Research Guides: History of Voting: 19th Amendment: Women's Suffrage

19th Amendment: Action and Impact

The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18th, 1920 after years of protest and organizing by women across the country. This amendment guaranteed women the right to vote. This amendment was in 1878 and was propelled by the Seneca Falls Convention and various women's groups that were founded after the Civil War. The push for the amendment was started by well-known women in the movement including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. However, the woman considered by many to bring its to eventual passing is Alice Paul, who took a more mobilized set of actions including public protests. The cause came to the attention of then President Woodrow Wilson as a way to encourage civic engagement during the first World War. The House Resolution was passed on May 21st, 1919 and then passed by the Senate on June 4th, 1919. This set off the ratification cycle by the States and with that Tennessee certified the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

Special Collections and University Archives

Minnie Stowe Puett papers- Minnie Stowe Puett was a suffragette from Gaston County and a member of the League of Women Voters and was married to the first mayor of Belmont, North Carolina. Highlights of this collection include broadsides from Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina and the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company.

Congressional Reports on Woman Suffrage, 1871- This government document comes from the reports of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. These reports come seven years before the introduction of the Amendment.

"The cause"; a short history of the women's movement in Great Britain -This books looks at the suffrage movement that occurred in Great Britain, whose methods were brought to the United States that resulted in great success with drumming up support for women's suffrage.

Constitutional equality a right of woman; or A consideration of the various relations which she sustains as a necessary part of the body of society and humanity- This book written by Tennie C. Claflin discusses the issues around suffrage and marriage, the future of American women, and constitutional equality.

General Collection Resources

Women Suffrage by Nancy F. Cott
ISBN: 9783598416965
Publication Date: 1994
From Liberal to Labour with Women's Suffrage by Jo Vellacott
ISBN: 9780773548022
Publication Date: 2016-06-30
Catherine Marshall was a vital figure in the women's suffrage movement in Britain before the First World War. Using her remarkable political skills on behalf of the major non-militant organization, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), she built close connections with major suffragist politicians, leading some, in all three parties, to consider adopting a measure of women's enfranchisement as a party plank. By 1913 Marshall was uniquely placed as a lobbyist, with inside information and sympathetic listeners in every party. Through her the dynamically re-organized NUWSS brought the women's suffrage issue to the fore of public awareness. It pushed the Labour Party to adopt a strong stand on women's suffrage and raised working-class consciousness, re-awakening a long-dormant demand for full adult enfranchisement. Had the general election due in 1915 taken place, NUWSS financial and organizational support for the Labour Party might well have been substantial enough to influence the final results. These impressive achievements were forgotten by the time Catherine Marshall died in 1961. Even recent research on the period has failed to show the full significance of the issue of women's suffrage, much less Marshall's part in the movement. Jo Vellacott's revealing account of Marshall's political work also includes vivid descriptions of a liberal Victorian childhood, a strangely purposeless young adulthood, and the heady experiences of women who, through the awakening of political consciousness, forged a lifestyle to fit their new aspirations.
And yet They Persisted by Johanna Neuman
ISBN: 9781119530831
Publication Date: 2019-12-05
A comprehensive history of the women's suffrage movement in the United States, from 1776 to 1965 Most suffrage histories begin in 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton first publicly demanded the right to vote at the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. And they end in 1920, when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, removing sexual barriers to the vote. And Yet They Persisted traces agitation for the vote over two centuries, from the revolutionary era to the civil rights era, excavating one of the greatest struggles for social change in this country and restoring African American women and other women of color to its telling. In this sweeping history, author Johanna Neuman demonstrates that American women defeated the male patriarchy only after they convinced men that it was in their interests to share political power. Reintegrating the long struggle for the women's suffrage into the metanarrative of U.S. history, Dr. Neuman sheds new light on such questions as: Why it took so long to achieve equal voting rights for women How victories in state suffrage campaigns pressured Congress to act Why African American women had to fight again for their rights in 1965 How the struggle by eight generations of female activists finally succeeded And Yet They Persisted: How American Women Won the Right to Vote his is the ideal text for college courses in women's studies and history covering the women's suffrage movement, as well as courses on American History, Political History, Progressive Era reforms, or reform movements in general. Click here to read Johanna Neuman's two-part blog post about the hidden history of Women's Suffrage as we celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
Why They Marched by Susan Ware
ISBN: 9780674986688
Publication Date: 2019-05-06
Looking beyond the national leadership of the suffrage movement, an acclaimed historian gives voice to the thousands of women from different backgrounds, races, and religions whose local passion and protest resounded throughout the land. For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. But Susan Ware uncovered a much broader and more diverse story waiting to be told. Why They Marched is a tribute to the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship. Ware tells her story through the lives of nineteen activists, most of whom have long been overlooked. We meet Mary Church Terrell, a multilingual African American woman; Rose Schneiderman, a labor activist building coalitions on New York's Lower East Side; Claiborne Catlin, who toured the Massachusetts countryside on horseback to drum up support for the cause; Mary Johnston, an aristocratic novelist bucking the Southern ruling elite; Emmeline W. Wells, a Mormon woman in a polygamous marriage determined to make her voice heard; and others who helped harness a groundswell of popular support. We also see the many places where the suffrage movement unfolded--in church parlors, meeting rooms, and the halls of Congress, but also on college campuses and even at the top of Mount Rainier. Few corners of the United States were untouched by suffrage activism. Ware's deeply moving stories provide a fresh account of one of the most significant moments of political mobilization in American history. The dramatic, often joyous experiences of these women resonate powerfully today, as a new generation of young women demands to be heard.
Rightfully Ours by Kerrie Logan Hollihan
ISBN: 9781883052898
Publication Date: 2012-08-01
Winner of: VOYA'S Nonfiction Honor List 2012 Amelia Bloomer List 2013 Though the Declaration of Independence stated that "all men are created equal," women and girls in the early days of the United States had few rights--their lives were controlled by their husbands or fathers. Married women could not own property, and few girls were taught more than reading and simple math. Not one woman could vote, but that would change with the tireless efforts of Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, and thousands of others across the nation. Rightfully Ours tells of the century-long struggle for women's suffrage in the United States. In addition to its lively narrative, this history includes a time line, online resources, and hands-on activities that will give readers a sense of the everyday lives of the suffragists. Children will: · create a banner for suffrage · host a Victorian tea · stage a "readers' theater" for women's rights · feel what it was like to wear a corset · bake a cake from the Woman Suffrage Cook Book · and more Through it all, readers will gain a richer appreciation for not only the women who secured the right to fully participate in American democracy, but also why they must never take that right for granted.
Stanton in Her Own Time by Noelle A. Baker (Editor)
ISBN: 9781609384333
Publication Date: 2016-11-01
Among nineteenth-century women's rights reformers, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) stands out for the maternal and secular advocacy that shaped her activism and public reception. A wife and mother of seven, she was also a prolific writer, transatlantic women's rights leader, popular lecturer, congressional candidate, canny historian, and freethought champion. Her lifelong interest in women's sexual and reproductive rights and late efforts to reform institutional religion are as relevant to our time as they were to her own. Stanton's professional life lasted a half-century, ranging from antebellum women's rights organization and oratory, to a post-Civil War career as a lyceum lecturer, to a late-century role as an incisive religious and cultural critic. Acutely aware of the medical, religious, legal, and educational barriers to women's independence, she advocated for married women's right to vote, obtain a divorce, gain custody of their children, and own property. As she grew more radical over the years, she also demanded judicial reform, the separation of church and state, free love, progressive coeducational opportunities, and women's right to limit their fertility. In this richly contextualized collection of primary sources, Noelle A. Baker brings together accounts of Stanton's life and ideas from both well-known and recently recovered figures. From the teacher chiding an assertive young woman to erstwhile allies worrying about her growing radicalism, their voices paint a vivid portrait of a woman of vaunting ambition, powerhouse intellect, and her share of human failings.

Databases

Women in the National Archives, Kew- This database includes materials focused on British Women's suffrage from the National Archives of the United Kingdom.

New York Times Historical Archives (1851-2010)- Archives of the famous New York Times newspaper.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries- This database contains various letters and diaries from everyday women and spans the colonial period to the 1950s.