Free
Over the years, suffragists became bolder about spreading their message.
They lectured all over the country and published numerous magazines. They built alliances with other groups. They petitioned Congress. But it wasn’t easy to win the vote. After all, they lacked the most powerful weapon of democracy—the right to vote. However, as Susan B. Anthony said on her 86th birthday, referring to other suffragists, “...with such women consecrating [dedicating] their lives, failure is impossible!”
◀ In 1909, 20,000 female garment workers went on strike in New York City. Seven hundred were arrested. Many rich women supported the strikers. This helped unite the mostly middle-class women of the suffrage movement and the working-class women of the labor movement. Here, Jewish garment workers carry signs to abolish child labor, which they called slavery.
◀ Drunken husbands made many women’s lives hard. In the 1800s, a temperance movement started. Temperance means “moderation,” but the temperance movement really wanted to stop the sale of liquor. The women’s suffrage movement and the temperance movement were often allies. But that wasn’t always helpful. The liquor industry fought against women’s suffrage. It was afraid that female voters would pass laws against drinking.
Some women tried behaving as if they did have the right to vote. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony led a group of women who registered and voted in Rochester, New York. Three weeks later, she was arrested for voting illegally. At her trial, the judge refused to let her speak for herself and told the jury to find her guilty without discussion. He fined her $100. She refused to pay. ▶
◀ After the Civil War, American society became more segregated. Some white suffragists were afraid of making southern women angry. They were also afraid of making congressmen mad, because they needed those votes. African-American suffragists had to form their own organizations. However, some insisted on integration. Reformer-journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett was one of them. In 1913, African-American suffragists were told to march at the end of a parade. Wells-Barnett waited on the sidewalk until the Illinois delegation appeared. She slipped between two white women and marched the rest of the way with them.
Both men and women opposed women’s suffrage. Some said that it would take women’s attention away from home and family. Others said it would take them away from other reform movements. Women led most antisuffrage organizations. Big business supported antisuffrage groups, because businessmen feared that female voters would support reforms. Reforms might add to the costs of doing business.
◀ The British women’s suffrage movement started around 1865. In 1881, some Scottish women won the right to vote in local elections. But they still couldn’t vote in general elections. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, were the movement’s leaders. They were arrested for demonstrating and chose imprisonment over fines. They went on hunger strikes and put up with forced feedings, beatings, and other brutal treatment. Britain gave the vote to certain women over 30 in 1918. In 1928, it gave the vote to all women over 21.
