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As the years wore on, suffragists became bolder about spreading their message.
They lectured all over the country and published numerous journals. They built alliances with other groups. They petitioned Congress. But it was not so easy to win the vote when they lacked the most effective 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 in New York City went on strike. Seven hundred were arrested. Many wealthier women supported the strikers. This helped build an alliance between the mostly middle-class women of the suffrage movement and the working-class women of the labor movement. Here, Jewish immigrant garment workers carry signs to abolish child labor, which they called slavery.
◀ Drunken husbands made many women’s lives difficult. In the 1800s, a temperance movement sprang up. Temperance means “moderation,” but the temperance movement really wanted to put an end to the sale of liquor. The women’s suffrage movement and the temperance movement were often allies. However, the alliance had its disadvantages. The liquor industry fought against women’s suffrage, fearing that female voters would pass laws against drinking.
Some women tried behaving as if they already had 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 Anthony speak for herself, instructed the jury to find her guilty without discussion, and fined her $100. She refused to pay the fine. ▶
◀ After the Civil War, American society became increasingly segregated. Some white suffragists were afraid of angering southern women—and congressmen, whose votes they needed. African-American suffragists had to form their own organizations, but some insisted on integration. Reformer-journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett was one of them. When African-American suffragists were told to march at the end of a 1913 parade, Wells-Barnett waited on the sidewalk until the Illinois delegation appeared. Slipping between two white women, she marched the rest of the way with them.
Opposition to women’s suffrage came from both men and women. Some argued that it would take women’s attention away from home and family. Others said it would take them away from various reform movements. Most antisuffrage organizations were led by women. Big business supported antisuffrage groups because businessmen were afraid that female voters would support reform movements that would add to the costs of running businesses.
◀ The women’s suffrage movement in Britain started around 1865. In 1881, some Scottish women won the right to vote in local elections. But they were still not allowed to vote in general elections. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, were leaders of the movement. When arrested for demonstrating, they chose imprisonment over fines, 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 and to all women over 21 in 1928.
