Women's Suffrage in America: A History of the Movement

Colonial Roots of Women's Suffrage

The history of women's suffrage in America can trace its roots back to the 1630s and Anne Hutchinson, who was convicted of sedition and expelled from the Massachusetts colony for her religious ideas — among them the belief that women should be involved in religious discussions and decision-making within the church. It was the Quakers, however, who made a truly significant contribution to women's suffrage by preaching equality not only among the sexes but among all human beings.

The subject lingered until the American colonies declared their independence from Britain. During the Continental Congress, John Adams' wife, Abigail, wrote to her husband begging him to "remember the ladies" in the new laws he was instrumental in writing. Following this ideal, the state of New Jersey in 1790 granted the vote to all free inhabitants. However, the state rescinded that right when a politician was nearly defeated by a group of female voters who opposed his candidacy. In retaliation, the legislature repealed the law allowing all free inhabitants to vote and restricted voting to free men.

The Seneca Falls Convention and Early Organizing

The real impetus for the women's suffrage movement came in 1838 when Sarah Grimké published Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women. Along with her sister Angelina, the Grimké sisters were instrumental in organizing the early women's rights groups. Two other pivotal figures were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who organized the first convention ever held to "discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of woman" (Keyssar, 2000, p. 173). The convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, with over 300 people in attendance — including Amelia Bloomer, Charlotte Woodward, and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

While women did receive some rights in the mid-1800s, it was not until 1869 that the territory of Wyoming granted unrestricted suffrage to women. Other territories and states soon followed, including Utah in 1870 and Washington Territory in 1883, but eastern states did not follow suit. An 1887 referendum in Rhode Island failed to pass, and some states that had extended women's suffrage began to curtail those rights. As the 1890s arrived, many of the advances women had made were being rolled back, and women were being silenced once again.

The Abolitionist Connection

Why would the abolitionist Frederick Douglass attend a convention discussing the rights of women? Because the women's suffrage movement was, in large part, an offshoot of the abolitionist movement. Abolitionists were among the very few who allowed women to participate in public events, including political discussions about slavery. Some women became not merely participants in the abolitionist movement, but leaders. For the first time, women engaged in petition drives, public speaking, writing articles, and organizing other women to do the same.

This kind of activity was decidedly outside what was considered the "proper place" for women. During the mid-1800s, women were expected to be seen but not heard. Women were regarded as extensions of their husbands or fathers and were completely dependent upon them for everything. Women were not supposed to go out in public without a male chaperone, were barred from engaging in politics or any other public discourse, and in some places did not have the right to own property, conduct business, or enter into legal transactions. They could not sue in court and were generally excluded from all activities in the public sphere.

It was the abolitionists who first allowed women to participate in — and even lead — public debates over slavery. As women engaged in the fight against the enslavement of African Americans, some within the abolitionist movement began to draw parallels between the struggle for the freedom of enslaved people and the struggle for women's rights. This connection became starkly apparent at the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840, where two American women were barred from participating because of their gender. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were turned away from the convention, but they returned to America and began working toward holding a women's rights convention on American soil. This effort became the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, widely recognized as the "first women's rights convention ever held in the world" (Pankhurst, 1977, p. 95).

References

"35 Years of Ensuring the Promise of Opportunity." Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved from

Jorgensen-Earp, Cheryl. (1999). Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses.

Keyssar, Alexander. (2000). The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. New York: Basic Books.

"19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920)." ourdocuments.gov. Retrieved from http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=63

Pankhurst, E. Sylvia. (1977). The Suffragette Movement: An Intimate Account of Persons and Ideals. London: Virago.