Women’s suffrage movement: who were the founders and what methods did they use? essay sample
The campaign for women’s suffrage began at least a decade before the 19th Amendment to the constitution was ratified. Women played an important role in reform and anti-slavery movement of the 19th century, and the point of a woman as a fully-fledged citizen already existed. The old Victorian cult of True Womanhood became strongly outdated after the Civil War. The women’s rights movement accelerated after the 14th and 15th Amendments were ratified. As all male citizens including African Americans got their right to vote, women activists decided it was the right moment to get a universal suffrage.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony both pushed forwards the suffragist movement in the late 19th century. They created the National American Woman Suffrage Association. By that time, the philosophy of suffragettes has changed. First, suffragettes claimed that being the same people as men are, women deserved the suffrage. Later, however, activists called women different from men and attempted to create more moral female commonwealth. Besides, there were advocates of female suffrage who realized how much more electorates it would bring. Starting from 1910, some states in the West extended their vote to women.