Women's Suffrage

The year 2010 marks the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution—Women's Suffrage. The amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution.

Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and August 18, 1920, when it was ratified, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but strategies for achieving their goal varied. Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state—nine western states adopted women's suffrage legislation by 1912. Others challenged male-only voting laws in the courts. Militant suffragists used tactics such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. Often supporters met fierce resistance. Opponents heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused them.

By 1916, however, almost all of the major suffrage organizations were united behind the goal of a constitutional amendment. When New York adopted women's suffrage in 1917, and when President Woodrow Wilson changed his position to support an amendment in 1918, the political balance began to shift in favor of the vote for women.

On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and 2 weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920, and the face of the American electorate changed forever.

Assign students to create a report of at least 150 words (or a presentation of at least seven slides) that cites at least four resources. Students should address the essential questions for critical thinking listed below (you can substitute others). Students will save time and ensure best results by using the pathfinder that follows the essential questions.

Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking using your historical newspaper collection as a primary source for in-depth research:

• What were some of the arguments for women's suffrage?
  
  
• What were some of the arguments against women's suffrage?
  
  
• What were some of the strategies used by women's rights groups to get the 19th amendment passed and then ratified?
  
  
• How does this issue resemble other "civil rights" issues since that time?

Type "Women's Suffrage" in the Search box > Select the Decade of the 1920s > Limit the search DATE from 1/1/1920 to 12/31/1922

Your students can use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Teachers may be interested in a ProQuest flexible rubrics model for evaluating inquiry-based learning activities.

Educators may also wish to employ the Quizinator Web tool (free, but registration required) for creating a variety of printed resources, including short assessments.

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