Women's Suffrage campaigns Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Women's Suffrage campaigns - Research Paper Example This was following a long and difficult struggle against federal governments as well as the state. Previously, women never took part in general elections simply for the reason that they were women (Macbain-Stephens, 4). This paper discusses Women's Suffrage/the right to vote. Introduction Women's suffrage refers to women’s right to hold public office and to vote. The women's suffrage movement comprises of reformers’ every organized activity to add constitutional amendments and laws guaranteeing women the right to vote or to transform laws that hindered women from voting (Lewis, 1). Between early 1800s and civil war, which took place between the years 1861 and 1865, the US had a growing middle class, including families wherein while the women stayed at home taking care of their children, men held positions of lawyers, managers, business owners, among others. During this time, stereotypical ideas regarding women as well as men’s roles emerged from the culture of me n going into the world of work. People held the argument that since women were pure of heart in addition to being physically weak, only men could cope with the harsh events of the world of rough work. Another belief was that women should seldom leave home – they were expected to develop the aspects of submissiveness, purity, piety, and domesticity, maintaining the values of morality and stability in the home. They were also expected to create a getaway from the competitive world of business for their men (Macbain-Stephens, 6). Women were denied the right to own property, vote, obtain a divorce, speak in public, or serve on juries (Adams, 4). Macbain-Stephens further explains that long before and during the Progressive movement, a period of great reform (1900-1920) during which great transformations in economic, political and social ideas were occurring in the US, women had been fighting for their voting rights (they tried for more than 80 years without succeeding). In the year 1776 for example, a woman by the name Abigail Adams expressed strong views regarding her desire to take a more prominent role in the decision-making process pertaining the way in which the government was run as well as share a voice in the election of individuals who ran it. Abigail was the second US president’s wife and she wrote John Adams, her husband, a letter voicing her reaction to the proclamation that ‘all men are created equal’ after she had read a draft of the constitution that the second Continental Congress had written. In the letter, she requested her husband to ‘remember the ladies’ and be more favorable and to generous them than his ancestors. She promised that if her husband would not give particular attention and care to the ladies, they were determined to provoke a rebellion, and that they would not hold themselves bound by any laws in which they had no voice or representation (Adams, 4 & Thelizlibrary.org, 1-3). Abigail cauti oned against according all the power to men during the formation of a new government. According to her, the constitutional freedoms and rights were also supposed to be applicable to women too. However, Abigail’s letter did not change anything. She still held the belief that one day, women would come together to secure equal rights for themselves. By early 19th century, a period during which there was the discussion of new ideas as well as the changing of the old ideas, many people shared Abigail opinion. Equally, both men and women such as Frances Wright started protesting against the discrimination against women. a writer and editor to a newspaper known as the ‘free Enquirer’, Wright became an inspiration to many women and they