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Susan B. Anthony
After the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, women split over the 14th and 15th amendments, which granted equal rights including the right to vote to African American men, but excluded women. in 1869, Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had founded the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA). -
Illegal Voting
Women pursued court cases to test the 14th amendment, which declared that states denying their male citizens the right to vote would lose congressional representation. Weren't women citizens too? In 1872, Susan B. Antthony and other women tested that question by attempting to vote at least 150 times in ten states and the District of Colombia. -
Carry Nation and the WCTU
Prohibitionist groups feared that alcohol was undermining American morals. Founded in Cleveland in 1874, the Women's Christian Temerpance Union (WCTU) spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alochol. -
NAWSA Formed
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the NWSA, which united with another group in 1890 to become the Nation Women Suffrage Association or NAWSA. Women suffrage faced constant opposition. The liquor industry feared that women would vote in support of prohibition, while the textile industry worried that women would vote for restrictions on child labor. Many men simply feared the changing role of women in society. -
Carrie Chapman Catt and New NAWSA Tactics
When Catt returned to NAWSA after organizing New York's Suffrage Party, she concentrated on five tactics: (1) painstaking organization; (2) close ties between local, state, and national workers; (3) establishing a wide base of support; (4) cautious lobbying; (5) gracious, ladylike behavior. -
19th Amendment
All efforts, and America's involvement in World War I, finally made suffrage inevitable. Patriotic America women who headed committees, knitted socks for soldiers, and sold liberty bonds now claimed their overdue reward for supporting the war effort. In 1919, Congress passed the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote.
