American Women and Community

Prior to Aug. 26, 1920 women in the United States could not participate in the democratic process. Following the Civil war, American women wanted to have oft input into the decisions that would impact their lives. In order for women to contact suffrage groups across the nation had to gather together and create a unified parkway for change. The Seneca Falls host of 1848, the first formal conference for womans suffrage, argufyd America to a revolution that would endure for to a greater extent than seven decades forward women actually were given(p) the right to vote.Convened by Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott, the conventions aim was to empower women and entreat change through suffrage for women. Since the Civil War women had begun to feel the look at to represent themselves and be able to participate in the decision reservation process which would affect their daily lives. The catalyst for this gathering was the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in 1840 in London and attended by an American delegating which included a number of women. In attendance were Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who were forced to puzzle in ther galleries as observers because they were women.This poor treatment did not rest soundly with these women of progressive thoughts, and it was decided that they would hold their own convention to discuss social, complaisant and religious rights of women, (, 2008, 3). The community of women who ga on that pointd in 1848 faced their first challenge in 1869 when the 15th amendment, which extended the right to vote to African-American men, was introduced and passed. During the gracious war, womens suffrage was eclipsed by the war effort and movement for the abolishment of slavery. While annual conventions were held on a regular basis, there was much discussion but little action.Activists such as slave-born Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B Anthony lectured and petitioned the political sympathies for the em ancipation of slaves with the belief that, once the war was over, women and slaves alike would be granted the same rights as white men. At the end of the war, however, the government aphorism the suffrage of women and that of the lightlessness as two separate issues and it was decided that the Negro vote could produce the immediate political gain, particularly in the South, that the womens vote could not, (, 2008, 6). Some women felt that they should support the 15th amendment as a victory which would bring women one step closer to voting. This confederacy of womens suffrage supporters believed that after black men gained the right to vote there would be no barriers preventing women from gaining that right as well. Yet an some other faction felt that they could not endorse the amendment until they had been granted the right themselves. Two groups emerged, the field Woman Suffrage Association and Womans Suffrage Association. two groups worked toward suffrage as well as securing property rights for married women and other institutional changes.Following the Civil War, womens study groups flourished. These groups gave women access to education and an gifted forum. By the early twentieth century communication was also more effective and women across the nation had more experiences and were generally better inclined(p) to organize themselves, (Bauer, 1999). However, this was also a quiet era for the suffrage movement. It was not until 1914 when a younger generation of women began to hold street presentations, parades and other activism stunts to gain attention. In 1915 the National Womans Party formed and began to attempt against the party in power, (Bauer).At this time women were being arrested for their action and in put behind bars some were mistreated. The mistreatment of women gained much attention creating public sympathy for the suffragists. Although World War I slowed the progression of suffrage by 1919 women the 19th amendment was officially pas sed. By Aug. 26, 1920 then President Woodrow Wilson ratified the amendment allowing women to enter the polls for the first time in the United States. References (2008). The History of Womens Suffrage. History . Retrieved from www. history. com Bauer, H. (1999). The Priviledge for Which We Struggled. manganese Minnesota Historical Society Press.