The Nineteenth

The movement was more than a small effort. It took years, women and men advocating together. Wars. Advancement in society. The end of slavery. A different world. The women’s suffrage movement began long before June 4, 1919. The founding women of the suffrage movement were women politically active through their work in the abolitionist and temperance movements. In July 1848, 240 woman suffragists convened in Seneca Falls, New York to assert the right of women to vote. The Civil War prolonged the advancement of the movement for many years, including the Reconstruction Era where the 15th Amendment was adopted, granting African American men the right to vote. This amendment was deliberately not stretched to include into the sphere of gender. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) began in 1869 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to work together toward pushing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), led by Lucy Ston...