Suffering for Suffrage
1848-1919
A brief outline of the struggle for the
right to vote
By Scott Marsden with help from Nancy Case
Introduction Activities
• Students in pairs
• Journal: Who are the important women in your
life? What do they do that makes them important?
• Report out to one another and then share answers
and write on board.
• Describe a time when women were treated
unfairly in our society. Who can give me
examples?
• Write on board—students copy examples in
notebook.
Transition to Through Activity
• Personal example: my mom and high school
counselor
• Solicit reactions to mom’s story
• While passing out materials (level-like
study guides) say, “Now we are going to
take a look at how women fought for
equality in our country.”
Suffrage Vocabulary
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Suffrage
Divorce
Abolitionist
Advocates(n)
Sentiments
Radical
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Conservative
Priority
Justified
Resistance
Tyranny
Ratification
Sheltering Strategies
• L1 and L2: give an outline of presentation
with almost all text. Some words left blank.
Cloze activity—fill in blanks with some
words. Draw/sketch pictures.
• L3 and L4: Take notes.
• All ELL/mainstream students: Write
captions to pictures.
Women’s Rights Convention
Seneca Falls -1848
• Organized by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Lucretia Mott
• Sought better divorce laws,
education, property rights
• Split over women votingconsidered too radical
• “Declaration of Rights and
Sentiments” modeled on
Declaration of Independence
Lucretia Mott
(Library of Congress)
Division in Women’s Movement
over 14th and 15th Amendments
• Split between abolitionists and suffrage
advocates over 14th and 15th Amendments
• 14th Amendment (1868) - Citizen defined
as male, not female.
• 15th Amendment (1870) - Gave vote to
African-American men, but not to women.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony thought that women should take
priority over former slaves
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony vs. Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
(Maryland State Archives)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
And Susan B. Anthony
(Library of Congress)
Rival Groups Formed
• 1869 - American Women’s Suffrage
Association founded by Lucy Stone
• AWSA more conservative - supported
14th and 15th Amendments
• National Woman Suffrage Association
(NWSA) founded by Anthony and
Stanton
• NWSA more radical - wanted universal
suffrage (16th Amendment)
Why did Anthony and Stanton not want
to give the vote to African-American
males? Were they justified?
Lucy Stone
(Library of Congress)
Susan B. Anthony
(Library of Congress)
1872 – The Great Vote-In
• 1872 - Great Vote-In
(Anthony, Sojourner
Truth, others) tried to
vote in Presidential
Election.
• Sojourner Truth was
turned away.
• Arrest and trial of
Susan B. Anthony
• “Resistance to tyranny
is obedience to God” Anthony
Sojourner Truth
Library of Congress
National Association of
Colored Women
NACW Formed In 1896
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Mary Church Terrell
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Harriet Tubman
Margaret Murry Washington
Fanny Jackson Coppin
Charlotte Forten Grimke
Ida B. Wells
(Library of Congress)
Mary Church Terrell
(Library of Congress)
“Apotheosis of Suffrage” - 1896
• Apotheosis = making
into a god
• Why is George
Washington wearing
a skirt?
• What point is the
artist making about
the suffrage
movement?
George Yost Coffin
(Library of Congress)
Suffrage Parade
New York City - May 12, 1912
(Library of Congress)
Alice Paul
• Employed radical tactics she learned
from Emmeline Pankhurst in Britain
• Hunger strikes, picketing, chaining
themselves to buildings
• Organized 6-days a week
demonstrations in front of White
House in 1917, leading to arrests
• Hundreds arrested and thrown in
prison
• “Iron-Jawed Angels” force-fed in
prison
(Library of Congress)
“Mr. President,
How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?” (1917)
Library of Congress
Pretend you are one of these women.
Write a quick journal entry about how you feel.
19th Amendment and Beyond
• 1918 - “Anthony Amendment” adopted in
House
• 1919 - Amendment passed Senate
• August 21, 1920 - Ratification completed
• 1923 - Alice Paul and the Women’s Party
introduced Equal Rights Amendment
• 1972 - ERA passes Congress
• 1982 - ERA fails to gain approval of 2/3 vote
of states.
Beyond Activities
• Go home and ask an older female relative,
“Do you think women are treated equally
with men?”
• Ask her to give an example or tell a story of
an time when she was treated unfairly
• What do you think are women’s roles in
society today?