Suffragists
The Suffragists were the toughest group of rabble-rousing rebels ever to wreak havoc on a system stuck in the past. Along the way they were spit on, beaten up, and ridiculed by all sides. But these women were on fire for something they knew we all deserved-they were fighting for you, and your right to vote.
That's right-not so long ago women weren't considered human enough to qualify as full citizens. Pretty incredible, huh? In fact, it was less than eighty years ago that American women cast their first vote. For most of our nation's history, women have had no say in the government or how it was run. That was when the fighting suffragists hit the scene.
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Credit these maverick women for changing your life. The two women who laid the groundwork for our freedom to vote never got a chance to voice their choice. Already activists for women's rights, Anthony and Stanton attended the landmark women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 and started a movement that would long outlive them.
Susan B. Anthony quickly emerged as the leader of the American women's rights movement and along with Stanton, her lifetime pal, formally introduced the American Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution in 1878. Informally called the Anthony Amendment, it was first voted on and got shot down in 1886. Anthony and Stanton weren't around to cast the first ballots, but they trained an army of suffragists who saw their work through to its constitutional finish.
It was a long, messy, and exhausting fight, spanning generations of fighting women. But in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing that no state could deny the right to vote on the basis of sex.
Excerpted from the book Cool Women with permission of publisher, Girl Press.
Learn More About Suffragists
Suffragists Biographies
http://www.rochester.edu/SBA/suffrag.html
This site contains brief biographies on several women suffragists.
Women's Rights Timeline
http://www.legacy98.org/timeline.html
Find out more about the movement with this detailed timeline of the Women's Rights Movement from 1848 to the present.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Biography
http://www.nps.gov/wori/ecs.htm
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a primary leader in the women's rights movement. Read about her contributions to the political and social freedom of women in America.
Historical Gazette: Women Vote
http://www.aracnet.com/~histgaz/hgv3n5.htm
Read about the day in 1920 when women won the right to vote after 72 years effort and struggle.
return
|
