The DC Traveler

Women’s Fight for the Vote

by Jon on November 18th, 2007

With the Presidential election heating up, it’s sad that only 60% of registered voters actually cast a ballot in Presidential elections.  Women voters outnumbered men voters for the first time in a Presidential election in 1984 (Reagan-Mondale).

American women, up until a couple generations ago, had to fight to get the right to vote.  The 19th Amendment, which was ratified in 1920, finally granted women the right to vote.

But the road to winning the right to vote was a tough 70 year struggle. American suffragettes organized and formed several women’s rights groups to push the passing of legislation that would give women equal voting rights to that of men.  Hot women’s issues of the time included not only the right vote, but more liberal divorce laws and equal employment opportunities. 

A couple of the major groups were the National American Woman Suffrage Association (now the League of Women Voters) formed in  1890 and led by Susan B. Anthony, the author of the 19th Amendment, and the National Woman’s Party formed in 1913. 

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the 19th Amendment, yet after a narrowly passing the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate first refused to debate the amendment, then when it did vote on it several  months later, it failed by three votes.

At that time there were three women holding seats in House of Representatives, but even they could not vote in national elections.

Determined to send a strong message to elected officials, the National Woman’s Party urged male voters to vote against anti-suffrage senators. 

During that time, the Silent Sentinels, a group of women who for two and a half years starting in 1917, protested in front of the White House with over 1,000 women per day (except Sundays) picketing for the right to vote. Many of the suffragists were arrested and did jail time. Sentences grew longer as more women were arrested.  In 1917, 33 women including the future author of the original Equal Rights Amendment (1923), Alice Paul were arrested in front of the White House. 

During their 7-month prison term at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia, conditions were deplorable. One woman in jail at the time, described one horrific night in 1917, which was later called the Night of Terror.

“.. as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold… According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked.”

The cause became so widely accepted that after the 1918 Congressional elections, most members of Congress favored the legislation.  In May and June of the following year, both houses passed the 19th Amendment.

In 1920, after Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it, with a 3/4 majority, the 19th Amendment became law.

The final state to ratify it was Mississippi, who voted in favor of the amendment 64 years later, in 1984.

The 19th Amendment

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

For some in-depth history of the Woman’s movement and the history of suffrage, the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, just a block from Capitol Hill, explores the evolution of women’s pursuit for equality and the struggle for the right to vote.

The Sewall-Belmont House was the home of Alice Paul, the founder of the National Woman’s Party and the Congressional Union for Women Suffragette.

The museum houses one of the most robust collections on the suffrage and equal rights movements in America, including period artifacts, photos, artwork of women involved in the movement, and Susan B. Anthony’s desk where she drafted the 19th Amendment.

Sewall-Belmont House and Museum
144 Constitution Avenue, NE (one block NE of the Capitol)
Washington, DC 20002-5608 (map it)
202-546-1210

Dates and Times - 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays and Noon - 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. 30-minute tours are given on the hour.

Tickets - Admission is free, but a $5.00 donation is suggested.

Nearest Metro Subway Station - Union Station, Red Line and Capitol South, Orange and Blue lines, then a short walk or use the DC Circulator.

Parking - Metered street and garage parking is available  nearby.

Quote source - Barbara Leaming, Katherine Hepburn. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995. Page 182.

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POSTED IN: Attractions, City History & Information, Family Fun, Museums, People, Photos