Women's Suffrage - Women & the American Story

Women’s SuffrageLee Boomer2025-02-10T10:20:34-05:00

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Woman Suffrage

Key Ideas

1. The fight for women’s suffrage took on new urgency in this era due to the social reform movements of the period.

2. Women of diverse racial, economic, and social backgrounds campaigned for the right to vote using a variety of strategies and tactics.

3. There was a powerful anti-suffrage movement that campaigned against granting women suffrage.

4. The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment outlawed voting discrimination on the basis of sex, but it was not the end of the story.

Introduction

A horizontal pennant, or flag that tapers, reading

“Votes for Women” Pennant, 1910-1920, United States. The New York Historical

Women’s Suffrage

The fight for women’s suffrage dates back to the founding of the United States, but it took on new urgency at the turn of the 20th century.

The rise of social reform and progressive politics convinced many women that they needed the right to vote to make lasting change in the country. Membership in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) jumped from 13,000 in 1893 to around 75,000 in 1910.

Demonstrations and parades took the movement into the streets and raised public awareness. But there were many divisions within the movement. There was a fundamental disagreement over whether the movement should seek a constitutional amendment or take a state-by-state approach. Some suffragists used militant, confrontational tactics to raise awareness, while others emphasized women’s special domestic qualities to rebrand themselves as non-threatening reformers. Although women of diverse backgrounds campaigned across the nation, the movement’s leadership remained predominantly white and middle class. Women of color were forced to fight on the margins and faced racism from suffragists who saw social justice issues as an unnecessary distraction. Finally, not all women wanted the vote. These anti-suffragists vehemently campaigned to maintain the status quo.

Explore the progress of women’s voting rights using these resources, including a video timeline!

For more on women’s activism, please check out our digital exhibition Women March.

Section Essential Questions

1. Why was obtaining the vote critically important to so many women?

2. What were the arguments and tactics suffragists and anti-suffragists used to promote their respective sides?

3. How did race, class, and geography factor into the debate over suffrage and ultimately shape how different women were able to participate in the movement?

4. What challenges did the suffrage movement face after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920?

Resources

TOGETHER FOR HOME AND FAMILY

A poster that demonstrates how suffragists tried to convince men to vote for women’s suffrage.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, women's rights movement, women’s suffrage, propaganda, New York

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST SUFFRAGE

A pair of documents that present competing arguments for and against women gaining the right to vote.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, social reform, women's rights movement, women’s suffrage, New York

BLACK SUFFRAGISTS

An article about why the right to vote was particularly important to Black women.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, women's rights movement, women’s suffrage, Black history, race and racism

SOUTHERN ANTI-SUFFRAGE

A photograph that demonstrates Southern anti-suffragist campaigns were closely aligned with efforts to glorify and preserve the Old South.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women’s rights, women’s suffrage, anti-suffrage, Jim Crow, race and racism, white supremacy, the Lost Cause, Tennessee

REACHING SPANISH-SPEAKING VOTERS

A broadside that illuminates how Spanish-speaking suffragists campaigned in their communities.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women’s rights, women’s suffrage, Hispanic history, Latinx history, California

RACE AND THE SUFFRAGE PARADE

A collection of sources that reveal how suffrage leaders discriminated against Black suffragists, and how Black suffragists responded.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women’s rights, women’s suffrage, Black history, Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, National American Woman Suffrage Association [NAWSA], California

MABEL LEE ON THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT

Women’s suffrage arguments from Chinese American suffragist Mabel Lee.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women’s rights, women’s suffrage, AAPI history, Chinese Exclusion, Chinese Americans, New York

RACE AND SUFFRAGE

Two sources that illustrate that anti-suffragists campaigned on the belief that granting women the right to vote would undermine laws that restricted voting for people of color.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women’s rights, women’s suffrage, anti-suffrage, Jim Crow, race and racism, white supremacy

SUFFRAGE STUNTS

A collection of resources that demonstrate the extreme measures taken by militant suffragists to raise awareness about their cause.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women’s rights, women’s suffrage, Alice Paul, civil disobedience, New York

ELECTION DAY 1920

A front-page story about Election Day 1920, the first national election after the Nineteenth Amendment outlawed voting discrimination on the basis of sex.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women's rights movement, women’s suffrage, Nineteenth Amendment, West Virginia

THE NAACP FIGHTS TO PROTECT VOTERS

An excerpt from Congressional testimony from 1920 that narrates the challenges Black women faced when they tried to exercise their right vote.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Women's rights movement, women’s suffrage, Nineteenth Amendment, US Constitution, Jim Crow era, race and racism, South Carolina

Life Stories

CARRIE WILLIAMS CLIFFORD

The story of a suffragist who founded the Ohio Federation of Colored Women’s clubs to coordinate all Black activism in her state.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, Women's rights movement, women’s suffrage, Nineteenth Amendment, Black History, activism, race and racism, National Association of Colored Women (NACW), NAACP, Mary Church Terrell, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Ohio, Washington, D.C.

The story of the suffragist who founded the National Women’s Party to start a more militant campaign for national women’s suffrage.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, social reform, Women's rights movement, women’s suffrage, Nineteenth Amendment, National American Woman Suffrage Association [NAWSA], National Women’s Party (NWP), civil disobedience, Equal Rights Act, New Jersey, Washington, D.C.

JEANNETTE RANKIN

The story of the first female member of Congress.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, social reform, women’s rights, women’s suffrage, National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), Congress, World War I, World War II, pacifism, Vietnam War, Montana, Washington, D.C.

MARIE LOUISE BOTTINEAU BALDWIN

The story of an Ojibwe activist and suffragist.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, social reform, activism, Indigenous history, Ojibwe history, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indigenous rights, women’s rights, women’s suffrage, race and racism, Alice Paul, Zitkala-Ša, North Dakota, Minnesota, Washington, D.C.

NINA OTERO-WARREN

The story of a Hispana Suffragist.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Progressive Era, social reform, activism, Hispanic history, Latinx history, US statehood process, women’s rights, women’s suffrage, National Women’s Party (NWP), history of education, LGBTQ+ history, Franklin D. Roosevelt, New Mexico, Puerto Rico

MARY CHURCH TERRELL

The story of a lifelong activist who advocated for suffrage and equal rights on local, national, and international stages.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

Jim Crow era, race and racism, segregation, women's rights movement