Topic #3: 2020 marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. In your blog, reflect on the legacy of women’s suffrage. How did women’s suffrage change American politics? Did the right to vote have other consequences such as an expanded social role for women, opening up previously closed avenues? In short, beyond living up to the promise of democracy, what effects did women’s suffrage have on American culture and society over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?
The Women's Suffrage Movement led to huge accomplishments in the 1920s. As the 19th amendment was passed, it was considered a game-changer for most women in America because women were now able to be heard and seen on their own. The women's suffrage movement influenced women to have a presence in American politics, culture, and society, and to this day women can loudly use their voice in each category.
The Women's Suffrage movement changed American politics through the inclusion of new Amendments. For example, the 18th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution were ratified in large part to the work of women suffragists. The 18th amendment established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. Temperance started as a movement to regulate drinking in the United States in the early 1800s in a manner that drew other middle-class reformers. This campaign fused a concern about common societal issues with moral ideology and safety problems. In particular, many women were attracted to temperance. "Demon rum" was accused by the temperance reformers of corrupting American culture, leading to violence, immorality, and death. The reason why women activists demanded the passing of the 18th Amendment revolved around the casual male drunkenness and abuse. Both the women’s suffrage and temperance movement combined and demonstrated the centrality of moralism to p
rogressive politics.
Moreover, the 19th amendment officially eliminated sex as a barrier to voting throughout the United States (Gidlow, 2004). It has given the right to vote to more people than any other single initiative in American history. The 19th amendment advanced gender equality but left untouched inequalities of class, race, and ethnicity. Also, significant policy changes were encouraged but many reform objectives were missed. This allowed women, particularly white women, to discover new ground inside government departments, political parties, and election offices, and even to run for president in time, but it kept most of them out of the halls of power. The nineteenth amendment was not an end to the battle for the equal freedoms of women, but just a step towards the continuing quest for more inclusive democracy.
Once women were given the right to vote, their roles in society expanded, allowing new opportunities for them. As women were given the right to vote, their social role expanded, opening up many new opportunities for them. Before the 1920s, women desired to be free and independent because they were only viewed as housewives who had no opinion in society. Also during this time, the majority of
women played the role of housewife, could not walk the streets without their husbands, and if divorced would receive nothing. Subsequently, the 1920s was
considered a time of liberation for some women. For instance, women were able to freely exercise their right to vote and one in which the still loosely linked coalitions of women that had earned the victory split into separate causes. Ultimately, it was a decade in which the image such as the "flapper" brought women new ways of portraying femininity, and one in which women of certain races, ages, and socioeconomic groups still considered these representations unavailable (American Yawp, Section 22).“This "new breed" of women-known as the flapper-went against the era 's gender proscriptions, bobbing their hair, wearing short skirts, listening to jazz, and flouting social and sexual norms (American Yawp, Section 22)”. Such practices, though empowering in many ways, nevertheless reinforced the myths of female carelessness and excessive consumerism that would persist into the twentieth century.There is no question that in the 1920s, women achieved plenty. There has been a significant and keenly felt cultural change that has created greater opportunities for many women to work outside the home. For example, the number of professional women rose dramatically over the decade. Yet even for educated women, there were still restrictions. Occupations like law and pharmacy remained predominantly male: in feminized occupations such as teaching and nursing, most female practitioners were. So it was difficult for women, even within these sectors, to rise to leadership positions.
Beyond living up to the promise of democracy, women’s suffrage strongly affected American culture and society over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. For example, the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s originally centered on eliminating gender inequalities by anti-discrimination legislation, such as restricting access to decent employment and wage inequity. In 1964, Virginia's representative Howard Smith proposed adding a prohibition on gender discrimination to the current Civil Rights Act. The other Congressmen greeted him with laughter, but with the support of Michigan's Representative Martha Griffiths, the legislation passed with the amendment intact (Tavanna.org).The feminist movement of the 1960s and '70s originally focused on dismantling workplace inequality, such as a denial of a
ccess to better jobs and salary inequity, via anti-discrimination laws. In 1964, Representative Howard Smith of Virginia proposed to add a prohibition on gender discrimination into the Civil Rights Act that was under consideration(Tavanna.org). This quickly became apparent, though, that the recently created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would not enforce the rights of women workers under the statute, and so a group of feminists like Betty Friedan agreed to create an organization that would combat gender discrimination in the courts and legislatures. It founded the National Women's Organization (NOW) in the summer of 1966, which went on to petition Congress for pro-equality legislation and help women obtain legal assistance as we fought sexism in the courts at work. Betty Friedan 's generation, therefore, did not attempt to abolish the current structure, but rather to open it for the female public, political participation. However, the more radical "female liberation" movement was determined to destroy the patriarchy that they thought oppressed every facet of women's lives, including their personal lives (Bergon, 2015). They popularized the idea that women's political inequalities had equal personal consequences that include relationships, sexuality, birth, and the idea that women's political disparities were equally important.
Furthermore, the end of the 1970s was marked by Women’s Strike for Equality celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of women’s right to vote. Sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW), the 1970 protest focused on employment, discrimination, political equality, abortion, free childcare, and equality in marriage. All of these issues foreshadowed the backlash against feminist goals in the 1970s (American Yawp, Section 22).
The importance of the women's suffrage movement is enormous not only for women but for the whole world. The suffragists have been involved in some of the most significant and hard-fought battles in the history of this nation. They have been interested in more than women's rights and feminism; they have supported the abolitionist movement, children's rights, workers ' rights, industrial conditions, and these are just the tip of the iceberg. This cycle could have been delayed for decades had there not been a relentless effort on their part.
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