The campaign for the women’s suffrage movement began before the civil war. In the 20s and 30s, the majority of states have extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had. It would be much longer until women got the right to vote.
During this time, all sorts of reform groups existed in the States, such as religious movements, moral-reform societies and anti-slavery organizations. Women often played an important role behind these organization.
The women suffrage movement then later took off in 1848, at a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Together, woman suffrage supporters educated the public about women’s rights. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton among many others started petitions and lobbied congress to pass a constitutional amendment to enfranchise women.
Women of the movement wanted to pass reform legislation, but seeing that many politicians wouldn’t listen, they realized that in order to achieve reform, they needed to win the right to vote. Soon enough, at the turn of the century, the woman suffrage movement become a mass movement.
In the 20th century, two organizations came about from the movement; the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and the National Woman’s Party (NWP). NAWSA was lead by Carrie Chapman Catt, and they took campaigns to enfranchise women in individual states, and lobbied to pass a woman suffrage Constitutional Amendment. The NWP was a more militant organization, and was under the leadership of Alice Paul. They took more radical actions, like picketing the White House, in order to convince Wilson and Congress to pass a woman suffrage amendment.
Because of both the NAWSA and NWP activism, the 19th Amendment, enfranchising women, was finally ratified. This was one of the most significant achievements of women in the Progressive Era.
The 19th amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, and on November 2nd of that year, over 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time.
Works Cited:
https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/woman-suffrage-movement
https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
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