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19th Amendment
Suffrage was another important issue that women struggled with in the 19th and early 20th century. The inability to cast their vote was evidence of the fact that they had been victims of patriarchic society. Their second-grade citizens status was however completely unacceptable to some dynamic souls even in the 19th century when most women were not even allowed active participation in the workforce. The early suffragists however understood the significance of political participation. One such woman was Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915) who promoted the cause of suffrage through her newspapers, other writings and addresses. She maintained that once the political rights were fully granted to all women, other issues could gradually resolve on their own. One main issue was domestic service that many women were forced to seek in the absence of proper employment opportunities. Duniway felt that right to vote would lead to other rights and eventually domestic service would end, as more women would be needed in other areas of employment. While she was an influential leader, most early suffragists followed specific tactics that failed to leave an impact. For this reason, in late nineteenth century, women opted for more aggressive tactics to win their cause. Florence Luscomb (1887-1985) can be considered one of the pioneers of the new strategy as she conducted open-air meetings and sold suffrage supplements with newspapers to accentuate the significance of the issue. Her aggressive moves combined with the brilliant leadership of NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt finally won suffrage rights for women in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. The colossal achievement was definitely the result of a long suffrage movement. By the time the right was finally granted, women had already advanced ahead in several other areas including employment and education, so access to political field was part of the natural progression. The 'New' woman felt humiliated that she was hitherto deprived of full citizenship and winning the right finally put her on the path of complete equality.
Some of them may have failed at first, such as Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis, who unsuccessfully lobbied the authors of the U.S. Constitution to include women's rights in the document. Over and above, abolitionist women drew parallels between the conditions of slavery and those of women. Anti-slavery activist Angelina Grimke wrote in 1836: "The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of
Foundation An extensive period in US history has witnessed specific segments of the nation's population (such as females, Blacks, etc.) deprived of voting rights. The female suffrage movement or struggle for winning voting rights for females continued throughout the major part of the 1800s and into the early 1900s[footnoteRef:1]. While a few states allowed female participation in elections, both as contesters and voters, before the 19th Amendment's enforcement, its ratification on
Amendment XIX Enactment of Amendment XIX and its contribution to the achievement of equal female rights The enactment of the 19th amendment empowered women on many fronts. They were allowed to vote and consequently seized the opportunity to influence political decisions. The enactment saw the legalization of contraception and even abortion. There was economic empowerment too in the process. The more common availability of reproductive services and education doors increasingly opening up,
The authors further point out that at the time, NWSA did not accept male membership as its focus was firmly trained on securing the voting rights of women nationwide. As their push for the enfranchisement of women at the federal level became more and more untenable, NWSA shifted its focus to individual states. In so doing, it planned to create a ripple effect that could ease the attainment of
The decision went further to suggest that, "even if possession were to be allowed for other reasons, any law regulating the use of firearms would have to be "unreasonable or inappropriate" to violate the Second Amendment." (Oyez Project, 2008). Had the decision gone the other way, gun rights activists and gun owners would have likely felt as though their constitutional rights were under attack. The District of Columbia v. Heller
Anti-Imperialist League, formed in 1899 by prominent citizens such as Andrew Carnegie and William James, held the belief that American Imperialism went against the spirit of those that fought the Revolutionary War and participated in the creation of the Declaration of Independence (Halsall, 1997). Specifically, they asserted that the American government's actions in places such as Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico represented a hostile attitude toward liberty and