Women who struggled in the fight for women’s suffrage are looked back on today as not only brave, but also headstrong and stubborn in the extreme. These women devoted their lives to a cause that was laughable to many people at the time. They were ridiculed, publicly humiliated, and in some cases incarcerated, but they never stopped fighting. The war for suffrage was a long one, beginning with the country and ending less than one hundred years ago, in 1920. We very well might still be a nation where women are considered less than men if not for these women who wouldn’t let injustice triumph over a nation where “all men were created equal”.
Lucy Burns is the ideal example of a headstrong woman fighter. This smart, modern New York girl graduated Yale, which was an amazing accomplishment for a woman in the early 1900’s. She went on to take an immense interest in Women’s Suffrage, inspired in part by Alice Paul, who she met while campaigning women’s rights in Great Britain. Burns became famous for spending more time in jail than any other woman suffrage leader. She was arrested for various “suffrage activities”, including chalking propaganda on New York streets and picketing outside the Whitehouse in Washington. She was often arrested along with many other woman, and she was known to lead them in song while they were being taken away, leading to the iconic image of stubborn suffrage leaders. Once in prison Burns organized and led a 19 day hunger strike, calling attention to their cause even from behind bars.
One iconic image of the suffrage movement was seemingly insane women in long Turkish style pants and short skirts. Wearing this “uniform” both drew attention to their cause and drastically objected traditional gender roles. Amelia Bloomer is largely responsible for this image, as one might assume considering the clothing later adopted her name. Amelia wore the costume everywhere for eight years, until she eventually discarded the outfit, saying that the ridiculous clothes drew the attention away from more important aspects of the struggle. Bloomer began publishing a local newspaper, The Lilly, which was dedicated to Women’s Rights. Many articles were written by fellow suffragist and writer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who went on to become one of the most remembered activists and helped Susan B. Anthony to draft the 19th Amendment. Like many other writers in the newspaper, she wrote under a pen name, “Sunflower”.
No one better represented the rising respect and status of women in America than Mary Putnam Jacobi. This wildly successful doctor was cited as the “most brilliant medical woman in the world” by a well-known physician. She came from a very learned family, her father was a publisher and her brother would later go on to be Librarian of Congress. She was one of the very few women who graduated from the New York College of Pharmacy in 1863. Jacobi also studied briefly at the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, but eventually went to France, where she became the first woman to be admitted into the world renowned Ecole de Médecine in Paris. She graduated with flying colors, and came back to America a strong, powerful woman. She was surprised to find on her return, however, that there were extremely few opportunities for women to have careers in medicine. She became even more aware of this while she lectured at woman medical colleges throughout the country. Disgusted at the injustice, she wasted no time in founding the Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women. She also wrote the successful Common Sense Applied to Woman’s Suffrage, and is today still considered one of the most practical and rational suffrage fighters.
Family backgrounds are very important to everyone. They shape and mold who we are in the formative years of our childhood. Our backgrounds represent who we are. The society where we grew up determines not only our opportunities and potential, but also our ideals and very personalities. This was especially true for suffragist Lucretia Mott, who grew up in a very interdependent Quaker society where women were considered to be the spiritual equals to men. This gave her the strong, principled platform she needed to draw strength from during the long fight for woman’s suffrage and equality. She was very dedicated and involved in the cause, and became president of the American Equal Rights association after the Civil War.
To many of the women in the fight for woman’s suffrage, the primary concern was voting rights. All other issues were pushed aside and labeled important, but not nearly as crucial or momentous. After the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in August 1920, however, many people looked at the cause as a done deal. Women’s Rights were considered permanently fixed, and America simply skimmed over the loose ends still left behind. One woman, Betty Friedan, knew through experience that there was still a long ways to go before women equality was achieved. As a young woman she had an extraordinarily successful college career: while majoring in psychology she had the honor of editing the college newspaper and helped to fund the Smith Literary Magazine. After graduating, she married a young man and had two children, at which point she had to quit her job to become a stay at home mother. She would later refer to her years as a housewife as “schizophrenic years of trying to be a kind of woman I wasn’t”. She describes many “lonesome, boring, wasted hours” spent trying desperately to please a family who she had devoted her whole life to. Eventually, she cracked under the pressure and just didn’t want to do it anymore. Her discontent ultimately led to a series of published works, including the popular book The Feminine Mystique, which drew attention to the dissatisfaction and recklessness that many, many women in her position were feeling. She also became the cofounder of the National Organization for Women. Friedan opened the eyes of many people to just how far Women’s rights still need to go, even in modern times.
Of course, this article would not be complete without mentioning the famous Susan B. Anthony. Every revolution needs a leader, and who could better fill that role than Anthony, who led the battle for suffrage for over 50 years and whose wisdom and charisma will always be remembered. Anthony is widely known as “the Napoleon of the women’s right’s movement”, a name she lived up to in every way. Her whole life through, Anthony was not only a strong, powerful woman who stood up for what was right, but also a fighter. She fought every day for fifty years for what she knew was right. To many women giving their lives to the cause, she was the face of the rebellion. Whenever there was doubt in the hearts of those fighting, they looked to their leader to tell them they were doing good, and to inspire them to go on another day. She played this role brilliantly, and never faltered in her resolution. Her determination finally paid off in 1920, when she was able to, as a frail old woman, see her life’s work accepted throughout America as law. Anthony’s story can inspire us all, and she remains, even in death, the face of women’s rights.
