Women's suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels, during the late 19th century and early 20th century, culminating in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided: "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."
The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 formulated the demand for women's suffrage; after the Civil War agitation for the cause resumed. In 1869 the proposed Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave the vote to black men, split the movement. Campaigners such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton refused to endorse the amendment, as it did not give the vote to women. Others, such as Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe argued that if black men were enfranchised, it would help women achieve their goal. The conflict caused two organizations to emerge, the National Woman Suffrage Association, which campaigned for women's suffrage at a federal level as well as for married women to be given property rights, and the American Woman Suffrage Association, which aimed to secure women's suffrage through state legislation. The groups merged and after 1900 made a new argument to the effect that women's alleged superior characteristics, especially purity, immunity from corruption and concern with children and local issues, made their votes essential to promoting the reforms of the Progressive Era. Women's contributions to American participation in the First World War (1917–18) gave the impetus for final victory.
Read more about Women's Suffrage In The United States: Beginnings, Civil War, National American Woman Suffrage Association, Opposition, National Woman's Party, World War I, Internal Divisions, Woman Suffrage in Individual States, National Efforts, Nineteenth Amendment
Famous quotes containing the words united states, women, suffrage, united and/or states:
“I feel most at home in the United States, not because it is intrinsically a more interesting country, but because no one really belongs there any more than I do. We are all there together in its wholly excellent vacuum.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)
“Every relationship that does not raise us up pulls us down, and vice versa; this is why men usually sink down somewhat when they take wives while women are usually somewhat raised up. Overly spiritual men require marriage every bit as much as they resist it as bitter medicine.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Gentlemen, those confederate flags and our national standard are what has made this union great. In what other country could a man who fought against you be permitted to serve as judge over you, be permitted to run for reelection and bespeak your suffrage on Tuesday next at the poles.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“Before abstraction everything is one, but one like chaos; after abstraction everything is united again, but this union is a free binding of autonomous, self-determined beings. Out of a mob a society has developed, chaos has been transformed into a manifold world.”
—Novalis [Friedrich Von Hardenberg] (1772–1801)
“The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)