Women’s Suffrage
FROM THE AGE OF REFORM TO THE
PROGRESSIVE ERA
UCI HISTORY PROJECT
TAH GRANT
8/16/11
The Beginning
THE AGE OF REFORM THROUGH
RECONSTRUCTION
The Second Great
Awakening was a
religious revival
movement of the 1830s
and 1840s.
The Second Great Awakening
Women were active
participants in the
movement and were
ultimately inspired to
move beyond the home
into community reform
activities and projects,
especiall ones that
involved children, the
infirm, education, or the
family.
The Second Great Awakening
Note the signature of
Frederick Douglass.
Many supporters of
abolition were also
supporters of women’s
rights.
The Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Bloomers
Lucretia Mott
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Sojourner Truth
The 14th Amendment
 Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the
several States according to their respective numbers, counting
the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians
not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the
choice of electors for President and Vice President of the
United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and
Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the
United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation
in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein
shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of
such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
The 15th Amendment
 Section 1. 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 race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
 Section 2. The Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The Movement Gains Force
THE PROGRESSIVE ERA
1890 TO 1920
Key Milestones
 1890: NWSA and AWSA merge to form the National American
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Woman Suffrage Association.
1907: Spectacular tactics—parades, street speakers, pickets—
are introduced to the US campaign.
1912—The Progressive Party includes a woman suffrage plank
in its platform.
1912—The National Women’s Party forms and embraces more
radical tactics, such as daily pickets of the White House and
public burning of Wilson’s speech.
1919—The House and Senate approve the 19th Amendment.
1920—3/4 of the states ratify the 19th Amendment and women
gain the unconditional right to vote (unless they are Chinese
or Native American…)
Susan B. Anthony
Carrie Chapman Catt
The Western United
States was ahead of the
South and the East in
terms of granting
women’s suffrage.
Suffrage in California
 Failed initiative in 1896
 In 1910, Progressives took over the Republican Party in
CA and this gave women new hope.
 They campaigned up and down the state for 8 months,
focusing on more supportive rural areas.
 Supporters of suffrage used modern advertising
methods: slogans, giant posters, billboards, buttons,
leaflets, pennants, banners, electric signs, and lantern
slides, even grocery bags recommending suffrage “For
Home and Family.”
 They won by 3, 587 out of 246,487 cast—mainly due to
rural support.
Key Slogans
 “THE DIRTY POOL OF POLITICS—Can we clean it?
Give us a chance!”
 “Justice for California Women—Give your girl an
equal chance with your boy.”
 “EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK—Regardless of
Sex.”
 …and many signs comparing California to other
Western states where women could vote to foster a
competitive spirit.
Massachusetts Campaign for Suffrage
Drawing on Revolutionary Rhetoric in the East
Historigraphy
ELLEN DUBOIS—UCLA
GAYLE GULLETT—UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Opposition
ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, REGIONAL, MORAL
Anti-Suffrage Interests
1. Businesses
2. Politicians
3. Regional Politics
4. Defenders of the Home
Looking
Backward
Probably the most
effective argument
against women’s right
to vote was that it
would damage the
family and therefore
ultimately be harmful
to women themselves.
Laura Foster, Life
Magazine, 1912
Alice Duer Miller—Writer, journalist, suffrage
activist (1915)
Why We Don't Want Men to Vote
 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.