Transcript Women’s Suffrage Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America (1840)     Alexis de Tocqueville was a French citizen who traveled to America and wrote about his observations.

Women’s Suffrage
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Alexis de Tocqueville:
Democracy in America (1840)
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Alexis de Tocqueville was a
French citizen who traveled to
America and wrote about his
observations of American culture
and politics.
In Democracy in America, he
discusses how Americans viewed
the equality of the sexes.
Tocqueville acknowledged that
women were not completely equal
in American society, but he also
claimed that they enjoyed greater
equality here than in Europe.
“Americans do not think that man
and woman have either the duty
or the right to perform the same
offices, but they show an equal
regard for both their respective
parts; and though their lot is
different, they consider both of
them as beings of equal value.”
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The Seneca Falls Declaration
(1848)
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The Seneca Falls Declaration
of 1848 outlined the women's
rights movement of the mid19th century.
As can be seen in the opening
passages, the document was
modeled after the Declaration
of Independence.
“…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; that to secure
these rights governments are
instituted, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the
governed. “
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Susan B. Anthony: In Favor of
Women's Suffrage (1872)
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In this speech, given following her
arrest for attempting to vote in the
1872 election, Anthony argues
that respect for America's
fundamental principles requires
that women be allowed to vote.
“In thus voting, I not only
committed no crime, but, instead,
simply exercised my citizen's right,
guaranteed to me and all United
States citizens by the National
Constitution, beyond the power of
any State to deny.”
“It was we, the people, not we, the
white male citizens, nor yet we,
the male citizens; but we, the
whole people, who formed this
Union. And we formed it, not to
give the blessings or liberty, but to
secure them; not to the half of
ourselves and the half of our
posterity, but to the whole peoplewomen as well as men. “
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Agnes Nestor: Working Her
Fingers to the Bone (1898)
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Beginning in the late 19th century, the rapid
increase in the number of women in the work
force reflected a significant shift in the role and
status of women in American culture.
As women become more economically
empowered, their methods and scope of
organization also became increasingly more
apparent and often tied to labor disputes.
Such disputes often provided the impetus for
organized movements to achieve suffrage with
the general understanding that political influence
would provide women with greater protection in
the work place.
Agnes Nestor was a factory worker who played a
substantial role in the emerging women's labor
movement.
This reminiscence by Nestor described how the
oppressive conditions of the glove factory pushed
her to take a leading role in a successful strike of
female glove workers in 1898.
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Alice Stone Blackwell: The
Military Argument (1897)
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Alice Stone Blackwell made a strong
argument against the connection
between eligibility for serving in the
armed forces and suffrage.
“’ The insuperable objection to woman
suffrage is fundamental and functional,
and Nature alone is responsible for it,
since she has created man combatant
and woman non-combatant.’ If this
theory were correct, all men who can
fight would be admitted to the ballot
box, and all men who cannot fight
would be excluded.”
“It must be rendered that if women do
not render military service, they do
render equivalent service to their
country in another way, since it is the
women who bring all the soldiers into
the world. This ought in all fairness to
be taken as an offset for the military
service which is not required for them.”
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Women’s Suffrage Map
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Headquarters of an Anti-Suffrage
Group (c.1910)
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Opposition to the goal of women’s suffrage came from many arenas. Some
objected because they believed that women would only duplicate the voting
of their husbands, while others believed that women were unable to exert
the rational thought that voting required.
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Anti-Suffrage Pamphlet (c.1910)
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“Housewives!
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You do not need a ballot to clean out
your sink spout. A handful of potash
and some boiling water is quicker and
cheaper…
Why vote for pure food laws, when
your husband does that, while you can
purify your Ice-box with saleratus
water?”
“Vote NO on Woman Suffrage
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BECAUSE 90% of the women either do
not want it, or do not care.
BECAUSE it means competition of
women with men instead of cooperation.
BECAUSE 80% of the women eligible
to vote are married and can only
double or annul their husband’s
votes…
BECAUSE in some States more voting
women than voting men will place the
Government under petticoat rule.
BECAUSE it is unwise to risk the good
we already have for the evil which may
occur. “
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Alice Miller: Why We Don't Want
Men to Vote (1915)
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Alice Miller was a prominent writer who
often expounded on topics relevant to
women. Here she satirizes the
viewpoints of many men who wanted to
deny women the right to vote.
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“Why We Don't Want Men to Vote
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Because man's place is in the army.
Because no really manly man wants to
settle any question otherwise than by
fighting about it.
Because if men should adopt peaceable
methods women will no longer look up to
them.
Because men will lose their charm if they
step out of their natural sphere and
interest themselves in other matters than
feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
Because men are too emotional to vote.
Their conduct at baseball games and
political conventions shows this, while
their innate tendency to appeal to force
renders them unfit for government.”
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"Kaiser Wilson"
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During World War I, militant
suffragists, demanding that
President Wilson reverse
his opposition to a federal
amendment, stood vigil at
the White House and
carried banners such as
this one comparing the
President to Kaiser Wilhelm
II of Germany.
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In the heated patriotic
climate of wartime, such
tactics met with hostility and
sometimes violence and
arrest.
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Carrie Chapman Catt: Do you
know? (1918)
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This work was intended to inform about the
status of women’s suffrage across the
globe and point out how far behind
America was up to that point in time.
Catt also stressed the importance of
suffrage for women working to secure their
rights as citizens.
“DO YOU KNOW that the movement for
woman suffrage is just a part of the eternal
forward march of the human race toward a
complete democracy; that in the American
colonies only a very small proportion of the
men could vote; that even after the
Revolution only property-holders could
vote; that it was only by slow and hardfought stage that all men finally won the
right to vote; and that in most foreign
countries the franchise for men is still
heavily loaded with restrictions?...
DO YOU KNOW one single sound, logical
reason why the intelligence and
individuality of women should not entitle
them to the rights and privileges of selfgovernment?”
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Women's Voting Rights
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Possibly the biggest change in the political landscape of the 20th century has been
the enfranchisement of women. When the century began, only one small country
(New Zealand) allowed women to vote, but now, only one small country (Kuwait) does
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not allow women to vote.
Chronology of Women’s Suffrage
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1869 Wyoming Territory grants suffrage to women.
1870 Utah Territory grants suffrage to women.
1880 New York state grants school suffrage to women.
1890 Wyoming joins the union as the first state with voting
rights for women. By 1900 women also have full suffrage in
Utah, Colorado and Idaho.
New Zealand is the first nation to give women suffrage.
1902 Women of Australia are enfranchised.
1906 Women of Finland are enfranchised.
1912 Suffrage referendums are passed in Arizona, Kansas,
and Oregon.
1914 Montana and Nevada grant voting rights to women.
1915 Women of Denmark are enfranchised.
1917 Women win the right to vote in North Dakota, Ohio,
Indiana, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Michigan, New York, and
Arkansas.
1918 Women of Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia,
Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, and Wales
are enfranchised.
1919 Women of Azerbaijan Republic, Belgium, British East
Africa, Holland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Rhodesia, and
Sweden are enfranchised.
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Passage of the 19th Amendment
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Passed in 1919
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“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.”
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Multimedia Citation
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Slide 1: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/jb/jazz/jb_jazz_19tham_1_e.jpg
Slide 2: http://clarke.cmich.edu/detroit/images/tocqueville.jpg
Slide 3: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/images/2003/ElizabethCadyStanton.jpg
Slide 4: http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/00000113.htm
Slide 5: http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/images/hall/nestor.jpg
Slide 6: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3b30000/3b39000/3b39700/3b39726r.jpg
Slide 7: http://www.constitutioncenter.org/timeline/html/cw08_12159.html
Slide 8: http://womenshistory.about.com/library/pic/bl_p_opposed_suffrage_hq.htm
Slide 9: http://www.jwa.org/teach/primarysources/orgrec_08.pdf
Slide 10: http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/current/miller_feature/intro_mainframe.htm#
Slide 11: http://www.archives.gov/global-pages/larger-image.html?i=/education/lessons/womansuffrage/images/kaiser-wilson-l.gif&c=/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/images/kaiser-wilson.caption.html
Slide 12: http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/exhibits/suffrage/CCCatt.jpg
Slide 13: http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/fem-vote.htm
Slide 14: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/jb/jazz/jb_jazz_19tham_1_e.jpg
Slide 15: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/amendment_19/images/amendment_19.gif
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