Most women under the age of 89 might take their voting rights for granted. For those women who were alive in the 1920s and before, you probably remember the struggle that women had to go through to earn the right to vote. Even after African-American men could vote in the Reconstruction Era, women of all colors were not allowed to vote in the United States.

Women had been fighting for their rights since 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held at Seneca Falls, New York. The first group for suffrage rights was formed by Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone, and was called the American Woman Suffrage Association. This group worked for more than just women’s suffrage-they also campaigned for black voting rights. Later, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony developed the National Woman Suffrage Association, which worked solely for women’s rights. Stanton was the one who called for the Seneca Falls convention along with Lucretia Mott.

After the Civil War, women continued to push for enfranchisement. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, founded by Frances Willard in 1868, worked for many aspects of social reform, including the right to vote. Stanton and Anthony were part of a group that wrote about women’s rights after several states gave them the vote.

Later, in 1890, the two woman’s suffrage associations merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt were instrumental in forming the one powerful group from the two rival organizations. As the original key leaders of the suffrage movement, such as Anthony, Mott, and Stanton, died off in the late 1890s and early 1900s, the effort to win the right to vote went in several different directions. Women began to also fight for prison reform and child labor laws, among other things.

Thus, some women, such as Alice Paul, broke away from NAWSA in order to be more militant. However, a number of pro-enfranchisement displays such as marches and parades took place in the early 1910s. Suffragettes also collected signatures to petition Congress to allow them the right to vote. All of this action got the attention of several states, including Montana, which sent the first woman congressional Representative to Washington, D.C., in 1917.

Finally, Congress devised an amendment in 1919 to enfranchise women. It was not completely adopted until 1920, when Tennessee was the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment-by only 1 vote. Thanks to the work of thousands of brave women starting in the 19th century, women now have the right to vote for their leaders.

Although women now have suffrage, they may be blocked from voting by things such as a boss refusing to give them time off of work to go vote. If you believe you have suffered from voting obstruction, you should contact a lawyer. For more information on your voting rights, check out the Phoenix law firm Haralson, Miller, Pitt, Feldman & McAnally, P.L.C.

By: Joseph Devine

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