president from 1932 to 1966, led a successful battle against a communist attempt to gain control of the ILGWU in the 1920s. When resolutions that would have allowed craft unions to organize the workers in mass-production industries were defeated at the convention of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1935, the ILGWU and seven other AFL unions formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO). All eight were expelled from the AFL in 1937. When the CIO became the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938, the ILGWU withdrew and two years later returned to the AFL.

Under Dubinsky's leadership the union grew from 45,000 members in 1932 to 450,000 in the 1960s. He transformed the ILGWU from a faction-ridden, insolvent regional union into a strong and progressive international organization that succeeded in improving the pay and working conditions of its members. The union was also a founder of the Liberal Party in New York state.

From the 1970s the ILGWU's membership shrank as firms in the United States shifted much of their apparel production to Asia and Latin America to take advantage of lower labour costs. In 1995 the ILGWU merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers' Union to form a new union, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

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international ladies’ garment workers’ union

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International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union

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International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), former industrial union in the United States and Canada that represented workers in the women's clothing industry. When the ILGWU was formed in 1900, most of its members were Jewish immigrants employed in sweatshops-i.e., small manufacturing establishments that employed workers under unfair and unsanitary conditions.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along with Susan B. Anthony and other activists, raised public awareness of granting women their indpendency and the right to vote. U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ammendment. After a tiresome battle, these groups finally achieved what they sought out to do resulting in the formation of the 19th ammendment. It also talks about leading events that led to the ratification of the 19th ammendment.

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Women's Suffrage

During America's early history, women were denied some of the basic rights enjoyed by male citizens.

For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money they might earn, and no female had the right to vote. Women were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, not politics.

The campaign for women's suffrage was a small but growing movement in the decades before the Civil War. Starting in the 1820s, various reform groups proliferated across the U.S. including temperance leagues, the abolitionist movement and religious groups. Women played a prominent role in a number of them.

Meanwhile, many American women were resisting the notion that the ideal woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family. Combined, these factors contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen in the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

It was not until 1848 that the movement for women's rights began to organize at the national level.

In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York (where Stanton lived). More than 300 people-mostly women, but also some men-attended, including former African-American slave and activist Frederick Douglass.

In addition to their belief that women should be afforded better opportunities for education and employment, most of the delegates at the Seneca Falls Convention agreed that American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

Declaration of Sentiments

A group of delegates led by Stanton produced a "Declaration of Sentiments" document, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, which stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

What this meant, among other things, was that the delegates believed women should have the right to vote.

Following the convention, the idea of voting rights for women was mocked in the press and some delegates withdrew their support for the Declaration of Sentiments. Nonetheless, Stanton and Mott persisted-they went on to spearhead additional women's rights conferences and they were eventually joined in their advocacy work by Susan B. Anthony and other activists.

National Suffrage Groups Established

With the onset of the Civil War, the suffrage movement lost some momentum, as many women turned their attention to assisting in efforts related to the conflict between the states.

After the war, women's suffrage endured another setback, when the women's rights movement found itself divided over the issue of voting rights for Black men. Stanton and some other suffrage leaders objected to the proposed 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would give Black men the right to vote, but failed to extend the same privilege to American women of any skin color.

In 1869, Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) with their eyes on a federal constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote.

That same year, abolitionists Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell founded the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA); the group's leaders supported the 15th Amendment and feared it would not pass if it included voting rights for women. ( The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870.)

The AWSA believed women's enfranchisement could best be gained through amendments to individual state constitutions. Despite the divisions between the two organizations, there was a victory for voting rights in 1869 when the Wyoming Territory granted all-female residents age 21 and older the right to vote. (When Wyoming was admitted to the Union in 1890, women's suffrage remained part of the state constitution.)

By 1878, the NWSA and the collective suffrage movement had gathered enough influence to lobby the U.S. Congress for a constitutional amendment. Congress responded by forming committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate to study and debate the issue. However, when the proposal finally reached the Senate floor in 1886, it was defeated.

In 1890, the NWSA and the AWSA merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The new organization's strategy was to lobby for women's voting rights on a state-by-state basis. Within six years, Colorado, Utah and Idaho adopted amendments to their state constitutions granting women the right to vote. In 1900, with Stanton and Anthony advancing in age, Carrie Chapman Catt stepped up to lead NAWSA.

Black Women in the Suffrage Movement

During debate over the 15th Amendment, white suffragist leaders like Stanton and Anthony had argued fiercely against Black men getting the vote before white women. Such a stance led to a break with their abolitionist allies, like Douglass, and ignored the distinct viewpoints and goals of Black women, led by prominent activists like Sojourner Truth and Frances E.W. Harper, fighting alongside them for the right to vote.

As the fight for voting rights continued, Black women in the suffrage movement continued to experience discrimination from white suffragists who wanted to distance their fight for voting rights from the question of race.

Pushed out of national suffrage organizations, Black suffragists founded their own groups, including the National Association of Colored Women Clubs (NACWC), founded in 1896 by a group of women including Harper, Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. They fought hard for the passage of the 19th Amendment, seeing the women's right to vote as a crucial tool to winning legal protections for Black women (as well as Black men) against continued repression and violence.

State-level Successes for Voting Rights

The turn of the 20th century brought renewed momentum to the women's suffrage cause. Although the deaths of Stanton in 1902 and Anthony in 1906 appeared to be setbacks, the NASWA under the leadership of Catt achieved rolling successes for women's enfranchisement at state levels.

Between 1910 and 1918, the Alaska Territory, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington extended voting rights to women.

Also during this time, through the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later, the Women's Political Union), Stanton's daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch introduced parades, pickets and marches as means of calling attention to the cause. These tactics succeeded in raising awareness and led to unrest in Washington, D.C.

Did you know? Wyoming, the first state to grant voting rights to women, was also the first state to elect a female governor. Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977) was elected governor of the Equality State-Wyoming's official nickname-in 1924. And from 1933 to 1953, she served as the first woman director of the U.S. Mint.

Protest and Progress

On the eve of the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, protesters thronged a massive suffrage parade in the nation's capital, and hundreds of women were injured. That same year, Alice Paul founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, which later became the National Woman's Party.

The organization staged numerous demonstrations and regularly picketed the White House, among other militant tactics. As a result of these actions, some group members were arrested and served jail time.

In 1918, President Wilson switched his stand on women's voting rights from objection to support through the influence of Catt, who had a less-combative style than Paul. Wilson also tied the proposed suffrage amendment to America's involvement in World War I and the increased role women had played in the war efforts.

When the amendment came up for vote, Wilson addressed the Senate in favor of suffrage. As reported in The New York Times on October 1, 1918, Wilson said, "I regard the extension of suffrage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are engaged."

However, despite Wilson's newfound support, the amendment proposal failed in the Senate by two votes. Another year passed before Congress took up the measure again.

The Final Struggle For Passage

On May 21, 1919, U.S. Representative James R. Mann, a Republican from Illinois and chairman of the Suffrage Committee, proposed the House resolution to approve the Susan Anthony Amendment granting women the right to vote. The measure passed the House 304 to 89-a full 42 votes above the required two-thirds majority.

Two weeks later, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Senate passed the 19th Amendment by two votes over its two-thirds required majority, 56-25. The amendment was then sent to the states for ratification.

Within six days of the ratification cycle, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin each ratified the amendment. Kansas, New York and Ohio followed on June 16, 1919. By March of the following year, a total of 35 states had approved the amendment, just shy of the three-fourths required for ratification.

Southern states were adamantly opposed to the amendment, however, and seven of them-Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia-had already rejected it before Tennessee's vote on August 18, 1920. It was up to Tennessee to tip the scale for woman suffrage.

The outlook appeared bleak, given the outcomes in other Southern states and given the position of Tennessee's state legislators in their 48-48 tie. The state's decision came down to 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, a Republican from McMinn County, to cast the deciding vote.

Although Burn opposed the amendment, his mother convinced him to approve it. Mrs. Burn reportedly wrote to her son: "Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the 'rat' in ratification."

With Burn's vote, the 19th Amendment was fully ratified.

When Did Women Get the Right to Vote?

On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was certified by U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, and women finally achieved the long-sought right to vote throughout the United States.

On November 2 of that same year, more than 8 million women across the U.S. voted in elections for the first time.

It took over 60 years for the remaining 12 states to ratify the 19th Amendment. Mississippi was the last to do so, on March 22, 1984.

What Is the 19 Amendment?

The 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote, and reads:

"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."

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19th Amendment - Definition, Passage & Summary

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The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 guaranteed women the right to vote. Learn how suffragists fought for the cause and hear a summary of amendment in this brief video.

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Betty Friedan argued in her book that women in the 1950s and 1960s had been encouraged to limit themselves to caring for their husbands and children. She says that men are fulfilled in the societal roles of women and have no other expectations for women. Her book conveyed that women have more roles in society than just cooking or cleaning

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The Feminine Mystique, a landmark book by feminist Betty Friedan published in 1963 that described the pervasive dissatisfaction among women in mainstream American society in the post- World War II period. She coined the term feminine mystique to describe the societal assumption that women could find fulfillment through housework, marriage, sexual passivity, and child rearing alone. Further, prevailing attitudes held that "truly feminine" women had no desire for higher education, careers, or a political voice; rather, they found complete fulfillment in the domestic sphere. Friedan, however, noted that many housewives were unsatisfied with their lives but had difficulty articulating their feelings. Friedan deemed that unhappiness and inability to live up to the feminine mystique the "problem that has no name."

Friedan's critique

Human-potential psychologists such as Abraham Maslow, popular during the late 1950s and early '60s, influenced Friedan's claim that the feminine mystique denied women their "basic human need to grow." Because that basic need for development was stunted, Friedan maintained, women would remain unhappy, and children would grow up with unfulfilled and neurotic mothers. Friedan also argued that the feminine mystique hurt women both personally and professionally, and she held that, for women as well as for men, identity was largely cultivated through a sense of personal achievement, primarily through a career.

Situating her study of women in the post-World War II era, Friedan argued that when men returned home after the war, women-who had stepped in to fill the jobs men had left in order to fight in the war-were expected to return to the home and to perform more-suitable "feminine" activities. That expectation inspired the feminine mystique. Men returning from war looked to their wives for nurturing. Furthermore, largely because of the escalating Cold War during the 1950s, the cultivation of the American nuclear family and the idealized domestic space was part of an ideological battle against Soviet Russia. Middle-class white women in particular were considered warriors in that battle, because, in representing idealized femininity, they showed the superiority of the American capitalist consumer society.

Friedan used statistics and interviews to illustrate women's desire to achieve the feminine mystique. For instance, by the end of the 1950s, 14 million girls were becoming engaged by age 17, and the average age of marriage had dropped to 20. The number of women in college dropped from 47 percent in 1920 to 35 percent in 1958. During the mid-1950s, 60 percent of female students dropped out of college to get married or to cease their higher education before they became "undesirable" on the marriage market. The media perpetuated the notion that women went to college only to land a husband-the "Mrs. Degree." From touting women's natural role as mothers and caregivers to advocating how to properly take care of one's husband, the media and the education system helped perpetuate all aspects of the feminine mystique. The American housewife who properly performed her domestic duties was deemed by the American media to be the envy of women throughout the world.

When Friedan interviewed housewives, however, she found that behaviours suggested in magazines and home economics textbooks-such as having dinner on the table when her husband returned from work and making him comfortable by taking off his shoes and offering him a drink-did not always prove fulfilling for women and that most women could not live up to that idealized feminine behaviour. Unable to attain the feminine mystique, many women spent years with psychologists who tried to help them adjust to their "feminine role," or they took tranquilizers or drank alcohol to ease their feelings of emptiness. By the early 1960s the media had recognized that suburban women were often unhappy with their roles. Some attributed that unhappiness to education; they contended that the more educated a woman was, the more likely she was to be unfulfilled as a housewife. Magazine articles further suggested better ways to find fulfillment through sex.

Friedan's own solution to the problem differed greatly from those in mainstream American society. She rejected the feminine mystique and suggested that women develop a new "life plan." Rather than being treated as a "career," housework was to be finished as quickly as possible. Friedan further contended that a woman could have a successful career as well as a family. Education, in her estimation, had less to do with reinforcing the feminine mystique than with the outright emancipation of women.

Impact and criticism

The Feminine Mystique was one of many catalysts for the second-wave feminist movement (1960s-80s). By the end of the 1980s, however, its flaws had been clearly identified. Its arguments, broadly speaking, were less relevant, because twice as many women were in the workforce as had been during the 1950s. Furthermore, feminists of colour, notably bell hooks, found Friedan's manifesto both racist and classist, not at all applicable to African Americans and other working-class women who joined the labour force from necessity. Social historian Daniel Horowitz, in Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique (1998), revealed that Friedan had been dishonest about her vantage point, which she claimed was that of a suburban mother and housewife. She had been a leftist radical activist from the time she was at Smith College. It was, he concluded, a necessary fiction if both she and her feminist ideas were to be given a chance to take root. Still other critics noted that she based some of her theories on studies that have since proved inaccurate.

Despite the ensuing criticism, the book undeniably galvanized many women to think about their roles and identities in society. Since its first publication, it has been reissued numerous times with additions-by Friedan and other feminist writers and scholars-that provide further context.
Lindsey Blake Churchill The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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The Feminine Mystique | Summary, Significance, & Facts

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The Feminine Mystique, a landmark book by feminist Betty Friedan published in 1963 that described the pervasive dissatisfaction among women in mainstream American society in the post- World War II period. She coined the term feminine mystique to describe the societal assumption that women could find fulfillment through housework, marriage, sexual passivity, and child rearing alone.

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Black women faced many difficulties throughout the 19th and 20th centuries such as being denied the right to vote. Even with the passing of the 19th amendment, black women still couldn't vote as the color of their skin didn't allow it. Once the 1965 Voting Rights were passed, only then did black women have the right to vote.

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The right to vote is a freedom that has developed with amendment after amendment since the days of independence. At first, voting was a privilege for white men. Then came Emancipation and the freedom for black men to vote. Next came women. But were black women a part of that new ruling alongside white women? When did black women get the right to vote, and when was that rightfully realized?
When could black women vote?
There are two sides to the answer to this question. One would be to say that black women were granted the right to vote when women's suffrage led to the 19th Amendment of 1920. This amendment states no one can be denied the right to vote based on sex. However, other state laws in place deliberately restricted the black vote. So, it wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that black women were fully free to vote.

Women's Suffrage in America

Before looking at the long fight for the African American woman voter, we need to look at suffrage on a wider scale. For a long time in the United States, women weren't mentioned as viable voters in the Constitution. The 15th Amendment of 1870 changed voting laws to have no restriction based on race, but there was no mention of sex.

Women fought for their right to vote, forming major organizations such as the National Woman Suffrage Association and speaking at events to publicize the cause. In 1872, Susan B Anthony carried out one of the most well-publicized stunts when she registered to vote in Rochester, New York, under the protest that she was entitled as a person of the United States. The suffrage movement continued into the 20th century and gained wider publicity via Theodore Roosevelt.

Other notable names in the suffrage movement over the years include African American suffragist Adella Hunt Logan, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass.

The 19th Amendment

Eventually, in 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, which meant that no one could be denied the right to vote based on their sex. This upgraded the voting laws within the Constitution so that, on paper at least, there was nothing to stop black American women or women of any race from standing in line to vote in the same elections as men. However, it wasn't this straightforward.

Restrictions Preventing Black Women From Voting

Even though it was now constitutional for an African American woman to vote, as there were no restrictions on sex or race, that didn't mean that they could freely do so. Attitudes towards African Americans were in a better place than they had been when women fought for equal suffrage during Emancipation. But, there was still a long way to go for equality to be realized.

Segregation continued, and some laws saw black Americans treated as second-class citizens. So, it is no surprise that states upheld laws to suppress the vote of black citizens. These measures weren't simply there to target black voters, as it was all about protecting wealthier, educated white men that wanted a firmer majority say over who came to power. But, African American women often bore the brunt of them.

One such measure was the use of the Poll Tax. This tax has been in use across many countries as a way of controlling voter numbers. Essentially, voters have to pay a fee to cast a vote. Those in poorer circumstances may be unable to pay and therefore unable to cast their vote. African Americans in poorer communities would have struggled.

There was a second hurdle to overcome in the form of literacy tests. If the Poll Tax didn't catch out poorer constituents, the literacy test could then prohibit those without a high-enough level of education. A black person that hadn't been privileged enough to achieve a formal education to that standard could easily have failed.

The Fight for Black Suffrage in the United States

There was now a new fight for black suffrage in place of the one for a national women's suffrage. The addition of the 19th Amendment wasn't enough on its own to protect the vote for everyone. More measures were needed to end these discriminatory obstacles and protect the black vote.

Some involved in the civil rights movement and black communities at the time say that the issue wasn't the same country-wide discussion anymore. It sometimes felt that once white women had won their war, there wasn't the same passion for fighting the battles that weren't quite over. This is a shame when so much of the original suffrage movement tied in with the emancipation movement and equal rights on a wider scale.

This changed in 1964 as the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum and laws changed. The 24th Amendment came in in January 1964 and ensured that the Poll Tax was abolished. Then came the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed in by President Lyndon B Johnson, that fully forbade any tactics that might suppress the right to vote.

Black Women Finally Earned the Rights Granted in the 19th Amendment

Black women now had much greater freedom to vote on a similar level to that of their white counterparts 45 years prior. It is disappointing that it took so long to bridge this gap, but perhaps not surprising considering everything that was happening with racial divides during the mid-century.

The signing in of the Voting Rights Act was an important moment for the rights of minority women when it comes to elections. But, it is important to remember that that doesn't mean that all women citizens of the United States can vote right now.

There is still the issue of the rights of United States citizens residing in territories like Puerto Rico, who can pay their taxes without representation and not be allowed to vote for President in their homeland. The course of history for the black women's vote is long and complicated due to race relations in the United States and the impact of state laws. Suffrage for women in America in 1920 with the 19th Amendment wasn't the end of the matter. It would go on for 45 more years until the freedom of black women to vote was truly accomplished.

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When Could Black Women Vote? - African American Women's Suffrage

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The right to vote is a freedom that has developed with amendment after amendment since the days of independence. At first, voting was a privilege for white men. Then came Emancipation and the freedom for black men to vote. Next came women. But were black women a part of that new ruling alongside white women?

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The Women's Strike for Equality was a strike which took place on August 26, 1970. It celebrated the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote. The rally was organized by the National Organization for Women (NOW).

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The Women's Strike for Equality was a nationwide demonstration for women's rights held on August 26, 1970, the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage. It was described by Time magazine as "the first big demonstration of the Women's Liberation movement." The leadership called the object of the rallies "the unfinished business of equality."

Organized by NOW

The Women's Strike for Equality was organized by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and its then-president Betty Friedan. At a NOW conference in March 1970, Betty Friedan called for the Strike for Equality, asking women to stop working for a day to draw attention to the prevalent problem of unequal pay for women's work. She then headed the National Women's Strike Coalition to organize the protest, which used "Don't Iron While the Strike is Hot!" among other slogans.

Fifty years after women were granted the right to vote in the United States, feminists were again taking a political message to their government and demanding equality and more political power. The Equal Rights Amendment was being discussed in Congress, and the protesting women warned politicians to pay attention or risk losing their seats in the next election.

Nationwide Demonstrations

The Women's Strike for Equality took various forms in more than ninety cities across the United States. Here are a few examples:

New York, home to radical feminist groups such as New York Radical Women and Redstockings, had the largest protest. Tens of thousands marched down Fifth Avenue; others demonstrated at the Statue of Liberty and stopped the stock ticker on Wall Street.

New York City issued a proclamation declaring Equality Day.

Los Angeles had a smaller protest, numbering in the hundreds, including women who stood holding a vigil for women's rights.

In Washington D.C., women marched on Connecticut Avenue with a banner that read "We Demand Equality" and lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment. Petitions with more than 1,500 names were presented to the Senate majority leader and minority floor leader.

Detroit women who worked at the Detroit Free Press kicked men out of one of their restrooms, protesting the fact that men had two bathrooms while women had one.

Women who worked for a New Orleans newspaper ran pictures of the grooms instead of the brides in engagement announcements.

International Solidarity: French women marched in Paris, and Dutch women marched at the U.S. embassy in Amsterdam.

Nationwide Attention

Some people called the demonstrators anti-feminine or even Communist. The Women's Strike for Equality made the front page of national newspapers such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. It was also covered by the three broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, which was the pinnacle of extensive television news coverage in 1970.

The Women's Strike for Equality is often remembered as the first major protest of the Women's Liberation movement, even though there had been other protests by feminists, some of which also received media attention. The Women's Strike for Equality was the largest protest for women's rights at that time.

The next year, Congress passed a resolution declaring August 26 Women's Equality Day. Bella Abzug was inspired by the Women's Strike for Equality to introduce the bill promoting the holiday.

Signs of the Times

Some articles from the New York Times from the time of the demonstrations illustrate some of the context of the Women's Strike for Equality.

The New York Times featured an article a few days before the August 26 rallies and anniversary titled "Liberation Yesterday: The Roots of the Feminist Movement." Under a photograph of suffragettes [sic] marching down Fifth Avenue, the paper also asked the question: "Fifty years ago, they won the vote.

Did they throw victory away?" The article pointed to both the earlier and the then-current feminist movements as rooted in work for civil rights, peace, and radical politics, and noted that the women's movement both times was rooted in recognizing that both black people and women were treated as second-class citizens.

Press Coverage

In an article on the day of the march, the Times noted that "Traditional Groups Prefer to Ignore Women's Lib." "The problem for such groups as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the League of Women Voters, The Junior League and the Young Women's Christian Association is what attitude to take toward the militant women's liberation movement."

The article included quotes about "ridiculous exhibitionists" and "a band of wild lesbians." The article quoted Mrs. Saul Schary [sic] of the National Council of Women: "There's no discrimination against women like they say there is. Women themselves are just self-limiting. It's in their nature and they shouldn't blame it on society or men."

In the kind of paternalistic belittling of the feminist movement and women that feminism criticized, a headline the next day in the New York Times noted that Betty Friedan was 20 minutes late for her appearance at the Women's Strike for Equality: "Leading Feminist Puts Hairdo Before Strike." the article also noted what she wore and where she'd purchased it, and that he had her hair done at the Vidal Sassoon Salon on Madison Avenue.

She was quoted saying "I don't want people to think Women's Lib girls don't care about how they look. We should try to be as pretty as we can. It's good for our self-image and it's good politics." The article noted that "The vast majority of women interviewed strongly endorsed the traditional concept of woman as a mother and a homemaker who can, and sometimes even should, supplement these activities with a career or with volunteer work."

In yet another article, the New York Times asked two women partners in Wall Street firms what they thought of "picketing, denouncing men and bra-burning?" Muriel F. Siebert, chairman [sic] of Muriel F. Siebert & Co., replied: "I like men and I like brassieres." She was also quoted saying "There's no reason to go to college, get married and then stop thinking. People should be able to do what they're capable of doing and there's no reason why a woman doing the same job as a man should be paid less."

This article has been edited by and considerable additional material added by Jone Johnson Lewis.

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Why the Women's Strike for Equality in 1970 Was Important

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The Women's Strike for Equality was a nationwide demonstration for women's rights held on August 26, 1970, the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage. It was described by Time magazine as "the first big demonstration of the Women's Liberation movement." The leadership called the object of the rallies "the unfinished business of equality."

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Hillary Clinton gave a speech at the U.N that talked about that addressed how women's rights should be considered equal. Her speech fueled feminism and promoted gender equality. Her speech included various aspects of human rights such as education, jobs, economic participation, etc. She proved herself a major supporter of women's rights and encouraged others to follow.

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‘Women’s Rights are Human Rights,’ 25 years on

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Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech at a UN conference propelled this idea into the mainstream after centuries of society sidelining gender equality as “women’s issues.”