Suffrage in America

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the history of the fight for women's rights started with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the first Convention on Women's Rights, in 1848; Stanton used the principles of the Declaration of Independence as a framework for her "Declaration of Sentiments" thus giving the idea of women's right legitimacy by associating these rights with this powerful symbol of freedom and liberty. The author points out that the early women's movement finally achieved the right to vote in 1920; however, it was not until the 1960's, that there was a strong movement for equality in economic and work-related spheres. The paper concludes that, in the late twentieth century, with equality in the workplace largely established, women activist's moved onto other more controversial topics such as women's reproductive rights, the right of women to enroll in military academies and serve in active combat and becoming women priests.

From the Paper:

"At the First Women's Rights Convention, all the proposals were accepted unanimously, except for one. This was the resolution dealing with the enfranchisement of women. At this time, the issue of a women's right to vote was hardly thinkable. However, after some argument the resolution was carried with a small majority. The fact that there was such a large degree of dissent on the enfranchisement issue at the convention is an indication of the degree to which women were still enslaved by the male-dominated society."

More papers on Suffrage in America:

• Research Paper # 94890 : "Women's Suffrage in the 19th Century"
• Analytical Essay # 131172 : "Suffrage in the New World"
• Research Paper # 101216 : "Suffrage in the New World"

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