Subject Areas |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - African-American |
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U.S. History - Civics and U.S. Government |
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U.S. History - Women's Rights/History |
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Time Required |
| Four class periods (more if the class conducts the optional activities) |
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Skills |
| Research using archival documents and first-hand accounts
Collaboration
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Additional Data |
| Date Created: 11/06/02 |
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Date Posted |
| 11/6/2002 |
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Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage
IntroductionAn article originally
published in the 1991 Session Weekly of the Minnesota House of Representatives
recalls the arguments put forth in objection to the Minnesota Equal Suffrage Association's
decision, early in the 20th century, to push for the right of women to vote in
presidential elections. One lawmaker declared that all-male voting was "designed
by our forefathers." Later, Rep. Thomas Girling argued that "women shouldn't be
dragged into the dirty pool of politics." Approving such a measure, he said, would
"cause irreparable damage at great expense to the state." When
the Senate took up the bill, one member asserted that "disaster and ruin would
overtake the nation." Suffrage would lead inevitably to "government by females"
because "men could never resist the blandishments of women." Instead, he recommended
that women "attach themselves to some man who will represent them in public affairs."
Though such arguments may now sound rather
ridiculous to some, they are closely related to entrenched views of women that
took more than a century to overcome (assuming one agrees they have been overcome).
Understanding the positions of the suffrage and anti-suffrage movements—as expressed
in archival broadsides, speeches, pamphlets, and political cartoons—will help
your students better appreciate the struggle for women's rights and the vestiges
of the anti-suffrage positions that lasted at least through the 1960s and, perhaps,
to the present day. Note: This lesson may
be taught either as a stand-alone lesson or as a companion to the complementary
EDSITEment lessons Women's
Suffrage: Why the West First, Who
were the Foremothers of Women's Equality?, and Women's
Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs. Guiding Questions:What
attitudes about women and their relationships with men had to be overcome before
women could take their rightful place in American society? What were the arguments
for and against suffrage? Learning ObjectivesAfter
completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to- State arguments
for and against suffrage for women in the 19th and early 20th centuries
- Give
examples of how those arguments were expressed in a variety of media
- Analyze
a political cartoon from the 19th or early 20th centuries on the subject of suffrage.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson- Review
the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites.
Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary
for student viewing.
- Download the Pro-
and Anti-Suffrage Worksheet, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make
an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
- Because
of the importance and scope of the Women's Rights Movement, EDSITEment offers
three companion lessons designed to supplement your classroom curriculum through
organized access to archival materials:
- Who
Were the Foremothers of Women's Equality?: Students encounter major figures
in the woman's rights movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries in important
documents and other primary and secondary materials. The first activity in particular
familiarizes students with the formative goals of the movement as voiced in Elizabeth
Cady Stanton's 1848 "Declaration of Sentiments."
- Women's
Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs: Students analyze archival cartoons,
posters, magazine humor, newspaper articles and poems that reflect the deeply
entrenched attitudes and beliefs the early crusaders for women's rights had to
overcome.
- Women's
Suffrage: Why the West First?: Students compile information to examine hypotheses
explaining why the first nine states to grant full voting rights for women were
located in the West.
- Depending on your students' level of preparation,
you may wish to discuss how the movement for Women's Suffrage fits into the larger
nineteenth-century struggle for Women's Rights. It may surprise your students
to know, for example, that only a slim majority of those attending the 1848 Seneca
Falls Convention approved the suffrage initiative and then only after Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass insisted it was essential. Demanding the vote
was regarded by many as too extreme. Why did Stanton consider suffrage central
to the advancement of women? To understand that Stanton felt suffrage should have
a major place in the overall movement for women's rights, share with your students
the first four grievances recorded in her 1848 Declaration
of Sentiments, the formative document of the Women's Rights Movement, available
via a link from the EDSITEment resource New
Perspectives on the West. (Like The Declaration of Independence,
which it mirrors, Stanton's text lists a "history of repeated injuries and usurpations
on the part of man toward woman
- He
has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
- He has compelled her to submit to law in
the formation of which she had no voice.
- He
has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded
men, both natives and foreigners.
- Having
deprived her of this first right as a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby
leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed
her on all sides.
- All four
initial grievances relate to the exclusion of women from the voting process, the
overt subject of the first grievance. The second grievance echoes a familiar cry
from the American Revolution, "No taxation without representation." The third
grievance is a precursor to the argument used in the courts starting in the 1870s,
that if women are citizens, they cannot be deprived of rights accorded to other
citizens (and even, in some instances, non-citizens). The fourth grievance explains
why the early proponents of the Women's Rights Movement chose suffrage as their
central goal. Depriving women "of the elective franchise" made "oppressions… on
all sides" possible. Stanton continues by listing many such oppressions.
- (NOTE:
A more in-depth discussion of the grievances may be found in the first activity
of the EDSITEment lesson Who
Were the Foremothers of Women's Equality? For more on the deeply engrained
beliefs the early movement was working against, consult the EDSITEment lesson
Women's Equality:
Changing Attitudes and Beliefs.)
- For further background on the suffrage
and anti-suffrage movements that is specific to this lesson, consult the following
resources:
- The Currier and Ives lithograph
The
Age of Brass/or the Triumphs of Women's Rights, used in Part
1, below, is from 1869. According to Roland Marchand, it is a picture of various
types of dangerous feminists. It includes the following words and phrases: "Vote
for the Celebrated Man Tamer / Susan Sharp Tongue"; "Rights for Women…for Sheriff
Miss Hang Man…." It also features two women smoking cigars and, to the side, a
man with a baby.
- An additional EDSITEment lesson, Cultural
Change, explores how women won the vote and the relationship between political
ideas and cultural attitudes. Although intended for high school, this lesson includes
activities and resources you can adapt for younger students.
- For further
reading, consult the Recommended
Reading List provided here as a PDF file.
Suggested
Activities 1. The Triumph
of Women's Rights? 2. The Constitutional/Legal
Argument 3. Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage
Arguments 4. Cartoons: A Check
for Understanding 1. The
Triumph of Women's Rights? To establish an anticipatory set,
begin by sharing with students the Currier and Ives lithograph The
Age of Brass/or the Triumphs of Women's Rights, available on the Area
3 History and Cultures Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource History
Matters. Before giving any background or guidance, encourage students to report
what they notice in the lithograph. Then, in a whole-class setting, use the Cartoon
Analysis Worksheet offered by the EDSITEment-reviewed website Digital
Classroom to analyze the illustration. Tell students they will be much better
equipped to do such analyses when they have completed the other activities in
this lesson. 2.
The Constitutional/Legal Argument Share
with students the first paragraph of the Introduction, above.
Was the legislator correct when he said that all-male voting was "designed by
our forefathers?" As a class, read the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
(ratified 1920), available in a Transcript
of Amendments 11-27 on the EDSITEment resource Digital
Classroom. What does the amendment say? Now have students scan the text of
the Constitution. (A
Transcription of the U.S. Constitution is also available on Digital
Classroom.) Are women expressly forbidden from voting? Why was the 19th Amendment
necessary? Women did vote in some states in the early days of our republic. Share
with students the document 1797,
An Act to regulate the election of members of the legislative council and general
assembly, sheriffs and coroners, in this State, available on the Scholarly
Communications Center of Rutgers University Libraries, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website Women and Social
Movements. What does the document indicate about voting in the state of New
Jersey? (Women did vote.) Nevertheless, later acts rescinded the right of suffrage
for women in every state—share with students the document Who
Shall Not Vote 1807, also available on the Scholarly
Communications Center of Rutgers University Libraries. What
about the post-Civil War Constitutional amendments? Didn't they grant universal
suffrage? Read the 14th and 15th Amendments (a Transcript
of Amendments 11-27 is available on the EDSITEment resource Digital
Classroom). Note that the 14th Amendment specifically uses the word "male."
The 15th does not, leaving open the possibility for a state to grant women the
right to vote. Though passed in hopes of enforcing
the rights of freed slaves to vote, a less well-known act of Congress—the Enforcement
Act of 1870—was used to convict Elizabeth Cady Stanton of voting illegally. Download,
copy and distribute to students the "Enforcement Act of 1870" on page 1 of the
Pro-and Anti-Suffrage Worksheet,
available here as a PDF file. Can students find the clause that was used against
Stanton? The Founding Fathers never specifically
banned women from voting, but the states did have that power and used it. What
we might call a technicality in the Federal law was also used to enforce the ban.
If desired, students can now fill in the first
section of the chart "Pro- and Anti-Suffrage Arguments" on page 2 of the PDF
file, available here as a PDF file. 3.
Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage Arguments Share
with the class the document A
Petition for Universal Suffrage (circa 1865), an early plea to Congress, available
via a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Digital
Classroom. What are some of the issues Stanton, Anthony, Blackwell, Stone,
and others included in the petition? If you
have not already done so, pass out the chart "Pro- and Anti-Suffrage Arguments,"
on page 2 of the PDF file
(see Preparing to Teach This Lesson, above, for download
instructions), for students to use during the following activity. Divide
the class into eight groups. The archival documents listed below will allow the
groups to explore specific issues. The selected documents have a common theme
or themes, but are not necessarily limited to any particular theme. If possible,
create overheads or multiple copies of documents as requested by groups. - Group
1: The African-American Perspective
- Group 2: Woman's Work Outside the Home
- Group 3: Pro and
Anti: Women versus the Brewers
- Group 4: The Rights
of Women/The Rights of States
- Group 5: Are Women Already Represented?
- Group 6: Do Women Even
Want the Vote?
- Group 7: Will Suffrage Ruin Marriage, the
Family, and the Nation?
- Group
8: Woman's Work in the Home
Following their research,
student groups should present their documents in a point/counterpoint fashion,
having at least two speakers—each of whom represents a position as expressed in
a particular document—speak in turn when possible.
4. Cartoons: A Check for Understanding
Once
again, show students The
Age of Brass/or the Triumphs of Women's Rights on the Area
3 History and Cultures Project, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website
History Matters. Would students analyze
it differently now than they did when this lesson began? If
desired, use the list of archival cartoons below as a check for understanding.
It can be used in a variety ways: - Simply
share as many of the cartoons as you like with the class and ask students to point
to details representing specific issues.
- With the students in groups,
proceed from group to group in order as each group points to an issue expressed
in the document, until the issues are exhausted. Start each round with the group
that went second in the previous round.
- Pass the cartoons out to individual
students to analyze.
Regardless of which method you choose, students
can use the Cartoon
Analysis Worksheet, available on the EDSITEment resource Digital
Classroom, for guidance. List of Archival Cartoons
- From The Marchand Collection
on the Area 3 History and Cultures
Project, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website History
Matters (With Marchand's notes, when applicable.)
- AN
INAUGURATION OF THE FUTURE Man's place is that of baby-tender in this
cartoon by William H. Walker, 1897.
- Who
Wears the Pants? 1865 "The Discord," 1865. A marriage dispute over
who wears the pants. "Fight courageous for sovereign authority, neighbor,
or your wife'll do to you as mine has done to me—she'll pull your hair
off your head and compel you to wear a wig!" Child: "Oh, Mamma, please
leave my Papa his Pants." Husband: "Rather die! than let my wife have
my pants. A man ought to always be the ruler." Wife: "Sam'Y help me! Woman
is born to rule and not to obey those contemptible creatures called men!"
Daughter: "Oh, Pa, let go, be gallant or you'll tear 'em." Woman: "Bravo,
Sarah. Stick to them, it is only us which ought to rule and to whom the
pants fit best."
- WHY
NOT GO THE LIMIT? "WHY NOT GO THE LIMIT? FOR THE BENEFIT OF THOSE
LADIES WHO ASK FOR THE RIGHT TO SMOKE IN PUBLIC. Cleopatra Café. Drink
Ladies Auxiliary Rye. Chew Scrub-Lady's Delight. Try Our Progressive Sours.
Bock Beer. Little Mother Brewing Co. Evelyn Cassidy Association Dance
and Smoker. Women sometimes; Ladies never, spit on the floor. Ladies will
please refrain from throwing cigar butts in the free lunch. No scrapping
allowed on premises."
- Women
Challenging a Union Man
- From the EDSITEment resource Digital
Classroom
- Age
of iron. Man as he expects to be. (Cartoon) Lith. by Currier & Ives, 1869
on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory
- Election
Day on Famous American Trials, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet
Public Library
- Woman's
Emancipation (drawing, with text) on the EDSITEment-reviewed website U.S.
Women's History Workshop
Extending
the Lesson- Famous
American Trials, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet
Public Library, offers the exhibit Exploring
Constitutional Conflicts: The 19th Amendment. Should the 14th Amendment be
interpreted as guaranteeing women the right to vote? How did women finally win
the right to vote?
- Marriage laws were an important issue for the early
suffragists. American marriage law was based on the English concept of coverture,
in which a woman's legal status became subordinate to her husband. Interested
students can explore the concept of coverture through the following documents:
The
investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding
of my own. I have fought the Anti-Slavery cause to be the high school of morals
in our land--the school in which human rights are more fully investigated, and
better understood and taught, than in any other ... Human beings have rights,
because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature;
and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights.
These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be alienated ... Now
if rights are founded in the nature of our moral being, then the mere circumstances
of sex does not give to man higher rights and responsibilities, than to women....
Commentary
from The Gilder Lehrman Institute
of American History explains:
During
the 1830s, a growing number of female abolitionists became convinced that women
suffered legal and economic disabilities similar to those facing enslaved African
Americans. Not only were women denied the right to vote and hold public office,
they had no access to higher education and were excluded from most professional
occupations. American law accepted the principle that a wife had no legal identity
apart from her husband. She could not sue, she could not make a legal contract,
nor could she own property. She was not permitted to control her own wages or
gain custody of her children in case of separation or divorce. In this selection,
Angelina Grimké explains how the struggle against slavery sensitized female abolitionists
to other, more subtle forms of bondage and coercion.
From the abolition movement,
grew the Women's Rights Movement. For an online documentary movie about the
formative years of the movement with an emphasis on Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony (based on Ken Burns' television documentary), click on
the image on the left-hand side of the home page of PBS' Not
For Ourselves Alone (a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website New
Perspectives on the West) to access audio and video. Note the connections
the documentary makes between the Women's Rights Movement and temperance and
abolition movements. The first 12 online episodes are especially relevant
for providing background on the formative years of the movement. (NOTE: Each
episode is a brief loop; click on the next number to continue.)
Share
the first four pages of the illustrated satirical poem from the 1960s "There Was
a Young Woman Who Swallowed a Lie" by Meridith Tax, also available on the EDSITEment
resource African-American
Women:
Online Archival Collection: Which issues from the previous
discussion did she raise? What new issues did she raise? Both
of these documents were from the 1960s. Are any of the issues from the early suffrage
movement still issues today? Students could create a poll to try to gauge the
answer. If students in the class disagree, a debate could be conducted. (The topic
of women's rights is still contentious: monitor the debate closely.)
Selected
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