Introduction
The general movement for women’s right laid some efforts for women to vie for elective posts and take part in polls. The struggle for women suffrage augmented in the middle of the nineteenth century with the establishment of diverse associations. The organizations were evident in Britain, United States of America and other world nations. The ICW (International Council of Women) came into existence owing to the formation of the leading global women’s rights group.
The formation of the International Council of Women occurred in the year 1888. In the fiscal 1904, women activists formed IWSA (International Women Suffrage Alliance). These women activists launched IWSA following their apprehension that ICW was very disinclined. These women included the chief women’s rights campaigners, the US and British advocates for women’s rights like Catt Carrie and Fawcett Millicent respectively1.
History denotes that the fight for women’s rights started with English speaking people. The expedition for women rights actively expanded in the nineteenth century with the steady increase in men’s suffrage in several states. Within New Zealand, the realization of female’s rights at countrywide stages appeared to be in anticipation up to the financial year 1893. The year 1902 came with the increase in women suffrage in Australia.
However, women in Canada, Britain and United States had to wait until the closing stages of the First World War to embrace similar rights. The primal apprehension of women’s rights movement was to make the status of women equal to that of their male counterparts. The movements aspired to achieve this quest via the formation of lawmaking bodies intended to prevent sex chauvinism2.
The European women’s suffrage
New Zealand as a British independent protectorate was the initial nation to endow women with national voting rights. This came in the late 1893 when the Electoral Bill was passed. Similarly, women in South Australia cuddled suffrage that allowed them to vie for parliamentary seats and vote in the year 1894. The national suffrage in Australia took place in 1902 following the 1901 federation of women.
Nonetheless, it was pending until the fiscal 1949 when the aboriginal people of Australia gained women suffrage and entitlement to participate in national elections. Later in the fiscal 1962, outstanding constraints that barred women from voting culminated after women’s rights came into existence. In the twentieth century, certain states in the US including Finland, Britain, and Sweden granted limited voting rights to women shortly after New Zealand had enacted such a bill.
Several suffrage associations turned to support warfare during the onset of the 1914 First World War. However, the struggle for suffrage continued under countless organizational activists. Women gave further impetus to the suffrage of their rights. They revolutionized the paramount notion on activities that could be under the control of women. Indeed, women took part in numerous activities that were usually meant for men due to the scarcity of workforce during the warfare.
As a result, ladies could get elective seats in the British assembly given that the 1918 decree on Female Entitlement permitted them to do so. The Eligibility Act is important even in the present world when it comes to the suffrage of women. In fact, women got their right to take part in a ballot as granted by the Act on the Representation of People ten years after the Act on Eligibility was passed in the British House3.
Most nations gave women the right to vote by following the British conduit. For instance, Yugoslavian, Romanian, Italian, and Belgium governments granted females the privileges to take part in elections in the fiscal 1948 with French and Spanish governments allowing them such privileges in the financial year 1944 and 1931.
In most African nations, suffrage for both women and men came by when they got independence and at the end of colonialism. After the Second World War, women in the Middle East got their national voting rights. Nevertheless, women in Saudi Arabia still suffered from limited suffrage if not any given that they do not have any right to vote. Lack of suffrage bounds women in the present day from enjoying their rights as human beings.
Women’s suffrage in the US
In the fiscal 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention in the US enabled women suffrage to gain fame. Candy Stanton, Mott Lucretia, and other abolitionist active members initiated this convention. It was the first women’s rights convention organized subsequent to the year 1840 World anti-Slavery Convention in England. The discussion on the future schedule regarding women activists took place. Women declaration concerning their sentiments implied that females and males were equivalent at all levels.
The introduction of Candy to Anthony Susan in the year 1851 by a mutual crony intensified the need for suffrage. The two women vowed to get hold of suffrage through collaboration and prolonged companionship. In 1863, the instigation of Women’s National Loyal League transpired through the guidance of the duo.
This Women’s National Loyal League campaigned for women and black people’s full nationality and abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment. Women suffrage could later allow married women to embrace the rights to own property. In the year eighteen-ninety, the Stone’s American Female Suffrage Alliance amalgamated with the Female’s Nationwide Loyal Confederation. The two factions formed NAWSA (Nationwide American Women Suffrage Alliance).
Wyoming joined the merger that yearned to make the ballot safe and sound by sate legislation, push for supplementary and wide-ranging institutional adjustments, and fight for suffrage at national level. Youthful women afterwards presumed their roles of leading the group following the departure of the pioneer suffragists who were aged. In 1915, Catt Carrie appeared as the leading political and intelligent person thus making him to be the head of the Nationwide American Female Suffrage Alliance.
Interestingly, the persistence of the usage of direct militant trial acts by Paul Alice required her to quit NAWSA. The suffragist formed National Women’s Party to organize hunger strikes and mass actions while fighting for women’s rights. The females in America became entitled to elective seats following the endorsement of the 19th alteration of the law in the fiscal 1920.
The ratification enabled the latest enfranchised women to implement their voting rights via the formation of Women Voters League during the final meeting of NAWSA. The movement has made it easy for women in the contemporary world to practice their voting rights and run for elective posts with men. Any woman can vote and enjoy all entitlements4.
The association of national women suffrage
The movements for women’s rights became possible through the support and making women equal economically, socially, and politically in the previous two centuries. In Britain, the commencement of the militant political action among women prompted in the fiscal 1903. Pankhurst steered the desire for the voting right of women via the creation of WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union). An enormous demonstration of women from all ranks and ages came through WSPU. This had a great impact on the lives of women generally.
The movement caused parliamentary ban on women besides barring them from their meeting places and serving women with jail sentences. During the First World War, WSPU focused on supporting the efforts of the warfare and this marked the stop of general divisiveness. The government could no longer hinder the aims of WSPU since members of this organization volunteered in thousands to support the warfare.
The participation of WSPU in the war was significant and conquered the chances of opposition by the national government. Consequently, the government granted any woman having more than thirty years the right to participate in the ballot in the year 1918. Nevertheless, the government reinstated the women voting age to twenty-one years ten years later. A split on how to achieve suffrage grew in the year 1869 amid the formation of suffrage movements during the obliteration of slavery.
In America, the campaign for national suffrage constitutional amendment led by Stanton and Anthony led to the formation of NWSA. The group advocated for the disbursement rights, terms of employment, and changes in the decrees regarding divorce. Besides, a lesser radical AWSA (American Women Suffrage Association) was formed by Ruffin Josephine, Howe Julia, and Stone Lucy. The association disregarded the aims of NWSA by emphasizing on wining the rights of women to participate in ballot in every state as well as obtaining suffrage for the black by means of the 15th and 14th Amendments.
In the fiscal 1880, it appeared that the merger linking NWSA and AWSA would be effectual. In the year 1890 with Stanton and Anthony as the president and her deputy correspondingly, NAWSA was formed. Under NAWSA, there was the formation of other several local organizations that extensively campaigned for the voting right of women. The campaign for the voting rights and the broader women rights was apparent from major activists such as Olympia, Joslyn, and Stanton who estranged from NAWSA.
The National American Women Suffrage Association changed the old approaches and restructured in the beginning of the twentieth century. The organization raised funds to recruit fresh associates, compensate, and guide coordinators in soliciting more votes. While carrying banners and putting on white uniforms to draw journalists and multitudes closer, NAWSA affiliates held several rallies and parades to capture the attention of their activities5.
The trend and leadership of NAWSA caused displeasure and forced the formation of Congressional Union by Burns Lucy and Paul Alice. The NAWSA movement was less militant and radicalized than the movement for British suffrage where Lucy and Alice had studied and supported. This aspect made these women to be composed and determined in their dealings. Moreover, jail punishments and rows with aggressive government authorities faced English women suffragists who were more militant.
Women activists and their aspiration to fight for the rights of women gained public sympathy. The militant suffragists experienced forceful feeding to keep them away from death in prison. The primal goal of the Congressional Union was to put pressure on the Democratic Party. The females pressurized the White House and the parliamentary groups to grant females their privileges to take part in an election6.
The NAWSA organization initiated an aggressive and protestant suffrage movement in the year 1916. The NAWSA was later renamed NWP. The new association held a number of protests forcing the White House to air their grievances. Catt Carrie who initiated Washington D.C public agency by pushing for a constitutional adjustment was the successor of Anthony and the organization’s president between 1900-1904 and 1915-1920. The National Woman’s Party condemned the federal government for blatant hypocrisy during First World War.
The government denied women the homeland voting rights but instead supported the foreign countries democracy. The leaders of NAWSA referred to the government as encouraging unladylike activities and distanced herself from NWP. Besides, more arrests of NWP women members occurred in the year 1917 and charged with traffic impediment. In the year 1920, the ratification of the 19th Amendment finally allowed women to vote.
Conclusion
Women’s rights movement from mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century went through many processes. The struggle for women suffrage augmented in the middle nineteenth century with the establishment of diverse associations. However, the suffrage movement had a number of life impacts on women.
Generally, women’s rights movement changed the way of life for a girl child cutting through to the present world. With the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in the early 20th century, women found a lifeline of participating in the electoral processes. The suffrage was important to nations all over the world as it enabled females take part in elective posts.
Bibliography
Anderson, Bonnie. Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement, 1830 –1860. London, UK: Worth Publishers, 2000.
Dubois, Ellen. “Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriot Stanton Blatch and the New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909.” The Journal of American History, 5 no.10 (1983):34-58.
Moore, Sarah. “Making a Spectacle of Suffrage: The National Woman Suffrage Pageant 1913.” Journal of American Culture, 44 no.4 (1913): 89-103.
Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America. London, UK: Sage Publishers, 2000.
Smith, Harold. The British Women’s Suffrage Campaign, 1866 –1928. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 1998.
Stanton, Elizabeth. The History of Woman Suffrage. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 1971.
Footnotes
- Bonnie Anderson, Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement, 1830 –1860 (London, UK: Worth Publishers, 2000), 67.
- Ellen Dubois, “Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriot Stanton Blatch and the New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909,” The Journal of American History, 5 no.10 (1983): 34-58.
- Sarah Moore, “Making a Spectacle of Suffrage: The National Woman Suffrage Pageant 1913,” Journal of American Culture, 44 no.4 (1913): 89-103.
- Harold Smith, The British Women’s Suffrage Campaign, 1866 –1928 (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 1998), 45.
- Elizabeth Stanton, The History of Woman Suffrage (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 1971), 97.
- Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America (London, UK: Sage Publishers, 2000).