Hello, I'm Dorothea Wilson, the Director of
the M.A. and Government program at Johns Hopkins,
Advanced Academic programs.
I'm delighted to be here today to talk about
the centennial anniversary of the passage
of the 19th amendment.
After my talk, I encourage you to submit questions
through the chat.
Now, in my talk today, I will provide an introduction
to the politics of women's suffrage in the
United States.
And let me stress that it's only an introduction
since this is a rich and complex topic.
As a political theorist, I will especially
focus on the founding ideas that gave shape
to the movement.
My talk will touch on the following themes,
Abigail Adams and the promise of the American
Revolution, the tension between the ideals
of the Declaration of Independence and the
idea of Republican Motherhood, the leadership
of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony,
and the theory behind the Declaration of Sentiments,
the alliance between the women's movement
and the abolitionist movement and the causes
of that allianceÕs demise and finally the
passage of the 19th amendment.
Now my goal today is to enable all of us to
better understand the interplay between theory
and practice in the struggle for women's equality.
Now, next month, the United States will celebrate
the 100th anniversary of the ratification
of the 19th amendment granting women in the
United States, the right to vote.
It certainly is something to celebrate and
perhaps the best way to celebrate it, besides
the obvious, which is for women to vote in
November is to think back to the women who
paved the way for the rest of us.
Now there's was a long journey filled with
obstacles and struggles and disappointments,
and yes, missteps.
Now, one of the movement's founders, Susan
B. Anthony looked forward to the day when
the right for women to vote would become the
norm.
But you know, she also worried that we would
forget about her and what she described as
the handful of women who made it possible,
such as Anthony, herself, along with Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and their successors, Carrie
Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul.
As Anthony stated, we shall someday be heated
and everybody will think it was always so,
but they have no idea how every single inch
of ground that she stands upon today has been
gained by the hard work of some little handful
of women of the past.
Now, just think about that for a moment.
Every single inch of ground that we stand
on today can be traced to these women who
worked tirelessly in the face of great opposition
to win women the right to vote.
In the case of Stanton and Anthony, they each
dedicated over half a century to the cause
of winning the women's vote, although they
never lived to see it actually happen.
Anthony herself logged thousands of miles
traveling and canvasing the country into her
early eighties to win support for the vote.
And of course she was famously arrested for
daring to cast a ballot in the 1872 election.
Now the fruits of their labors are undeniable.
Women today vote in larger proportions than
men.
In the United States in 2016, 63.3 percent
of eligible women voted compared to just 57.3
percent of eligible men.
Women in 2008, accounted for 57 percent of
all bachelor degrees and 59.9 percent of graduate
school enrollments.
That women have been able to succeed so well
after having been denied higher educational
and career opportunities for well over half
the history of the United States is rather
amazing.
Especially given the fact that just a few
generations ago, women were not allowed the
right to vote, own property, or attend institutions
of higher education.
Now, with all this success, it's important
for us to look back, especially this centennial
year and give credit to that little handful
of women who persevered and won the vote.
Inch by inch, they gained ground over the
course of seven decades, starting in Seneca
falls in 1848 and culminating with the passage
of the 19th amendment in 1920.
But it's not enough just to look back.
We also need to enter into their thoughts
if we are fully to understand their achievements,
as well as some of their errors.
Now, from the vantage point of 2020, it may
seem puzzling that it took so long for women
to earn something so basic as the right to
vote.
How is this long wait to be explained?
Well, a little over a week ago, we celebrated
the 244th anniversary of the signing of the
Declaration of Independence.
From the outset inspired by the Declaration
of Independence, women appeal to the principles
of natural right inequality to advance their
cause.
Stanton was in a sense, the founder of the
movement for the equality of women and she
modeled her Declaration of Sentiments on Jefferson's
Declaration of Independence.
There was even a symmetry of sorts insofar
as Elizabeth Cady Stanton pens the Declaration
of Sentiments in Seneca Falls, New York in
1848, which was 72 years after Jefferson's
declaration and the 19th amendment was enacted
72 years after the Declaration of Sentiments.
Yet, it is not to be forgotten that it took
144 years from the signing of the Declaration
of Independence to the ratification of the
19th amendment in 1920.
In other words, it took a long time.
Now, why did it take five generations of women
to live and die to get the vote?
Why was the opposition to female equality
so strong and what ideas and interests fueled
opposition to women's suffrage?
And why did it take 50 years from the ratification
in 1870 of the 15th amendment, which prohibits
government from denying a citizen, the right
to vote based on race or color to the ratification
of the 19th amendment, which prohibits government
from denying the right to vote based on sex?
Well, to answer these questions, let's start
from the beginning, so to speak, with Abigail
Adams, America's first feminist.
In her own remarkable life, she captures the
tension between the Declaration of IndependenceÕs
Principle of Equality and certain social realities
then in existence.
Now in a famous letter penned by Abigail Adams,
to her husband, John in March of 1776, she
admonished him that the revolution should
include the emancipation of women.
Now, this was a moment in history that was
fraught with danger in which the colonies
were entering into a war with the great superpower
of its time.
Nevertheless, Abigail took the time to make
the case for the liberation of women too.
She wrote to her husband of threatening a
rebellion.
If women were to be bound by any law, in which
we have no voice, or representation, in the
new code of laws, which I suppose it will
be necessary for you to make, I desire you
would remember the ladies and be more generous
and favorable to them than your ancestors.
Now, many of us are familiar with Abigail's
famous plea to her husband to remember the
ladies, however, less often quoted are the
words that follow.
Abigail went on to write of many vicious and
lawless men who are not only threats to democratic
government, but also to women.
These lawless men, she said, use women with
cruelty and indignity.
They treat us only as the vassals of your
sex.
Now in her letter, Abigail called attention
to the need, not only for political equality,
but also for social equality.
Abigail's petition to John reflected the broader
purposes of the American Revolution and the
Declaration of Independence that is to defeat
despotism in all its forms, including the
subjugation of women.
As we say today, the personal is political.
Unfortunately John did not take Abigail seriously
and Abigail soon dropped the issue.
As brilliant as Abigail was, she was the mother
with a brood of children to care for and a
farm to manage, a smallpox epidemic to fight,
all while her husband was away in Philadelphia.
That is, she was a mother with many responsibilities,
not least of which was to care for her children.
Now much later in a letter in 1814, Abigail
described, learned women as rare as black
swans, since domestic duties made it near
impossible to engage in a life of study and
other pursuits.
Despite her own learning, Abigail wrote to
John that she would only contend for domestic
government, which she thought best administered
by the female.
Abigail's correspondence is filled with her
concerns about shaking the character of her
children while she still remained engaged
though only from the sidelines with the political
scene inhabited by the men of her time.
Now today, Abigail's talk of women being satisfied
with administering the domestic sphere, perhaps
sounds retrograde.
However, things are not as simple as that
as the case of Abigail herself illustrates.
Now the answer of why it took so long for
women to achieve political equality is mired
in the contingencies of history.
But to simplify female emancipation took so
long because of deeply entrenched social ideas
about the role that women must play in a democratic
society.
That it was widely believed that in a democratic
society, based on equality, some class of
persons needed to nurture, raise and educate
democratic citizens.
Now democracy required the overthrow of aristocratic
and ecclesiastical authorities.
It was thought by many that in the absence
of these authorities, women would need to
play a stabilizing influence.
Women were most needed as Abigail Adams indicated
in the domestic sphere, or as the historian
Linda Kerber has observed, women were to fulfill
the role of what she is called Republican
motherhood and what other historians have
referred to as the cult of womanhood.
As Professor Kerber explains quote, the Republican
mother's life was dedicated to the service
of civic virtue.
She educated her sons for it.
She condemned and corrected her husband's
lapses from it.
That is to say, despite women being left out
of the political sphere, women were assigned
a role of crucial political importance, although
it was an indirect one.
Now, while we may look back at such notions
as prehistoric, there were not wholly without
some purpose.
I'll try to explain.
In 1776, the United States embarked upon a
bold experiment of self government, an extended
Republic like the world had never seen before.
Political philosophers, such as Aristotle
and Montesquieu argued that a Republican form
of government, unlike say a monarchical regime,
needed to be animated by the virtue of its
citizens.
So who was to shape the citizens of this new
extended Republic?
Who would ensure that they would be prepared
for self-government unguided, by example,
by the interests of aristocracy or an established
church?
Now it is only a slight exaggeration to say
that for the first time in history an expansive
private sphere was created where the work
of making citizens would take place.
There would be no established church to dictate
what people thought or believed, and there
would be no great Lord of the Manor to see
to it that individuals were fed housed and
closed.
As a result, civil society, and especially
the home and the family became central to
the success of the political sphere.
It was here in the private or domestic sphere
that democratic self-governing citizens were
to be molded.
Now, while political theorists starting with
Aristotle had always seen the role of the
family as central to any political order,
the woman's familial role took on more urgency
in the modern era.
Philosophers, such as David Hume and Adam
Smith argued that women would play a pivotal
role in socializing, citizens writing somewhat
later, Tocqueville noted in his classic work
Democracy in America, that women in the United
States shaped mores and mores were understood
to be indispensable to the success and the
stability of American democracy.
As Professor Kerber noted, the family essentially
became the fourth political branch and took
on a level of importance, not seen in the
old regime.
That is to say, while women were relegated
to the home, they nonetheless played a crucial
role in shaping citizens albeit by staying
within the confines of the domestic sphere.
As backwards as this may seem to us today,
it was the commonplace understanding of the
time.
The structure of the family was understood
to have a strong bearing on politics and more
the overall health of democratic society.
These were the theoretical underpinnings for
why Abigail Adams and all the women were left
out of the Revolution of 76.
But there's a more practical reason as well.
We must not forget that the amount of work
that needed to be done in the domestic sphere
was absolutely crushing.
Consider what the average woman gave birth
in the early 19th century to eight children.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton herself had seven children.
Not only did the American women need to care
for them, but in many cases, homeschooling
was the rule.
Consider to just what it took to wash the
laundry, doing one load of laundry required
hauling 50 gallons of water, which totaled
about 400 pounds, soaking, boiling, scrubbing,
rinsing repeatedly, and then hanging up the
clothes and ironing them the next day.
Housework was in fact full time labor.
Now, Stanton who by all accounts, very much
enjoyed being a mother, still found herself
drowning in all her domestic responsibilities
and described herself as quote, having suffered
with mental hunger, which like an empty stomach
is very depressing.
As she bluntly put it in a letter to her cousin,
quote, I am desperate sick of working and
attending to the fleshly needs.
She recollected in her autobiography about
the general discontent of dealing with the
duties of wife, mother, housekeeper, physician,
spiritual guide, and the chaotic conditions
that result without woman's constant supervision.
Stanton's discontent captured what many women
were feeling, if not expressing.
Women's role was a burden to be sure, as Stanton
expressed so well, but according to the conventions
of the time their role was essential to the
success of American democracy.
Now, this is why female equality was such
a hard sell.
There was a strong belief that the burden
of the ballot, as some female anti-suffragettes
called it, would distract women from their
familial duties.
Mothers held the family together.
If given the vote, women would abandon their
domestic duties in order to follow and get
involved in politics.
As such, female suffrage was seen as a direct
assault on the principles on which it was
thought the democratic experiment depended.
Moreover, giving the vote to women would mean
that the individual, not the family was the
basic building block of society.
Now, this was indeed the implication of the
Declaration of Independence that the individual
is the basis of the social contract.
Something Stanton fully expressed in a famous
address she would give later in her life called
the Solitude of the Self.
But many Americans were not ready to embrace
these implications.
However, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was ready
and she started a revolution that changed
the country.
So in July of 1848, Stanton, Lucretia Mott,
Martha Wright and Maryanne McClintock met
in McClintockÕs parlor in Seneca Falls to
plan a women's convention and write their
own declaration.
Now, they initially looked for inspiration
to various temperance and anti-slavery statements,
but in Stanton's recollection of events, these
seem to tame and specific for the inauguration
of a rebellion such as the world has never
seen before.
After much delay, Stanton recalled, one of
the circle, took up the declaration of 1776
and read it aloud with much spirit and emphasis,
and it was at once decided to adopt the historic
document.
So Stanton closely modeled the Declaration
of Sentiments after the Declaration of Independence,
like the Declaration of Independence, the
Declaration of Sentiments is rooted women's
equality and the immutable laws of nature
and nature's God.
The laws of nature, Stanton wrote, dispose
each person to seek their own happiness.
Any law that a bridges this pursuit is not
valid.
The opening of the Declaration of Sentiments,
borrows heavily from the exact language of
the Declaration of Independence in terms of
establishing the natural right to equality.
As it states, we hold these truths to be self
evident that all men and women are created
equal, that they are endowed by their creator
with certain inalienable rights.
Like Jefferson's declaration, Stanton's listed
18 grievances, but whereas Jefferson's are
aimed at King George the third, the grievances
in the Declaration of Sentiments are aimed
at the history of mankind or mankind as a
whole.
These grievances revolve around the political,
social and religious degradation of women.
The first four grievances address the denial
of political equality, starting with the denial
of suffrage and all this entails, including
a lack of representative government for women.
The fifth one goes further.
As the declaration explains, in the case of
married women, the U.S. has rendered her civilly
dead as all rights, including property and
custodial devolve to the husband.
Employment and educational opportunities are
also denied to women.
And if they do find work, they are only given
in the words of the declaration of sentiments,
scanty remuneration.
Here, we see an early demand for, as we say
today, equal pay for equal work, but it's
not just the laws themselves that are wrong.
And this is important.
As the grievances make clear, men have enforced
social and religious stereotypes on women
that give force to these laws.
As the declaration asserts, mankind has created
a false public sentiment by giving the world
a different code of morals for men and women.
In the last grievance Stanton accuses men
of having endeavored in every way to destroy
a woman's confidence in her own powers, to
lessen her self-respect and make her willing
to lead a dependent and abject life.
Now the 11 resolutions that follow, seek to
redress the grievances and call upon rescinding
laws that limit the social moral and political
equality of women.
Significantly, all the resolutions passed
unanimously at the convention, except for
the one that called for women's suffrage.
In fact, as Stanton recalled, there was so
much resistance among the participants even
to raise this revolution, fearing that a demand
for the right to vote would make the whole
movement seem ridiculous.
Stanton's husband, who was fully supportive
of her efforts believed that the resolution
calling for the right to vote where reduce
the whole convention to a farce.
Even fellow organizer, Lucretia Mott believed
it was too much.
In the end, this was the one resolution that
did not pass unanimously though, would soon
become the linchpin of the women's rights
movement.
Now it's worth including what Stanton said
when she introduced the resolution.
She expressed her indignation and found it
grossly insulting that so many rowdies and
idiots, as she put it, were given the vote
while civic educated women like her were denied.
She said, and strange as it may seem to many,
we now demand our right to vote according
to the declaration of the government under
which we live.
The right is ours, have it we must, use it
we will.
Now Stanton's speech was powerful, but so
was the resistance to suffrage among the delegates
at the convention.
For a time, it looked like Stanton may have
gone too far until one man from the floor
asked to be recognized.
It was none other than Frederick Douglas who
spoke up for, seconded the resolution for
suffrage and who by all accounts swung momentum
in favor for its eventual passage.
Now it is significant that it was Frederick
Douglas who spoke up on behalf of women's
suffrage while the white men sat silent.
The affinities between women's suffrage and
abolitionism ran deep.
Indeed the close identification women felt
toward the plight of African Americans, enabled
them to forge an alliance with abolitionist
reformers.
This important alliance provides us with a
historical case study of what we might call
it today, intersectionality.
However, as I will describe the women's movement
support for the rights of all of African Americans
was not lasting.
Now, the women who have become the early leaders
of the suffrage movement hone their organizational
skills and activism by first fighting for
the cause of abolitionism.
Indeed in the 1850s, abolitionism became the
leading focus of all reformers, including
individuals who would emerge as strong advocates
for women's suffrage as well, including Frederick
Douglas, but also male supporters like Henry
B. Stanton, Garrett Smith, William Lloyd Garrison,
Wendell Phillips, and Charles Sumner.
Female leaders active in the cause of abolitionism
in addition to Anthony and Stanton included
Abby Kelly, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Sarah
and Angelina Grimkes among many others.
Now women sought to draw parallels between
the plight of enslaved peoples and their own
degradation living as second class citizens.
Both causes drew upon the natural rights teaching
of the Declaration of Independence.
However, during the Civil War women's rights
took a back seat as reformers threw all their
energies into the cause of abolitionism.
Significantly women played a leading role
in this cause.
Leaders like Angelina Grimkes faced violent
mobs while speaking for the cause of abolition.
Lucretia Mott founded the Philadelphia Female
Anti-slavery Society, preached before black
churches, addressed anti-slavery conventions,
and gave shelter in her home to fugitive slaves.
Susan B, Anthony participated in the Underground
Railroad and was the New York state agent
for the New York Anti-slavery Society.
Abby Kelly was a radical abolitionist who
worked closely with Garrison and caused a
stir by lecturing before both men and women.
Sojourner Truth spoke at women's rights conventions,
most famously in Akron, Ohio in 1851.
In this speech known has her ainÕt I woman
speech, she gave a stirring account of her
sufferings and triumphs as both a woman and
as a formerly enslaved person.
Seeing women's fearless leadership for abolitionism,
Frederick Douglas was impressed.
Douglas recalled observing women's agency,
devotion and efficiency in pleading the cause
of the slave caused me to be denominated a
woman's rights man.
Knowing how Douglas singled out woman's agency
devotion and efficiency and making reform
happen, the respect was mutual.
In an 1860 speech to the American Anti-slavery
Society at Cooper's Union, Stanton acknowledged
that this is the only organization on God's
footstool, where the humanity of woman is
recognized and these are the only men who
have ever echoed back her cries for justice
and equality.
Indeed, the men involved in abolitionism tended
to hold progressive views on women's rights
and women because of their inferior status
brought special insights to the cause of abolition.
As Stanton captured it so well, the badge
of degradation is the skin and sex, the Scarlet
letter so sadly worn upon the breast.
Now united in their subordination and commiseration
though, as Douglas would later emphasize could
not be fully compared to slavery, they would
work to lift each other up.
In 1863 Stanton and Anthony started an organization
and actively collected 400,000 signatures
in support of the proposed 13th amendment
ending slavery.
So because of women's unique understanding
of the plight of enslaved African Americans,
it is especially tragic that some of the leaders
of the movement for female equality later
embraced the very racism they once opposed.
So with the end of the Civil War, attention
turned to securing the passage of the 14th
amendment to give African Americans the status
of full citizenship, as well as equal protection
of the laws.
This was seen by many to be an opportunity
for women.
In extending the vote to newly freed African
Americans, it could also be extended to women.
Why not?
As Stanton argued while the constitutional
doors open, we should avail ourselves of the
strong arm and blue uniform of the black soldier
to walk in by his side.
Indeed, the thought was that upon the end
of the Civil War, a new birth of freedom would
include universal suffrage for all classes
of citizens.
Yet this was not to be.
The 14th amendment nullified the three fifth
clause of the constitution that counted enslaved
African Americans as only three fifths of
a person determining representation in Congress.
This meant that the power of the South in
the House of Representatives and the Electoral
College would expand.
Now for the North, however, it was important
to protect the freedmen's actual right to
vote.
Otherwise reformation of the South would be
in vain.
And for this reason, the second clause of
the 14th amendment specifies that the suppression
of the vote of any male inhabitants of such
state who are citizens and 21 years old will
result in a reduction in the proportion of
representation.
Now, while there was political support for
the 14th amendment, Anthony and Stanton were
alarmed by its introduction of the word male
into the constitution, the preamble of which
began more capaciously with the words we the
people, which as Stanton would later testify
before the Senate, people includes both men
and women, right?
So the constitution had avoided the word slave
or slavery.
A fact that both Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas
used to promote the document, as in the words
of Douglas, as a glorious Liberty document.
Indeed, according to James Madison, the word
slavery was not included in the constitution
in order to avoid giving moral sanction to
slavery.
So similarly, the constitution was in a certain
sense, gender blind in so far as it made no
mention of sex in relation to voting, which
it left to the States.
Yet here, the 14th amendment was introduced
in the word male as this distinct requirement
for the vote, which of course set off alarm
bells for the women reformers.
To them, this seemed like a setback for the
women's movement.
Stanton's old ally Wendell Phillips countered
that the focus of reformers must be on formerly
enslaved peoples, one war at a time he told
them.
This was to be, as Phillips explained, their
hour.
Once again, women were being told they would
have to wait.
So in the wake of the passage of the 14th
amendment Stanton and Anthony sought to unite
the Anti-slavery Society with women's suffrage
in a new organization, the American Equal
Rights Association, or AERA.
But the alliance was short-lived, as some
leaders in the women's movement began to believe
that a quicker road to female equality was
to be found by aligning themselves with various
reactionary elements.
In 1867, both women's rights advocates and
advocates for the freedmenÕs vote focused
on a suffrage referendum in Kansas.
Both sides hoped to win suffrage for African
American males as well as women.
However, when Anthony and Stanton saw support
declining among Kansas Republicans, they looked
elsewhere for support.
So Anthony allied AERA with a racist millionaire
and copperhead Democrat, George Francis Train.
Train helped to fund her efforts to support
the referendum in Kansas.
He spoke at rallies and bankrolled her newspaper,
the Revolution.
So Anthony would deliver her speeches, followed
by Train, who filled his remarks with racist
invective.
To her discredit, Anthony would just look
on in silence.
It seems she was adapting to an insight that
Stanton would later express, to quote Stanton,
it seems to me it would be right and wise
to accept aid from the devil himself provided
it did not tempt us to lower our standard.
But women in fact, did lower their standards
and both the rhetoric and associations reflected
this shift.
Anthony would align herself with Southern
women who wished to rid black women from the
movement in order to advance the cause of
women's suffrage and white supremacy in the
South.
Later in 1895, Anthony would ask Frederick
Douglas, you know, the man who had seconded
Stanton's resolution for suffrage in 1848
to not attend a women's rights convention
held in Atlanta in order not to alienate the
white women who support she needed.
Anthony had become so singularly devoted to
advancing women's suffrage, even if it meant
compromising her former belief in racial equality.
Perhaps beaten down after so many defeats
petitioning, the government Anthony shared
this insight in 1891, quote, governments never
do any great good things from mere principle
from mere love of justice.
Now, many leaders of AERA became especially
incensed by the passage of the 15th amendment.
The 15th amendment specifically protected
the right to vote based on race, leaving out
women once again.
To the leaders of AERA, this was a provocation
and they responded by opposing the 15th amendment.
Now the break between the two movements, former
allies seemed irreparable.
Taking notice of AERAs abandonment of the
cause of racial equality, Douglas argued at
their 1869 convention, I do not see how anyone
can pretend that there is the same urgency
in giving the ballot to a woman as to the
Negro.
With us, the matter is a question of life
and death.
In response to Douglas, Stanton unleashed
a barrage of nativist and racist rhetoric.
She turned on immigrants, singling out the
Irish and Chinese as well as the freedmen
as not only inferior, but as potential enemies
and future repressors of Anglo Saxon, middle-class
women.
Susan B, Anthony adopted similar rhetoric
and sentiments.
Now it's worth noting that not everyone did
this.
Other leaders, such as, Lucretia Mott, Abby
Kelley and Lucy stone, they supported the
15th amendment and saw a victory for one aggrieved
group as hope for another.
As stone put it quote, I will be thankful
in my soul if anybody can get out of this
terrible pit.
So the women's movement turned to racism is
extremely disappointing.
Indeed, it would taint the women's movement
and its legacy as well as its momentum.
It may lead us to question their sincerity
in supporting abolitionism in the first place.
Did they view this alliance from purely expedient
terms all along?
How could the common threads of human rights
and equality have unraveled so quickly otherwise?
Now those in the women's movement who had
opposed the 15th amendment, led by Stanton
and Anthony, formed the National Women's Suffrage
Association, which allowed only female officers
and focused on suffrage for white women only.
Meanwhile, those who had favored the 15th
amendment, led by Elizabeth Blackwell and
Lucy Stone, formed the American Women's Suffrage
Association, which focused on suffrage for
both men and women, regardless of race.
Now the split of the movement and the rivalries
that ensued further delayed progress and advancing
women's suffrage.
Finally, after 20 years, these two groups
merged under Stanton and later Anthony's leadership
in a new organization, the National American
Women's Suffrage Association or NASSA.
Unfortunately, this new organization, even
with the deaths of the matriarchs, you know,
Stanton and Anthony in 1902 and 1906, it didn't
return to making common cause for the rights
of all.
Under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt
NASSA would continue to align with segregation
as Southern suffragettes as with the national
women's party, which was later founded by
Alice Paul.
Now, one of the more revealing incidents of
the women's movements new tactics was on display
during NASSAÕs Washington DC parade of 1913.
The parade was organized by Alice Paul, who
strategically scheduled the parade for the
day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.
Now it was a brilliant move that would garner
nationwide attention for the cause.
However, though NASSA allowed its African
American chapters to march, they segregated
them to the back of the parade.
Ida Bell Wells a formerly enslaved person,
journalist, and one of the eventual founders
of the NAACP was a member of the Chicago delegation
of all African American Women.
After being told by NASSAÕs leadership to
march at the back of the parade, Wells waited
on the sidelines and memorably claimed her
rightful spot marching alongside the Illinois
delegation.
Well, an opportunity of mixed blessing for
women arose with the advent of World War I.
As devastating as that war was with over 8
million deaths worldwide, it proved to be
a boon to the women's suffrage movement, both
in great Britain and in the United States.
In fact, it would take World War I to finally
galvanize public opinion, to support women's
suffrage.
American women made valuable contributions
to the war effort.
Thousands of women volunteered for the American
Red Cross and Salvation Army going overseas,
where they served on the front as nurses,
ambulance drivers, physicians, linguist, humanitarian
relief workers and entertainers for the troops.
On the home front, they took on jobs traditionally
filled by men, working in munitions productions
in factories and led efforts to raise funds
for the War and Liberty loan drives.
However, the women's movement split on how
to promote the cause during World War I.
On the one hand, Carrie Chapman Catt pledge
NASSA to fully support the war effort and
any departments to the organization on food
conservation and overseas hospitals for example.
Now this helped to position NASSA at women's
suffrage as patriotic organizations, increasing
sympathy for the cause.
On the other hand, Alice Paul and the NWP
continued to agitate more actively for women's
suffrage.
In fact, throughout the war, Alice Paul and
NWP began the now venerable tradition of picketing
the white house.
NWPs silent sentinels would stand at the gates
of the white house bearing signs such as Mr.
President, what will you do for women's suffrage?
Or Mr. President, how long was women wait
for liberty?
These protests reviewed though with growing
hostility as unpatriotic and detracting from
the war effort.
The silent sentinels were simply exercising
their first amendment rights to peaceably
assemble.
However, they were arrested on technicalities,
such as obstructing traffic and once imprisoned,
they were treated very harshly.
In protest, Alice Paul and others who were
arrested, went on hunger strikes and were
brutally forced fed.
Prison authorities even threatened to put,
Paul, Alice, Paul into an insane asylum.
So the strategies of NASSA and NWP differed
significantly here.
The more radical and confrontational NWP brought
much attention to women's suffrage through
their protest, coupled with harrowing news
accounts or their treatment in prison.
By contrast, NASSA softened the image of women's
suffragettes by supporting the war effort
and courting President Wilson.
In the end, World War I proved to be a turning
point for female equality, both socially and
politically.
In 1918, the house passed the 19th amendment.
President Wilson appeared in the Senate to
urge them to do the same, famously saying
we have made partners of the women in this
war, shall we admit them only to a partnership
of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not
to a partnership of privilege and right?
The bill died in the Senate, but was finally
passed the next year.
On August 18th, Tennessee became the 36th
state to ratify achieving the necessary three
fourths of the States to pass the amendment.
On August 26, the 19th amendment was certified
and made official.
So in concluding why we remember them.
So the women's suffrage movement started with
high aspirations nurtured by the principles
of equality and natural right as found in
the Declaration of Independence, it was arguably
these principles that made their noble alliance
with the abolitionist movement possible.
And it's important to remember that even before
Seneca Falls, women were not passive actors
or without some historical agency.
As discussed even with the vote, without I'm
sorry, without the vote, women played a key
role in shaping the early Republic as leaders
in what Professor Linda Kerber termed the
fourth branch of government of American politics,
the family.
As important as this indirect role was in
stabilizing the young Republic, it could not
be reconciled with the natural right teaching
of the Declaration of Independence, which
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was quick to recognize,
put women on an equal footing with men in
all respects.
Now Stanton and others launched a movement
in 1848, that would take many twists and turns
over the next 72 years that the women's movement
met with such broad and deep resistance.
Even after the formerly enslaved African American
men received the right to vote, it was difficult
for some of its leaders to accept.
And it brought out a darker side to the movement.
So one takeaway from this history is that
although the cause for women's equality was
just, the women's movement acted in at times
in ways that were unjust.
It was progressive and reform minded, but
like any other, cause it faced hard political
realities and limited policy windows.
The strength of the resistance to women's
suffrage ended up distorting the reformers
commitment to justice as such.
Instead of seeing their predicament through
the lens of our common humanity, they embraced
the Machiavellian principle that the end justifies
the means and their view if this meant embracing
white segregationist in their Southern strategy
for votes, then so be it, if it meant being
silent when one of your supporters, speaks
racist rhetoric then so be it, but such political
expediency came at the cost of the women's
movement moral authority.
The road to women's suffrage was long and
hard filled with political and moral compromises
and questionable and regrettable alliances.
In this sense, women behave no better, but
also no worse than men.
Politics is an art in which few succeed in
summoning up as Lincoln said, the better angels
of their nature.
Still, if we view the accomplishments of women
reformers in the context of the obstacles
they faced, it is remarkable that they were
able to persist in the face of great prejudice
and even brutal persecution.
It is their persistence and fighting spirit,
not withstanding the moral failings of some
of their leaders that continue to inspire
us today.
It was a movement led by women and populated
by women that gave voice to women, a voice
to finally claim what is rightfully ours.
Eventually this little handful of women was
joined by thousands of nameless, women of
diverse backgrounds who together succeeded
in changing the culture and paving the way
for American women of all races to exercise
the vote and to accomplish great things.
We do well to remember them despite their,
even their troubling flaws.
And I just want to thank you.
I want to welcome your questions and bring
your attention as well to this great website
that the JHU Suffrage Centennial Commemoration
Committee has put together.
I urge you to visit this website to learn
more about the history of the 19th amendment
and female empowerment.
And you can also keep the conversation going
via Twitter at hashtag JHU Womens Vote 100.
Thank you so much.
Okay.
So I see a question here.
How did Stanton share the Declaration of Sentiments
with the public?
Was it printed for distribution?
Yeah, you know, it's really interesting because
there isn't a copy of the original Declaration
of Sentiments anywhere.
It was lost somewhere perhaps in a fire, so
we don't have an actual copy of it, but, Frederick
Douglas was instrumental in printing it, and,
and sharing it widely, in, in the United States.
So we really have him to thank for even having
any copy of it that we have today.
HereÕs a question, from, from Lillia, if
the idea of Republican motherhood ended with
the success of women's suffrage, did freedom
second wave feminism of the 1960s further
this break?
Is there space for both suffrage and such
motherhood?
That's a great question, too.
You know, I thought of Betty Friedan, I shared
the quote, that, Cady Stanton shared about
how she found she loved being a mother, but
she found it draining and depressing because
she, it, it sort of closed at other outlets
for her talents.
And certainly, Friedan was highly instrumental
and influential in bringing on that second
wave of feminism and drawing attention to
this, this problem that has no name, I think,
as she described it.
Um, I think you're asking, is there space
for both suffrage and such motherhood, right.
You know, what's, what's kind of interesting
about that is in a way I didn't really discuss
this, but, you know, suffrage really took
off very early in, in the western states.
Um, by the time that Congress in 1918 had
approved the, the, the, the amendment, 13
out of the 16 States in the west had already
had some suffrage, maybe some partial, but,
you know, Wyoming starting, you know, first,
um, so the argument then was in a way, a Republican
motherhood argument to give women the vote.
In other words, to amplify their influence,
in the family, by giving them a political
voice, the thought was, I mean, some, I mean,
it's debatable, but some historians have argued
that, that the west wanted to get women to
vote in part because there weren't that many
women out there, and this would attract more
women, but they thought by giving women the
vote, that they would have a positive influence
on public policy by voting for laws that would
further civilize the west and, and perhaps
clamp down on some of the problems of lawlessness
in the west.
That's a great question.
Okay.
Here's the question?
What were the circumstances surrounding the
break between the abolitionists and women's
suffrage movement?
Yeah.
You know, it's really hard to fathom how this
break happened in some ways, because the women,
the leaders of the women's movement were essentially
abolitionists before they were even thinking
about the cause of women's suffrage.
They cut their teeth on the abolitionist movement.
They were given great voice and empowered
by the abolitionist movement and able to speak
in public about this cause.
But the real break came and they were upset
about the 14th amendment because they thought
they would be able to march in you know, and
have universal suffrage.
I mean, the thought was that with the end
of the civil war, we had, as Lincoln said,
a new birth of freedom and that new birth
of freedom would include universal suffrage
for all classes of citizens.
And that didn't happen, but they were told
it's okay, we have to focus on the newly freedman.
They really need the vote more than you at
this point.
Given everything that they've gone through.
So they were okay with that.
And then they still try to keep that alliance
together with the new organization, which
they brought the former abolitionists and
others into the American suffrage association.
But then the passage of the 15th amendment
really marks the break because of the 15th
amendment.
The suffrage was given to males and, and not
to women.
And that was really too much for them to accept.
Not all of them, of course, as I mentioned,
there were some Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott
who kept the alliance together and saw the
common humanity and the common cause that
they would have for African American suffrage
and women's suffrage, but, but Stanton and,
and others just, just broke off at that point,
they felt like they were betrayed actually
by not being able to get the vote alongside
with the newly freedmen.
HereÕs a question from É did the general
public care how the suffragettes were treated
while in prison?
Well, yeah, I mean, the country was divided
at the time.
I mean, there were some who thought that some
of the tactics that the NWP and that Alice
Paul was taking were disruptive and, and,
and, and hurt the war effort.
But as reports started leaking out in the
press of the treatment that the women had
in the prison that did galvanize the public
and increased sympathy for them.
So it was a two front battle.
You had, you know Carrie Chapman Catt who
was courting the president and had a more
conservative approach, to, to, to sort of
showing how separate the suffragettes were
really engaged in a patriotic effort to support
the war.
Then you had Alice Paul and the protests,
a peaceful protest.
I mean, they were arrested on these, these
technicalities, but when attention was brought
to how they retreated that did I think, move
the public to see that something has to be
done and, and help pay the way to, for the
vote World War I and those protests together.
Here's a question from Alison, was there any
collaboration between the suffrage movement
in the United States and the UK?
Yeah, well, Alice Paul spent time in the UK
and that's where she learned a lot of these
more militant tactics.
And so when she came back to the United States,
she was ready for a fight.
And that caused a little bit of friction with
the established leaders of the time, you know,
who wanted to not take such a confrontational
approach as they had in great Britain.
And what's interesting is that great Britain
did secure the suffrage for a limited amount
of women in 1918.
Um, but it was suffrage, I think, limited
to women who were 30 or over it had certain
had have certain property qualifications.
So there, there was some symmetry there, and
there was some collaboration as far as, you
know, Alice, Paul and learning, and a lot
of tactics that were working in Great Britain,
but we actually got full suffrage of earlier.
I think in Great Britain it was 1928 where
they finally extended suffrage, universally.
A question from Barbara.
Do you think that the fact that so many women
had, dads not present during World War II?
For example, my mom was pregnant and dad left
and met me when I was three.
No attachment.
What was the effect on, on the new wave?
Yeah, I'm not quite sure what you're getting
at there.
I'm sorry.
Maybe I, I'm not, I'm not quite sure about
the question.
Sorry.
I, I think I'm not quite sure what you're
asking.
You can please, be a little more specific.
Christine from Christine, do you have any
insight or research that explains why Maryland
took so long to ratify the 19th amendment?
If not, can you provide any direction or resources
that might be helpful?
Yeah.
You know, it's interesting because a lot of
the States, some of the, I guess, Maryland,
you think of sort of as the more Southern
state, they were a little bit slower, you
know, in approving the vote.
And, I don't have any resources in particular
for that, but you should definitely go to
the website.
There might be something there I'm about the
more local nature of the suffrage movement
in Maryland that could be helpful to you and
Evette Vincent.
I want to give a plug for her.
She's done an incredible job pulling together,
all sorts of resources on with her work on
the committee and organizing events and activities.
So just definitely go to the website for that.
From Catarina.
Are there any classic great examples of women's
suffrage, the story of women's suffrage and
literature and culture?
Yeah and I think a great, great question.
I mean, now with the Centennial anniversary,
there were so many great, um, documentaries.
Um, there, there was one recently that's been
released by PBS on Carrie Chapman Catt.
Um, Ken Burns some years ago, did a great
one for PBS on women's suffrage.
That I, that was just excellent.
I know there been some movies as well.
Hilary Swank started a movie that really showed
the life of Alice Paul.
Um, there are great museums.
There's Alice Paul House right here in Washington,
DC and a great website where you can learn
more about, um, their, their stories.
Oh, here's Barbara's clarification.
Sorry.
Okay.
On feminism, on the strength of our generation
and the demand for women's rights, the new
wave of feminism, for example, our mothers,
those born in the forties thought we were
daft.
Oh, I see.
So you're saying, yeah, well, you know, you
realize that the right to vote is, is relatively
new.
I mean, it's just a hundred years, so that's
not that many generations ago.
Um, I come from a family that has very low,
um, sort of gaps in their generations.
I mean, my grandmother was born in 1872.
Believe it or not.
My dad was in his fifties when I was born.
She was in her late forties when he was born.
So it really, you realize, um, how recent
this is and how some women, um, were content.
I mean, the first wave of feminism of course,
was all about getting the vote.
And that was the most important, um, the most
important, right.
I mean, for Susan B, Anthony, I mean, she
was very much looking, you know, she, she
wanted to encourage property, you know, reforming
property laws, marriage laws, educational
laws, but the vote was so primary because
that would enable the other things to come,
she thought.
And so then the second wave, when things were
expanding, that might've seemed, you know,
for the first wave of feminists, like this
isn't as important, perhaps I'm not sure,
but that, that's a great question.
From Ken.
What of other political precedents for women's
suffrage, widows could vote in New Jersey
and in 1790s, Lincoln described himself as
supporting of women's suffrage in the 1840s?
Yeah, well, like I tried, I tried to say earlier
that even though women were not allowed the
right to vote, they played a crucial role
in the Republic as Linda Kerber has explained
with Republican motherhood.
Lincoln, uh, ahead of his time to support
suffrage in the 1840s, um, Lincoln, uh, you
know, exceptional leader who really had a
vision for America, that was way ahead of
his time.
But yeah, I mean, there was some, maybe some
precedents.
I mean, there were some States that allowed
African Americans to vote, right.
Um, early in, in that, that was taken away.
I think that the, that's why the Declaration
of Independence is so important because I
think it did, there was a moment there and
Abigail Adams captured that, I think, where
she heard that John and his colleagues were,
were planning a Declaration of Independence
in the spring of 1776 and she seized upon
that moment if it lit a fire in her that,
that there are a universal human rights out
there that women can appeal to that that enslaved
peoples can appeal to.
So I think it did plant a seed to people who
were willing to listen to it, although it
took a long time for it to catch, you know,
for the rest of America to catch up to that.
From Sarah.
Do you believe that women recognizing the
moral missteps of the movement back in the
early 20th century might help motivate women
to promote racial justice today?
Yes.
I think that's so true.
I think that's, you know, that's why I think
it's important to bring this out, that the
leaders in the movement that, you know, I
discussed Stanton and Anthony, I mean, they
were visionary and they had an early commitment
to equality and they saw their own equality
as part of a bigger, a bigger fabric of universal
equality.
They could see their relationship between
the advancement of formerly slave peoples
in theirs.
It was all cohesive and together, and it was
unfortunate that it broke, but looking back
now, we could see, you know, that was a mistake
that, that had, that should not have had to
happen.
So I think it can help us to rededicate ourselves
to a scene.
All of us connected together in that quest
for more perfect equality for all people,
all classes, all races, all genders.
From Deborah.
Were there any countries that allowed women
to vote prior to the success of the women's
suffrage movement?
Um, yes.
Um, Australia was very early, I think in the
early 1900s, they allowed for suffrage one
of the very first, uh, countries to do so.
Um, now Great Britain beat us slightly in
1918, they allowed for a partial suffrage
of, of, of their women.
They had to be 30 years or older and have
certain property qualifications.
But the United States really in 1920 by, um,
granting universal suffrage to women really,
um, really, um, set, set history in motion
by that.
Um, when you consider that France, for example,
um, they did not get the suffrage to women
until 1945, and that was limited to literate
women and for Great Britain.
And it wasn't until 1928 that it became universal
suffrage, there weren't any qualifications
for it.
So the United States, even though it took
so long and from the, from 1776 to 1920, we
were relatively ahead of the rest of the world,
um, on suffrage for women, another, Oh, Oh,
Oh.
And I'm sorry.
HereÕs a question from Kara.
With respect to that question, why might they
have been more amenable than the United States?
Oh, other countries.
Well, I'm not sure about, I mean, Australia,
I'm not sure.
They were, they were ahead of the United States,
but like I said, the United States was pretty
much right at right at the cutting edge here.
And I think in part, because we had this idea,
this ideology of, from the Declaration of
Independence that really, um, inspired, um,
not only the, not only Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
but male supporters too who helped early in
the movement.
From Alison, how do you think the, my way
or the highway, my way, or the highway mentality
that is so present nowadays effects that continuing
struggles towards women's rights?
By my way or the highway, I'm not sure quite
what, what you mean by that.
Are you just saying that there's not sort
of toleration for the different facets of
the women's movement and what, what they want
to achieve?
Or are you saying that there's still this
kind of, um, I'm not sure what you're getting
at there.
I'm sorry.
From Maki, could you please recommend any
documentaries or books on black suffragettes
and what they had to go through with opposition
on so many fronts?
Yeah, I think Elaine Weiss has done some work
in this area.
Um, yeah, we certainly need to draw more attention
to the great contributions that, um, that,
uh, African American black suffragists made
to the movement.
I mentioned Ida Belle Wells, um, who was very
influential and very brave and how she stood
up to, uh, the, um, the establishment and
marched in that parade alongside the Illinois
delegation.
I might have room for one more question.
I'm not sure, but I know we're running short
of time.
Um, but I really appreciate all the questions
that have come.
Oh, okay.
Here we go.
Here's a question from Sydney.
Since countries like the UK, Germany and India
had women heads of state long ago, why do
you think we have yet to have a president?
Oh my gosh.
That's the big question.
It's really hard to explain actually, I really
can't explain that.
I think that we're really due for that.
We really due to have a female president in
my lifetime.
I certainly hope so.
It seems incredible that we haven't.
Oh, okay.
Last question from Norco, why women votes
were by States and then universal?
Well, I think that the state by state approach
seemed to be the more prudent and, um, and
sort of incremental step that women can take
to, to win the vote.
As you saw the, the opposition to the women's
vote was so entrenched, uh, that to call for
a, uh, uh, you know, a constitutional amendment
was just too big of a, of a grab, a too big
of a reach.
So what the, uh, what NASSA did was that they
tried to focus on state-by-state.
They try to, they, they, they would get in
touch with their representatives and the senators
of each state where they thought they could
make some inroads into the vote.
And so it was a more incremental approach,
but both, both, both approaches ultimately
ended up working.
All right.
Well, thank you so much for, for all your
questions and for listening to me today.
Um, I really hope that you will take some
time this year to celebrate and commemorate
the centennial of the passage of the 19th
amendment.
Thank you.
