Women Voting Rights

Disenfranchised Americans

The meaning of disenfranchised is not having the right to vote. Over the past century, numerous Americans have made a great effort to receive this right. Many of these Americans failed. One of the reasons are countless amount of these people were held back and numerous amount of obstacles were thrown at them. Many of these people include African Americans, Hispanic American, Asian Americans and women. However, women had to anything and everything to earn this right. Not to mention the other privileges they were not granted. In this essay, struggles will be listed that disenfranchised American women had to do to obtain and maintain their civil rights.

Women were always thought to be not needed in the society. Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John Adams, to "remember the ladies" in the latest set of laws. He replies that men will fight the "despotism of the petticoat." Many years later in the early part of the 19th century every state banned women from voting. However, protesting for equal suffrage was carried out by only few individuals. One of the first was Frances Wright, a Scottish woman who immigrated to the USA in 1826 and encouraged women's suffrage in a long series of lectures. During 1836 Ernestine Rose, a Polish woman, came to America and had a similar movement. Her campaigning was so effective that she obtained her own hearing in the New York Legislature, even though her petition contained only five signatures. Efforts to obtain various women's rights seemed impossible.

However during the Civil War, the effort for women's suffrage picked up very rapidly. This was a result of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They created the National Woman Suffrage Association. Their objective was to secure an amendment giving the women the right to vote. Another group called the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone, was also formed at this time. They had the same goal as Susan B. Anthony's group. In 1890, these two groups combined into one national organization, led by Susan B. Anthony, and known as the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1890, Wyoming became the first state that allowed women to vote. In 1893, women voters of Colorado were allowed to vote. In 1895, Utah approved a constitution to bring back the right of woman suffrage. One after another, western states granted the right of voting