Up until the 1920s women had very limited rights. In the late nineteenth century women began arguing for rights. Women wanted to be just as equal as men. They were severely mistreated and were bound to their husband’s whims. They wanted to be able to vote and to have a say in the government. The movement was successful because they had numbers on their sides and very charismatic leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth. These two and many more helped women’s suffrage succeed.
Women of the nineteenth suffered many injustices, they weren’t allowed to vote, they had absolutely no say in the government. If they divorced their husband they would lose everything they had and it would go to the husband. They weren’t allowed to smoke in public and they had to wear long dresses that covered all of their body. Also, if a woman wanted to go out they would have to be accompanied by a man. At home they would clean the house, take care of the children, clean clothes, cook dinner do any other job in the household. Also they would be married at a very young age and they were forced to drop out of school. Very few women got a decent education in the past and even less went to college. A related primary source to this topic is a picture I have of women protesting in front of a park. It is during the day and probably in the early nineteenth century. The perspective of the primary source is a photographer for women’s rights.
Women had many ways to resist their mistreatment. They marched through cities in parades protesting the injustices. They started going out without a man accompanying them and they started wearing more reveling clothing. In the sense of back then they started wearing short sleeved dresses and shorter dresses. They also refused to do work in the house and the husbands were forced to cook and clean and take care of their children. One leader of women’s civil rights was Susan B. Anthony. She lead protests and argued for rights to vote and have a say in the government. The methods of women suffragists were successful because without them doing all the jobs they normally did life became much harder. The many marches and especially the one on
Washington won the support of many and finally won them the nineteenth amendment, the right for women to vote.
Women of the
United States finally won citizenship and the freedom to vote with the nineteenth amendment. A primary source of this is the nineteenth amendment a legal document hat can only be overturned by another amendment. With this now behind them women had a much stronger support and fought and won other rights as well.
What made this movement important to study for me was that I didn’t know that much about it. Studying this really enlightened me to the plight of women in the nineteenth century. I now know about the achievements and successes of women suffragists and how hard they worked to succeed. The struggle for rights the women went through makes me glad I have the rights I have that I have today. What women were forced to do and that they had no say in their own lives was wrong.
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