Women’s Right to Vote

Women’s Right to Vote By Mikenna Rogowsky

Injustice • Women could not vote, own property or be educated for certain jobs. They were considered to be “second class citizens”. • The United States Constitution didn’t contain specifics on voting, so each state and territory decided who could vote. • Many people (mostly women) thought that women should have equal rights.

The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 • One of the very first conventions addressing women’s rights • Over 300 women (and men) attended • Marked the beginning of the women’s rights movement

Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty? The struggle lasted for 72 years! But the women did not give up, instead they… • Organized parades • Made banners • Picketed the White House • Protested in many other ways

Suffragettes Protested

Then protested some more

Do not pay my bail! Women were so passionate about their cause that they were willing to go to jail for it. • They were poorly treated in jail. • While there, many women went on hunger strikes and were harshly force fed.

Success "Amendment XIX (1920) 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.Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Women all over America could finally vote!

Fear Not! What men feared would happen: • Women would not vote responsibly. • Households and marriages would be destroyed. • Women would not be smart enough to vote. What actually happened: • Women’s voting trends were very similar to men’s. • Households and marriages went on just as they always had. • Women began to get equal educations and rights in the workplace.

Anything boys can do, girls can do better… Getting the right to vote was the first step in working toward equality for women – in the workplace, in education, and in politics.

Changed forever… • So many • women would • not have been • able to impact • the world Life would be extremely different if women did not have their rights today. Women would mostly stay at home as housewives.

If women had not gotten the right to vote… I think that women would not have given up. Generations would have continued to fight for what they believed in.

Bibliography Primary Sources: http://m.alfavita.gr/ http://www.zazzle.com http://schoolworkhelper.net http://genealogy.about.com http://www.achieve.org http://historysheroes.e2bn.org http://commons.wikimedia.org http://www.clarke.public.lib.ga.us http://youelclasssecondgrade.wikispaces.com http://newsone.com http://www.indynewsisrael.com http://memory.loc.gov (Library of Congress) http://www.educationworld.com Secondary Sources: • Bausum, Ann. With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2004. Print. • Crewe, Sabrina, and Dale Anderson. The Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. Milwaukee, WI: G. Stevens Pub., 2005. Print. • Furbee, Mary R. Outrageous Women of Civil War times. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Print. • Hemming, Heidi, and Julie Hemming. Savage. Women Making America. Silver Spring, MD: Clotho, 2009. Print.

Madam President Women now run for, and win, state and national elections! There have been female presidential candidates! (Although none have gotten a major party nomination)

I am woman, hear me roar… “Women are not in rebellion against men. They are in rebellion against worn-out traditions.” –Carrie Chapman Catt “The right to become citizens of the state is the next and inevitable consequence of education and work outside the home. We have gone so far; we must go farther. We cannot go back.”-Martha Carey Thomas “I feel that every atom of American self respect within me has been outraged.”-Elizabeth McShane “In prison or out, American women are not free… Disfranchisement is the prison of women’s power and spirit.”-Katharine Rolston Fisher “How is it that people fail to see our fight as part of the great American struggle for democracy?”-Alice Paul

Women’s Right to Vote