Suffrage is the right to vote, and women’s suffrage is the right of women to take part in the process of voting. Women in different parts of the globe suffer from denial of this right from time to time. This has often led to rise of activist movements such as feminism, in an effort to secure equal rights for women in voting (Foner 5-15).
This situation has also made several authors and researchers write books and articles regarding women’s right to vote. This paper illustrates the thoughts and comments of Professor Kuhlman and Professor Woodworth-Ney, regarding the issue of women’s suffrage in America.
Professors Kuhlman and Woodworth-Ney, both of Idaho State University, have no sharp, contrasting views about women’s suffrage. They have more similarities than differences. They see a trend whereby women in each state of the United States have been fighting for their rights since time immemorial, including the time of the two world wars. This led to the formation of the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment in 1920. Consequently, there was the enactment of several legislations regarding women’s right to vote, thereafter.
Woodworth-Ney looks at women’s suffrage from a consideration of women’s history (Woodworth-Ney 55-85). On the contrary, Kuhlman is inclined towards war, and how it led to women’s denial of their rights, especially the right to vote for democratic leaders. Woodworth-Ney talks about women’s rights as mothers and landowners, whereas Kuhlman is more concerned with their rights as widows and war victims (Kuhlman 66-125).
Kuhlman is more stringent than Woodworth-Ney. She is of the notion that women should have been granted the right to vote at the same time with men. They agree that women were denied the right to vote for a long time, until women’s rights movements brought women’s suffering into the limelight of the society. However, it was not an easy task to grant women this right.
Besides women’s suffrage, the professors and Foner bring out the reproductive role of women and the existing role of patriarchal societies, as well as culture. Women got the right to vote, but they are not fully emancipated from cultural practices that keep them in the private (domestic) sector of societies (Woodworth-Ney 122).
They continue to do most of the household chores while men are at work. Moreover, they rarely hold leadership positions due to cultural practices which suggest that virtuous women are just wives and mothers, who should stay at home (Kuhlman 201). Therefore, women’s suffrage did not address the subordinate role of women in society. The patriarchal society still influences political, social and economic sectors, not only in the United States, but also in the world.
Allowing women to vote was revolutionary. Foner says that the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States constitution was not a solution to women’s problems, as observed by the Radical Republicans (Foner 23). This statement already shows that there was a tag of war between the government and women’s rights activists, regarding women’s right to vote. The transformation was a radical change prompted by activists and women’s rights movements. It came out of pressure by the movements on the government.
In conclusion, the global struggle for women’s suffrage has been an ongoing process, with women’s rights activists and movements emerging from time to time. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that people have certain inalienable rights such as the right to life and engage in the democratic process of their countries. Therefore, women ought to be granted an equal right to vote for leaders of their choice.
Works Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History (Custom Seagull 3rd Ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. 2004. Print.
Kuhlman, Erika. Of Little Comfort: War Widows, Fallen Soldiers, and the Remaking of the Nation after the Great War. New York: NYU Press, 2012. Print.
Woodworth-Ney, Laura. Women in the American West (Cultures in the American West). Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Print.