Women's Suffrage

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Susan B. Anthony was both a leading abolitionist and a prominent women's rights activist.

She spent her entire life trying to gain enfranchisement for women.

In 1872, while living in New York, she and 14 other women cast ballots for president and representatives to Congress. Although she was arrested and fined, she never paid her fine.

Despite many states allowing women to vote in state elections, it remained illegal for women to vote in federal elections until 1920. The fight for the right to vote (suffrage) lasted many years, and it was finally granted with the passage of the 19^th amendment.

Unfortunately, Susan B. Anthony died before the 19^th amendment was passed.

The road to gaining women's right to vote was long. Take some time to read through One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview.

Suffragists are people who support giving women the right to vote. Throughout the years, suffragists faced many challenges from anti-suffragists, those who opposed giving women the right to vote.

Take a look at the map of women's suffrage laws in various states of the US, which was published on September 4, 1920 (below).

• Why do you think women's suffrage was legal in western states before becoming legal in much of the rest of the country?

Both men and women were suffragists and anti-suffragists.

1. Make a list of all the reasons you can think of why people would oppose giving women the right to vote and why both men and women would support it.

2. Now, make two more lists. Look at the following primary source documents and identify all the reasons why women should have the national vote and why they should not.

Anti-Suffrage

'Vote No on Women's Suffrage':Bizarre Reasons For Not Letting Women Vote

Suffrage

Votes for Women! The Woman's Reason.

Look at your lists.

• What arguments seem plausible?

You can see that some of the arguments were based on the real fear that women could not vote intelligently, and others believed that keeping women out truly was in their best interest.

The fight over the suffrage amendment raged on, just as women's roles continued to change after WWI.

Move along to the Got It? section to join the conversation!