History

Kathleen Daly HIS262C Paper #1 Chapter 15 Short Writing Assignment Question: The women’s movement split into two separate national organizations in part because the Fifteenth Amendment did not give women the vote. Explain why the two groups split.

After the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment, the women’s rights movement fractured

into two groups, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage

Association. The split occurred because women fundamentally disagreed over what the Fifteenth

Amendment meant for women. To the National Woman Suffrage Association, the Amendment

was a failure because it did not enfranchise women, while to the American Woman Suffrage

Association, it represented a step in the right direction for expanded suffrage.

White women largely disagreed over whether the Fifteenth Amendment represented a

setback or progress for women’s suffrage. As Foner explains, the “bitter split” between the

groups had disagreements over race at its heart. The National Woman Suffrage Association, led

by Elizbeth Cady Stanton, often “appealed to racial and ethnic prejudices, arguing that native-

born white women deserved the vote more than non-whites and immigrants” (590).

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The “bitter split” between the groups had disagreements over race at its heart. The

National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Elizbeth Cady Stanton, often “appealed to racial

and ethnic prejudices, arguing that native-born white women deserved the vote more than non-

whites and immigrants” (Foner, 590).