Daughters of the American Revolution; Suffrage Movement | Discussion

I live in the time of great changes in political, social and cultural life of my country. Living in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, I became the witness of major historical changes, such as Civil Rights Movement and Suffrage movement. I will tell you more about Suffrage movement now. Suffrage movement emerged in the United States in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The word “suffrage” is of Latin origin and is translated as “voting”. Suffrage movement insisted on equal voting rights for all people and demanded to give women a right to vote. In the democratic society, the right to vote became the basic mean to take part in the process of ruling the state. Through voting people express their will and influence political, social and other processes in the country. People, deprived of the voting right become deprived of their basic rights and liberties. The suffrage movement became that moving force, which finally brought serious democratic change to the society and give women a right to vote. Women and those, who supported their struggle, want to prove they are  equal members of the society and right to vote is one of their natural civil rights.

I believe that the Suffrage movement fulfills an important social function.  Suffrage movement attracted public attention to inequality and gender discrimination, which existed in the society. Women in my society were deprived of basic rights, and their potential is strictly limited by norms and regulations of patriarchal society.  Women in my society do not have a lot of career opportunities, they also do not have same chances to get prestigious education as men did. All this discrimination is  enhanced by discrimination is supported by discrimination in civil rights. Crystal Eastman in her famous essay named Now We Begin stated, “In fighting for the right to vote most women have tried to be either non committal or thoroughly respectable on every other subject. Now they can say what they are really after; and what they are after, in common with all the rest of the struggling world, is freedom” (Eastman).  Suffrage movement brings positive change to my society since it  fights for women’s rights. I believe that   it is crucially important because struggle for women’s right became the fight for the implementation of rights and liberties in the society, because equal attitude to all members of the society and equal rights illustrates the democratic basis of the society.

I am proud I have such contemporaries, as Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton. Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton became the pioneers of the movement and shaped out the agenda of the movement (The Women Suffrage Movement).  Political change was slow and it took many years to lobby decision to the Congress. At the same time, informational campaign attracted public attention to the problem and made more and more men and women realize injustice, which existed in the contemporary voting system.  The suffrage movement organized meetings, marches, parades, lectures  to bring conscious approach to the society.   Suffragists did their best to educate people about the importance of woman suffrage. They did their best to inform public about the scope of the problem and about possible solutions. Proponents of the Suffrage movement got a clear realization, that they needed to start with the changes in the voting legislation, if they wanted to achieve social change and gain women’s rights in the society. “Thus, over time women began to realize that in order to achieve reform, they needed to win the right to vote. For these reasons, at the turn of the century, the woman suffrage movement became a mass movement” (The Woman Suffrage Movement).   

Suffrage movement brings positive change to the society. There are no just  no  arguments, which can justify discrimination of any categories of citizens in the society. Women, same as men are the members of the society, and their right to vote belongs to their inborn rights, which should be guaranteed by the Constitution. Limitations in the voting right become the symbol of  social injustice and inequality. The United States of America  was founded as a democratic state, which contains one of the most democratic Constitutions in the world. At the  same time, all democratic effort is neglected, while one category of citizens is limited in its rights and freedoms. Being not able to vote, women of the country for centuries were not able to express their social and political will. Lack of voting right, same as limitations of other rights and freedoms, supported the patriarchal order of the society, where one category of population was exploited by other. Rejecting women’s  the basic rights, including the right to vote, the society rejected the concept that men and women were created equal, and thus possessed equal rights and duties.

It is evident that Suffrage movement meets a fierce resistance in our male-dominated society. There is no doubt that not only moral and ethical questions bothered publicity and politicians in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Men, who have political influence in the society stand against ratification of women’s right to vote because they believe it will limit their impact in the society. Women constitute nearly the half of the population and voting right surely brought changes into political system of the state. Political struggle against the suffrage right, to some extent was an effort to save male-dominated social structure. My contemporaries, who stand against equal rights for men and women state that women do not perform important social function and thus their opinion cannot have the same weight as that of men.

Luckily, in 1920, the NAWSA and NWP combined their effort and due to their struggle the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. The 19th Amendment became the biggest achievement on the field of woman right protection. The voting right gave women a voice in the society, and started a long process of social change. The 19th  Amendment became an important legislative step towards social, ethnical and gender equality. This  Amendment proved women’s right to vote. The Amendment was passed by the Congress in 1919 and was ratified in 1920. The text of the Amendment sounds as “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any on account of sex” (19th Amendment).   This Amendment became a core stone, which summed up the effort of many people in the past and distinguished the future positive change.

Works cited

Women’s Suffrage: The Movement, VCU Libraries, Social Welfare History Project, https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/woman-suffrage/woman-suffrage-movement/

The Woman Suffrage Movement, https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/woman-suffrage-movement

Woman’s Suffrage, https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage

Woman Suffrage Timeline (1840-1920), National woman’s history Museum, http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/woman-suffrage-timeline-18401920/

Woman’s Suffrage Movement, History.NET, http://www.historynet.com/womens-suffrage-movement

Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S., https://www.infoplease.com/spot/womens-rights-movement-us https://newseumed.org/

Eastman, Crystal.  Now We Can Begin.  About.com: Women’s History. 2012. Web.

Forner, Eric,   Reconstruction:America’s Unfinished Revolution. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Print.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

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freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 19, 2024]
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