Outside Writing
For my writing from outside this class, I chose a history paper I wrote last year in dual enrollment U.S. History. This paper is an assemblage because I used other sources information to create a new piece about the history of women's voting rights. The genre of this piece is a history paper and the medium was chosen for me since I had to type it in standard format and turn it in printed.
This paper relates to my current theory of writing because I wrote it with a specific purpose, accounting for major events in the history of women's voting rights, and a specific audience, my class and teacher. Purpose and audience are a big part of my theory, and these two things were still a part of my process when I wrote this paper. When I wrote this, I didn't really think about the genre convetions of a history paper than constrained my choices as a writer or how the message would be different if I was able to choose a different medium or make the piece multimodal. This paper was written about a year and a half ago, and I think my writing skils and processes have developed and improved since then.
Kristen Barry
Ms. Colborne
Dual Enrollment US History
January 9, 2015
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Women’s Voting Rights
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Surprisingly, women’s suffrage is one of the last major shift of rights that has happened within the last century. Even African Americans and ex-slaves in the US were granted the right to vote long before women (“Suffrage, Women’s”). Before the early 1800s, men used women as wives to add to their own resume, and hardly more than that (Ushistory.org). Women did not have the right to property or vote, and their sole purpose was to be a wife and a mother to their children (Ushistory.org). However, around the 1830s, things started looking up for women; they started taking a stand against a male-dominated world, and fueled by the simultaneous abolitionist and reform movements, they began to be noticed (Ushistory.org). Some of the first women to publicly take a stand were the Grimké sisters (“Suffrage, Women’s), Angelina and Sarah, who first promoted women to join the abolitionist movement and then transferred the energy to the women’s rights movement (Ushistory.org). Some other women influential in the kickoff of this motion were Margaret Fuller, who wrote Women in the Nineteenth Century, the first published feminist work, and Lucretia Mott, who was one of the most important women overall to this cause, and spoke on account of both the abolitionist and women’s rights movements (Ushistory.org).
The Seneca Falls Convention is credited to be the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement, and was the first major organized event pushing for the rights of women (“Suffrage, Women’s”). This convention was held in New York of 1848, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott ("The Women's Rights Movement”). With about 200 people attending the convention, Frederick Douglass was in attendance and also a supporter of the movement (“Suffrage, Women’s”). The women’s suffrage movement was not only supported by women themselves but also supported by some from abolitionists still fiery for freedom. Although the Seneca Falls Convention may have been small in numbers, its effects continue to ring today. At this convention, the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments was drafted, which was modeled after our own Declaration of Independence ("Seneca Falls Declaration"). This declaration even begins the same as the Declaration of Independence, “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary…” (“Seneca Falls Declaration”). The Declaration of Sentiments echoes many of the well-known phrases from the Declaration of Independence, showing the great importance of this effort for women. The ongoing abolitionist movement and Quaker ideals were both driving forces behind the creation of this declaration, written by Stanton and Mott (“Suffrage, Women’s”). Only a few hundred people may have heard this declaration on that July day in 1848, but many people across the country, abolitionists, women, and congressmen alike, read these sentiments for many years to come (“The Women’s Rights Movement”).
The document itself received much recognition nationally, debatably with more opponents than followers (“Suffrage, Women’s”). In actuality, men were more surprised by the release of the Declaration of Sentiments more than anything else (“Declaration of Sentiments”). The Oneida Whig explained it as “the most shocking and unnatural event ever recorded in the history of womanity” (“Declaration of Sentiments”). The American mankind did not see women as even capable of such an act and banding together, rising up, and putting forth such an educated, intelligent, and emotional piece (“Declaration of Sentiments”). The Declaration is quite impressive due to its high similarities to the Declaration of Independence, which has many emotional ties to all Americans, so the Declaration of Sentiments was able to evoke some of the same emotions (“Declaration of Sentiments”). The Seneca Falls Convention signaled the true beginning of the feminist suffrage movement and at this time, more activists leaders stepped up to their crucial role in history(“Suffrage, Women’s”). These leaders include Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and others (“Suffrage, Women’s”).
Things were picking up for the women’s suffrage effort after the Seneca Falls Convention but the progress was once again slowed due to the Civil War effort (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). During this time, the American Equal Rights Association or AERA was created, which officially conjoined the feminist and abolitionists (“Suffrage, Women’s”).With the end of the war came the 14th and 15th Amendments, securing women an even lower spot on the national and global social ladder (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution states that “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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude” ("Natural Law"). This amendment secured suffrage for blacks and ex-slaves but Congress ensured that women were not “citizens” as defined by the 15th Amendment (“Suffrage, Women’s”). The tension from the 15th Amendment did not help to resolve the split from the AERA by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who formed the National Woman Suffrage Association or NWSA (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). Then Lucy Stone formed the American Woman Suffrage Association or AWSA, with less racial motives and more focused pushes on the state level (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). This more defined exertion finally began to slowly begin turning the tables for the women’s right fight. Even with the split between NWSA and AWSA, each group had a unique cause with its own benefit to the undertaking (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). NWSA existed as the more flashy and public group, working to add important members to the group, and even converted some male politicians to their side (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). At the same time, AWSA could work on a much more local level and had more support monetarily (“The Women’s Rights Movement”).
On July 4, 1876, the first centennial celebration of the formation of the United States, the Declaration of Rights for Women was decreed, signed by signed by over thirty women, saying, “While the nation is buoyant with patriotism, and all hearts are attuned to praise, it is with sorrow we come to strike the one discordant note… The history of our country the past hundred years has been a series of assumptions and usurpations of power over woman, in direct opposition to the principles of just government, acknowledged by the United States as its foundation” (Stanton). The women refused to give up and go unnoticed until they made the change they wished to see, to gain voting rights and to create more equality between men and women.
The movement slowed again in the 1880s, but once again turned up in the 1890s, and this time for good (“The Women’s Rights Movement“). Things kicked back up when middle class women decided to go beyond their average duties and put forth much stronger efforts towards the suffrage movement; with this effort, the movement picked up speed and continued to do so when NWSA and AWSA joined together to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890 (“The Women’s Rights Movement“). Both of these changes played a role in keeping the ball rolling into the twentieth century. With the union combination to form NAWSA, unity became a goal in the movement for Stanton and Anthony and they were then able to gain support from smaller women’s groups, like the Women’s Trade Union League and the National Consumer’s League (“The Women’s Rights Movement“). During this time, women were also gaining ground on the voting level in some states (“Suffrage, Women’s”). Women gained some voting rights in Wyoming, Utah, Washington, and Montana between 1869 and 1887, but mostly in small state or school elections (“Suffrage, Women’s”). By 1889, women could vote in school board elections in one third of the states and US territories (“Suffrage, Women’s”).
Around the turn to the twentieth century, women were able to vote in more school, municipal, and tax elections in even more states (“Suffrage, Women’s”). It was a slow process, but women gained rights one trifling election at a time. Women were gaining rights and recognition; President Taft spoke at a 1910 NAWSA convention, although he did not commit to publicly promoting the cause (“Suffrage, Women’s”). Up to this point, most of the gains were in the less populated and newer western states, but in 1913 Ruth Hanna McCormick led the effort to secure voting rights in Springfield, laying down the first of these rights for female east of the Mississippi (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). More big changes came in 1915, when previous NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt’s “Winning Plan” won partial voting rights in Arkansas and full rights in New York, two more solid settlements in the east (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). This preceded President Wilson’s conversion to the suffrage cause; he then commenced pushing Congress to pass an amendment (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). Two years later, Jeanette Rankin was sworn into Congress seat, becoming the first female to have a spot in a national legislature (“The Women’s Rights Movement”).
After their strong aid in World War I, women had proven their worth, were recognized for their actions, and at last their efforts were not in vain (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). In August of 1920, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”) declaring, “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,” (“19th Amendment”). While this was a huge win for American women, the fight did not end here. The Progressive Era which was vital in the success of the movement, ended with World War I, which meant there was much less focus on the activist issues after the ratification of the 19th Amendment (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). Women were now recognized as more of a citizen than ever before but were still far from being completely accepted as equal in society (“The Women’s Rights Movement”). Women had yet to gain equality in national legislature and were still extremely unequal socially and in the workplace (“The Women’s Rights Movement”).
Work Cited
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"Declaration of Sentiments as a Symbol and Microcosm of the Woman’s Rights Movement." HubPages. HubPages, Inc., 26 Apr. 2010. Web. 08 Jan. 2015.
"Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism." Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism. The Witherspoon Institute. Web. 06 Jan. 2015.
"Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments." West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Ed. Shirelle Phelps and Jeffrey Lehman. 2nd ed. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 394-395. U.S. History in Context. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. "Declaration of Rights for Women (1876)." Women in America. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. U.S. History in Context. Web. 6 Jan. 2015.
"Suffrage, Women’s." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 8. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 214-218. World History in Context. Web. 6 Jan. 2015.
"The Fight for Women’s Suffrage." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 06 Jan. 2015.
"The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920”. US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. Web. 04 Jan. 2015.
Ushistory.org. "Women's Rights." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, 2015. Web. 07 Jan. 2015.
"19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920)." Our Documents. Archives.gov. Web. 06 Jan. 2015.