Women's Movement In America

The Club Movement among Women. All over the country women's societies
and clubs were started to advance this or that reform or merely to study
literature, art, and science. In time these women's organizations of all
kinds were federated into city, state, and national associations and
drawn into the consideration of public questions. Under the leadership
of Frances Willard they made temperance reform a vital issue. They took
an interest in legislation pertaining to prisons, pure food, public
health, and municipal government, among other things. At their sessions
and conferences local, state, and national issues were discussed until
finally, it seems, everything led to the quest of the franchise. By
solemn resolution in 1914 the National Federation of Women's Clubs,
representing nearly two million club women, formally endorsed woman
suffrage. In the same year the National Education Association, speaking
for the public school teachers of the land, added its seal of approval.
State and National Action. Again the suffrage movement was in full
swing in the states. Washington in 1910, California in 1911, Oregon,
Kansas, and Arizona in 1912, Nevada and Montana in 1914 by popular vote
enfranchised their women. Illinois in 1913 conferred upon them the right
to vote for President of the United States. The time had arrived for a
new movement. A number of younger suffragists sought to use the votes of
women in the equal suffrage states to compel one or both of the national
political parties to endorse and carry through Congress the federal
suffrage amendment. Pressure then came upon Congress from every
direction: from the suffragists who made a straight appeal on the
grounds of justice; and from the suffragists who besought the women of
the West to vote against candidates for President, who would not approve
the federal amendment. In 1916, for the first time, a leading
presidential candidate, Mr. Charles E. Hughes, speaking for the
Republicans, endorsed the federal amendment and a distinguished
ex-President, Roosevelt, exerted a powerful influence to keep it an
issue in the campaign.
National Enfranchisement. After that, events moved rapidly. The great
state of New York adopted equal suffrage in 1917. Oklahoma, South
Dakota, and Michigan swung into line the following year; several other
states, by legislative action, gave women the right to vote for
President. In the meantime the suffrage battle at Washington grew
intense. Appeals and petitions poured in upon Congress and the
President. Militant suffragists held daily demonstrations in Washington.
On September 30, 1918, President Wilson, who, two years before, had
opposed federal action and endorsed suffrage by state adoption only,
went before Congress and urged the passage of the suffrage amendment to
the Constitution. In June, 1919, the requisite two-thirds vote was
secured; the resolution was carried and transmitted to the states for
ratification. On August 28, 1920, the thirty-sixth state, Tennessee,
approved the amendment, making three-fourths of the states as required
by the Constitution. Thus woman suffrage became the law of the land. A
new political democracy had been created. The age of agitation was
closed and the epoch of responsible citizenship opened.