feminist thoughts
Lola2230
Feminsit-Thought-Women-and-Suffrage.pptxWomen’s Suffrage
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“The Declaration of Sentiments” (Seneca Falls, NY, July, 1848)
Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her friends
Three hundred people attended the convention in Seneca Falls, New York.
68 women and 32 men signed the “Declaration”
“…We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. “
*What document did Stanton use as her inspiration?
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“The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman.”
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce; in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given; as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women—the law, in all cases, going upon the false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration.
He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction, which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.
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Susan B. Anthony: “In Favor of Women's Suffrage” (1872)
In this speech, given following her arrest for attempting to vote in the 1872 election, Anthony argues that respect for America's fundamental principles requires that women be allowed to vote.
“In thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's right, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.”
“It was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed this Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings or liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people--women as well as men. “
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Sojourner Truth
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“Ain't I A Woman?” by Sojourner Truth Women's Convention in Akron, OH (1854)
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
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Fanny Fern: “Shall Women Vote?” (1860)
Fanny Fern (Sarah Willis Parton) was the first female columnist in America.
Her immense popularity is reflected by the fact that when she signed an exclusive contract with the New York Ledger, the paper’s circulation increased from 2,500 copies to 180,000 copies
“The principal objection made by conservatives to [women’s voting] is on the score of their being thrown into rowdy company of both sexes. … All such talk is humbug…we are always ‘dear—delicate fragile creatures,’ who should be gagged with this sugar plum whenever we talk about that of which it is their interest to keep us ignorant. It won’t do, gentlemen; the sugar-plum game is well nigh ‘played out.”
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Harriet Beecher Stowe
Stowe’s response to the common argument that men are denying women the right to vote in order to protect their femininity
“The more I think of it, the more absurd this whole government of men over women looks. […][What troubles me] is this agreement of Tom, Dick, and Harry not to pass the cake plate lest we make ourselves sick with cake. […] Dare not trust us with suffrage lest we become unwomanly? Let them try it. Unsexed?—I should like to see what could make women other than women and more than men.”
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The Fight Is On!
1866 Suffragists present petitions bearing 10,000 signatures directly to Congress for an amendment prohibiting disenfranchisement on the basis of sex.
1867 Kansas puts a woman suffrage amendment proposal on the ballot, the first time the question goes to a direct vote. It loses.
1868 The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified including the word "male" defining citizen, for the first time in the Constitution.
November 19, 1868 In Vineland, New Jersey, 172 women cast ballots in a separate box during the presidential election, inspiring similar demonstrations elsewhere in following years.
1869 Wyoming Territory grants suffrage to women.
1870 Utah Territory grants suffrage to women.
1871 the Anti-Suffrage Party is founded by wives of prominent men, including many Civil War generals.
November 1872 For casting a ballot with 15 other women, Susan B. Anthony is arrested in New York, tried and fined $100, which she refuses to pay.
1890 Wyoming joins the union as the first state with voting rights for women. By 1900 women also have full suffrage in Utah, Colorado and Idaho.
1894 600,000 signatures are presented to the New York State Constitutional Convention in an effort to bring a woman suffrage amendment to the voters. The campaign fails.
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Women’s Suffrage Map
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Headquarters of an Anti-Suffrage Group (c.1910)
* What were the reasons why some campaigned against granting women the right to vote?
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The Argument Against Women’s Suffrage
women would only duplicate the voting of their husbands
women were unable to exert the rational thought that voting required
women would be “unsexed” and their purity contaminated by the immorality of political life
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Anti-Suffrage Pamphlet (c.1910)
“Housewives!
You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout. A handful of potash and some boiling water is quicker and cheaper…
Why vote for pure food laws, when your husband does that, while you can purify your Ice-box with saleratus water?”
“Vote NO on Woman Suffrage
BECAUSE 90% of the women either do not want it, or do not care.
BECAUSE it means competition of women with men instead of co-operation.
BECAUSE 80% of the women eligible to vote are married and can only double or annul their husband’s votes…
BECAUSE in some States more voting women than voting men will place the Government under petticoat rule.
BECAUSE it is unwise to risk the good we already have for the evil which may occur. “
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Alice Miller: Why We Don't Want Men to Vote (1915)
Alice Miller was a prominent writer who often expounded on topics relevant to women. Here she satirizes the viewpoints of many men who wanted to deny women the right to vote.
Why We Don't Want Men to Vote
Because man's place is in the army.
Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government.
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Passage of the 19th Amendment
June 4, 1919 The Senate passes the 19th Amendment with just two votes to spare, 56 to 25.
August 26, 1920 The 19th Amendment is signed into law
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
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Ratification of the 19th Amendment
specifically rejected by:
Georgia on Jul 24, 1919;
Alabama on Sep 22, 1919;
South Carolina on Jan 28, 1920;
Virginia on Feb 12, 1920;
Maryland on Feb 24, 1920;
Mississippi on Mar 29, 1920;
Delaware on Jun 2, 1920;
Louisiana on Jul 1, 1920
Last state to ratify the amendment:
Mississippi, March 22, 1984
An amendment does not become a part of the Constitution until it is ratified by three-quarters of the states
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Chronology of Women’s Suffrage
1890 New Zealand is the first nation to give women suffrage.
1902 Women of Australia are enfranchised.
1906 Women of Finland are enfranchised.
1912 Suffrage referendums are passed in Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon.
1914 Montana and Nevada grant voting rights to women.
1915 Women of Denmark are enfranchised.
1917 Women win the right to vote in North Dakota, Ohio, Indiana, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Michigan, New York, and Arkansas.
1918 Women of Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, and Wales are enfranchised.
1919 Women of Azerbaijan Republic, Belgium, British East Africa, Holland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Rhodesia, and Sweden are enfranchised.
1920 United States of America,19th Amendment signed into law
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Women's Voting Rights
Possibly the biggest change in the political landscape of the 20th century has been the enfranchisement of women. When the century began, only one small country (New Zealand) allowed women to vote, but by 2005 (Kuwait), all countries allow women to vote.
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Major Steps after 1960
1964: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, and national origin.
1968: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled it illegal to advertise jobs as “Male Only” or “Female Only”
1972: Title IX, an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (first law to prohibit sex discrimination in the educational system)
Financial liberation: Do you realize that as recently as the 1970s
- married women were not issued credit cards in their own name?
- most women could not get a bank loan without a male co-signer?
- women working full time earned fifty-nine cents to every dollar earned by men?
New Challenges
Women's reproductive rights. Still controversial twenty-five years after the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade affirmed women's choice to terminate her pregnancy during the first two trimesters.
Women's enrollment in military academies and service in active combat. Are these desirable?
The mommy track. Should businesses accommodate women's family responsibilities, or should women compete evenly for advancement with men, most of whom still assume fewer family obligations?
Pornography. Is it degrading, even dangerous, to women, or is it simply a free speech issue?
Sexual harassment. Just where does flirting leave off and harassment begin?
Surrogate motherhood. Is it simply the free right of a woman to hire out her womb for this service?
Social Security benefits allocated equally for homemakers and their working spouses, to keep surviving wives from poverty as widows.
