Women's Rights and Suffrage

In 1833, Oberlin College became the first US college to admit women on equal terms with men. educate only women and not men. elect a woman as college president. join women's fight for temperance.

a

Elizabeth Cady Stanton is most noted for forming the Women's Christian Temperance Union. founding the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. helping draft the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments. working as a nurse during World War I.

c

Which of the following did the five reformers who organized the Seneca Falls Convention have in common? They came from states where women had gained suffrage. They had gained political support by being jurors on important cases. They were experienced at effectively organizing women's rights conventions. They were active in the abolition movement.

d

Which of the following marked the achievement of a long-held suffragist goal in the early 1900s? the Declaration of Sentiments the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution Catt's "Winning Plan" the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution

d

Which statement best describes Margaret Sanger? She advocated for women's right to own property and campaigned for the Married Woman's Property Act. She advocated for women's right to vote and founded the National Women Suffrage Association. She advocated for women's access to education and opened one of the first all-female universities. She advocated for women's health and helped educate women about birth control and family planning.

d

Section 1 00:00:00 In this lesson, our goal is to answer the question, how did women fight for their rights and work to improve their position in society? To do this, we're going to talk about how women began to assume a public role, how the Seneca Falls Convention began the women's movement, how women fought for and won the right to vote, and how women continued to fight to improve their position in society. 00:00:21 First, let's take a look at how women begin to assume a public role. Section 2 00:00:00 In the 19th century, there were certain areas, certain issues, that it was considered acceptable for women to be involved in, for them to take on as a cause. These included temperance, education and abolition. We're going to talk about each one of these in turn. So first, let's look at temperance. Temperance is the abstention from alcoholic beverages. What does that mean? 00:00:23 Well, basically what it means is women were crusading to have people significantly limit their use of alcohol. Now why did they want to do this? Well, in the 1800s, heavy drinking was a bit of a problem and it caused problems at home. Some people would spend their wages on buying alcohol, which meant that they weren't taking care of their family with some of the money they were earning. 00:00:50 And in many cases, too, we found that people who were drinking, men who were drinking, would often beat their children or their wives. So it became a cause for women to protect their homes. So they called for people to drink a lot less. Women banded together to promote this idea of temperance, and in 1870 they forged a Women's Christian Temperance Union. 00:01:16 Society actually supported this new public role for women, because they believed that women actually did have a right to protect their home, to protect their families, and do what was best for their family. Section 4 00:00:00 In the 19th century, women's education was limited, especially compared to men's. Girls and young women were expected to learn only the basics, including how to read, how to write, and how to do simple math, whereas men were taught these skills and some of the more scholarly subjects, such as science and ancient languages like Latin and Greek. Many thought that these are the only things women needed 00:00:23 to know how to do in order to manage their homes, so that they knew how to read the Bible, correspond with one another, or write letters. They also might need to manage the budget or do the shopping. If they were single, they might teach young children in grade school. We're going to see that women's education begins to expand in the early 1800s. 00:00:45 In 1826, at Emma Hart Willard founded the Troy Female Seminary, which was the country's first high school for girls. The first public high school would open five years later. In 1833, Oberlin College became the first US college to admit women on equal terms with men, and in 1837, Mount Holyoke College became the first women's college in the United States. 00:01:10 So Mount Holyoke, located in Massachusetts, admitted only women. It was an all-women's school. Other all-women schools would soon follow, including Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley. Women were also interested in abolition-- the fight to end slavery. And remember, this was one of the realms where society 00:01:28 thought that it was appropriate for women to participate or to focus their attention. Many women joined the abolition movement. The Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina, spoke out publicly against slavery. And many women attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention, 1840, in London. However, women were not allowed to actually 00:01:50 participate or to speak. They were allowed to attend sessions only if they were screened from the rest of the hall by the curtain. Some of the prominent women who attended included Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Now unhappy with their treatment at the convention, they turned their attention to focus on women's rights. Sarah Grimke wrote that "men and women were created equal. 00:02:18 They are both moral and accountable beings, and whatever is right for a man to do is right for a woman." Section 6 00:00:00 Now you understand how women began to assume a public role. Next we're going to take a look at how the Seneca Falls Convention began the women's movement, why it was so influential. That's going to help us answer our lesson question, how did women fight for their rights and work to improve their position in society? So let's get started. Section 7 00:00:00 The first major meeting on women's rights in the United States was held in Seneca Fallls, New York, July 19th and 20th, 1848. It was called the Seneca Falls Convention. The goals of the Seneca Falls Convention were to organize women to fight for equal civil and legal rights, to enlist the support of prominent men, to publish a declaration of purposes and principles. 00:00:23 Now the five organizers included Jane Hunt, Mary Ann McClintock, Lucretia Mott, and her sister, Martha Coffin Wright, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Let's take a look at Elizabeth Cady Stanton in detail. She came from an abolitionist family who was involved in the Underground Railroad and she was an early women's rights leader who attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, where she was forced to sit behind a curtain 00:00:51 and was not allowed to speak. She was a leader of the women's suffrage movement after 1848. And she helped to draft the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, along with her fellow organizers. Now this was an important document in the fight for women's suffrage, or the right to vote. Let's take a look at this document now. 00:01:12 The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal." Does this language remind you of any other document that you may have learned about in US history? Well it should. It should remind you of the Declaration of Independence, which reads "We hold these truths to be self-evident that 00:01:35 all men are created equal." Now the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and the Declaration of Independence had other similarities and differences. The Declaration of Independence listed several grievances that the colonists felt certain rights that the king was taking away from them. In the Declaration of Sentiments, women listed the 00:01:59 many rights that they felt men were taking away from them. This document went on to be one of the most important documents in the fight for women's rights. Section 9 00:00:00 The Seneca Falls Convention had several important effects on the women's movement. The first outcome was the publication of a list of practical, clearly defined goals in the Declaration of Sentiments. Second was the beginning of an organized fight for women's rights. And from that, an annual series of national women's 00:00:19 rights conventions that popped up all around the country. The attention of the press and of the public helped to catapult the Women's Rights Movement forward. And as you're going to see, the attention and the new-found prominence that this movement had gained is going to help women eventually gain the right to vote. And it's going to really be led by the women you see pictured here in a marble statue that's now located in 00:00:49 Washington, DC. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony, who you'll learn about soon, and Lucretia Mott. These women-- their leadership helped to really propel the women's movement forward in an organized way. Section 10 00:00:00 The women's rights movement is gaining steam. But the right to vote still eludes women. Now we're going to look at how women fought for and won the right to vote, bring us one step closer to answering our lesson question. How do women fight for their rights and work to improve their position in society? Section 11 00:00:00 "Remember the Ladies." That was the plea of Abigail Smith Adams, the wife of John Adams, who would become the second President of the United States and who was a delegate to the second Continental Congress, as he was a vocal supporter of American independence. She urged him in a plea that "In the new code of laws, remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. 00:00:26 If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation." So what she's saying is, give women more respect than they had in the past. Then she's saying if you don't, we'll be forced to rebel because we are not being included in 00:00:56 the lawmaking process. We have no voice. So we're not going to be bound to these laws that we didn't help create. Now when she says they are going to rebel, she doesn't necessarily mean they are going to take up arms and use weapons. But she does mean that they are going to call attention to 00:01:11 this cause and they are going to organize, which is exactly what we saw happen when women weren't given the right to vote at that time. Section 13 00:00:00 Now let's take a look at Susan B. Anthony. Now, like many of the early women's rights leaders, as she came from an abolitionist background. She had a long association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who she met in 1851, and the two forged a lifelong friendship and they were also compatriots in the leading the cause for women's rights. Anthony and Stanton co-founded the National Woman Suffrage 00:00:23 Association, or the NWSA. And they're only goal was the women's suffrage amendment. Now part of this came out of the fact that in 1869 the 15th Amendment granted suffrage to African-American men but not women. This was one of the Reconstruction amendments coming out after the Civil War. Now in response to this, suffragists formed two 00:00:48 national organizations. Anthony, Stanton, and their followers formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. And their goal, again, was the constitutional amendment for giving women the right to vote. Lucy Stone, who was a graduate of Oberlin College, and her husband formed the American Woman Suffrage Association. That had a slightly different goal. 00:01:11 And that was getting the right to vote on the state level. In 1890, these two organizations joined together to fight for suffrage together. And they became the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1915, Carrie Chapman Catt the NAWSA unveiled her winning plan to win suffrage at the state and federal level. So her approach was to go state-by-state. 00:01:43 And once women had gained the right to vote in enough states, they can use that power to vote to vote for a constitutional amendment. Now, women made important contributions during World War I. And many people saw this. They went overseas as nurses, ambulance drivers, Red Cross aids. And others worked on the home front in factories. 00:02:11 They took jobs that men had vacated, men who'd gone off to join the service. And women's work during that time really helped convince many people that they deserved the right to vote. So in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson went before Congress and announced that it was time for a women's suffrage amendment. The 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. 00:02:38 And it read "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the account sex". So they're basically saying that it's now illegal to deny someone the right to vote based on whether they're a man or woman. So gender, sex, is out of the equation when it comes to the right to vote. 00:03:03 Now although many of the early suffragist leaders who we've talked about, including Anthony and Cady Stanton, were not alive at this time, their are efforts were really instrumental in helping generate momentum for the women's rights movement and to bringing attention early on. And that torch was carried by many women in the years leading up to 1920 and, ultimately, the passage of this. 00:03:34 So finally, in 1920, women had the right to vote. Section 15 00:00:00 Now with the right to vote, the women's rights movement is going to change gears a little bit. They're going to focus on new issues in the 20th century. Now we're going to take a look at how they continued to fight to improve their position in society as we try to answer our lesson question, how did women fight for their rights and work to improve their position in society? Section 16 00:00:00 In the 20th century, women's rights movement focused its attention on new areas, including in the courts, on the job, and in the home. So let's talk about each one of these in turn. Let's take a look first from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, some of the important changes that were occurring for women. In 1848, the Married Women's Property Act in New York gave 00:00:26 married women the right to control their own property. Prior to this, once a women got married she lost rights to control her property. And 1860 New York granted women the rights to keep their own wages. So anything they had earned outside of the home now was theirs to keep, which gave them the power to be able to be stronger economically and gave them purchasing power. 00:00:53 Because again, prior to this, the women's wages would go to the husband. In 1900, all married women in the United States gained property rights. And it was really modeled after the New York law of 1848. In 1947, the Supreme Court granted women the right to serve on a jury. 00:01:16 Now at this time, they said that if you weren't interested in doing if you were a woman you could claim an exemption based on sex. Many individual states gave preference to male jurors at this time, however. So even though a woman could serve on a jury, some states would choose only men for their juries. It wasn't until 1975 that the courts overturned these state 00:01:41 laws and required that jurors be selected without regard to gender. Now let's take a look at another issue, fair labor standards. The Uprising of 20,000. Women used unions to win better working conditions. Now this wasn't unique to the women's movement. During this time unions were gaining prominence and more 00:02:04 and more laborers were turning to unions to help improve their working conditions. They formed the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. And it more than 2/3 of the shirtwaist workers went on strike in 1909. They did this when a Ukrainian immigrant worker, Clara Lemlich, gave a speech urging New York's factory workers to stand up for their rights. 00:02:32 And the day after her speech, so many workers went on strike that the event was later called the Uprising of 20,000. The strike lasted for several weeks and more than 2/3-- again of the shirtwaist workers-- participated. Now the owners agreed to raise the wages and to shorten the workweek as a result of this movement with the labor union. Now let's take a look at Margaret Sanger. 00:02:58 She advocated for women's health issues. She was one of 11 children and she was a trained nurse who educated women about birth control. She also educated them about women's health issues and their bodies. She published a monthly women's health newsletter, The Woman Rebel, and she did this in 1914. But at this time, Comstock Laws in different states made 00:03:26 it illegal to print or mail information about birth control and family planning. Sanger opened the first US birth control clinic in 1916. She did this in Brooklyn. Now it was quickly shut down. And the reason for this is, again, because it was illegal to give advice on birth controls or to provide contraceptives. 00:03:49 So she was immediately sent to prison. She appealed her case, and she actually won the court case that allowed doctors to prescribe contraceptives and to discuss family planning options with his or her patients. Now the decision really paved the way for Sanger to open a new legal birth control clinic. And it was called the Birth Control Clinical Research 00:04:11 Bureau, which she opened in 1923. And for the rest of her life she continued to fight for safer and more effective contraceptives and to advocate for family planning. Section 18 00:00:00 If you don't think that the women's rights movement has much to do with you, you might be surprised to learn that some of the sentiments of that movement still exist today in another form, in the United Nations and its concept of universal peace. The UN was founded in the aftermath of World War II with the mission of maintaining peace throughout the world. And as part of its mission, it issued a Universal Declaration 00:00:26 of Human Rights. And the ideas in this may seem very familiar to you. It says that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Now this may echo a little bit the Declaration of Sentiments that was passed at the Seneca Falls Convention or even the Declaration of Independence from 1776. You can see the similarities, this concept of the declaring 00:00:52 the rights of humans. The UN advocates for the rights of women still. They believe that the condition of women around the world is of special concern. And the UN has committees on women's issues, uses gender-neutral language, and pays special attention to women's rights and equality today.

instruction

Section 1 00:00:00 In this lesson we answered the question, how did women fight for their rights and work to improve their position in society? Now let's take a look at some of the big ideas that we talked about during this lesson. Section 2 00:00:00 Early women's issues in the 19th century included temperance movement, or trying to limit the consumption of alcohol, education reforms like pushing for women to be able to go to college or take more scholarly subjects, and the abolition movement, or bringing an end to slavery. Now the Seneca Falls Convention was a major women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. 00:00:22 And it was the first of its kind to be held in the United States. Participants drafted a Declaration of Sentiments, which said "we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal." Now early women's rights leaders included Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Now of those three, two of these women, Mott and Stanton, 00:00:47 were actually organizers and attendees of the Seneca Falls Convention. But all three would go on to be prominent leaders in pushing for women's rights, especially the Suffrage Movement, which really gained ground after the 15th Amendment was passed, which granted the right to vote to African-Americans but left women off of that. Now the National American Woman Suffrage Association was 00:01:14 formed from two earlier organizations when they joined forces in 1890 to try to raise awareness about women's rights and get women's suffrage. Carrie Chapman Catt had a winning plan, which pushed for state-by-state suffrage. Her idea was that she would get women to be able to vote in enough states so that they could vote on a constitutional amendment. 00:01:42 Well, in 1920 Wilson and Congress passed the 19th Amendment, which said that "the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States on account of sex." And the 19th Amendment granted all women the right to vote in 1920. Women's rights expanded. This included legal rights. The right to own property, control wages, 00:02:11 and serve on juries. Working conditions improved. They wanted the right to fair wages and safe working conditions. From this grew out the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, which went on strike in 1909 to try to improve the conditions women working in. And health care reform. 00:02:31 The rights to receive information about birth control and family planning. And Margaret Sanger advocated for these issues. I thank you so much for joining me here today. I hope that you learned a lot, and I hope that you have a great day.

summary

Section 1 00:00:00 Hi, I'm [? Miss Merzai. ?] Welcome to our discussion on Women's Rights and Suffrage. This lesson is going to be dealing with the early 1900s. And we're going to be looking at women's rights and the fight for the right of suffrage, which is the right to vote. The image on the screen in front of you shows a suffragist parade in the early 1900s, a parade in support of 00:00:22 women getting the right to vote. And it was in New York City. Before getting started on this lesson, let's look at the difference between the rights that men had and the rights that women had in the early 1900s and late 1800s. Where did the American ideal of equality come from? Keep that question in mind as we start our lesson. Section 2 00:00:00 In the early summer of 1776, the 13 British colonies in the New World declared their independence from Great Britain by the Declaration of Independence, which was crafted by Thomas Jefferson. In the document he outlined some of the reasons the colonies were declaring independence. And many of the ideas he presented were a nod towards some of the ideas of the Enlightenment. 00:00:26 He wrote that "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So the idea of the inalienable rights came out of the Enlightenment. And when Jefferson was talking about all men, he was speaking about human beings. 00:00:48 That there are certain rights that human beings have and people understood that. But there were definitely some differences in society between men and women and their accepted roles in the society. Men had various public rights and responsibilities that women did not have. For example, men could vote. They could sit on juries. 00:01:10 They could own property. They could participate in politics. And they could go out to different types of public events or different types of theaters. And women didn't have these same rights. So we're going to see, particularly at the turn of the 20th century, more and more women begin to demand some of these same rights that men have. Section 4 00:00:00 Women fought for equal rights in a number of areas, and that's what we're going to be looking at in this lesson. By the end of this lesson, you should be able to explain the role of women reformers in the early 1800s. Identify and describe influential people and events in the women's suffrage movement from the early 1800s to the passage of the 19th Amendment. Remember, suffrage means the right to vote. 00:00:21 Examine the methods used by suffragists to win voting rights for women. And explain the goals of women progressives to improve women's position in society, including those of Margaret Sanger.

warm up