Gender Barriers Principe not policy; Justice not favors. Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less. Susan B. Anthony Instructions: Step 1: Choose a leader for this round. Step 2: Leader reads aloud the Background. Background: Before 1920, only criminals, the insane, Native Americans, and women were denied the vote. The modern woman s suffrage movement began in the 1840s with the Seneca Falls Convention. America in the 1840s was in the throes of cultural and economic change. In the years since the Revolution and the Constitutional Convention, the nation s geographic boundaries and population had more than doubled, the population had shifted significantly westward, and many Americans daily lives had drifted away from Jefferson s vision of a nation composed of independent farmers. In an effort to regain a sense of community and control over their nation s future, Americans, especially women, formed and joined reform societies. Inspired by the message of the Second Great Awakening (a religious movement that emphasized man s potential and forgiveness of sin) and the Transcendentalist message of man s innate goodness, reformers joined together in organizations aimed at improving life in America. These groups attacked what they perceived as the various wrongs in their society, including the lack of free public school education for both boys and girls, the inhumane treatment of mentally ill patients and criminals, the evil of slavery, the widespread use of alcohol, and the rights and wrongs of American women s legal position. The Seneca Falls Convention is a part of this larger period of social reform movements, a time when concern about the rights of various groups percolated to the surface. What brought three hundred men and women to this small upstate New York town in July 1848? Women of the revolutionary era such as Abigail Adams and Judith Sargent Murray raised questions about what the Declaration of Independence would mean to them, but there had never been a large scale public meeting to discuss this topic until Seneca Falls. Step 3: Women were some of the first abolitionist who fought along side people like Frederick Douglass. In 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the American equal
Rights Association, an organization for white and black women and men dedicated to the goal of universal suffrage. In 1896, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and former slave Harriet Tubman met in Washington, D.C. to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). Women have always been at the forefront of civil rights. Yet, we sometimes forget that they were the last ones to get the vote, and are still fighting for some of the same issues that other minority groups are confronting (unequal pay, for example). Complete the Universal Symbol Log worksheet (Data Sheet 4) as you take turns reading aloud; Seneca Falls, 1848, The 19 th Amendment, and Equal Rights Amendment 1972. Seneca Falls, 1848 On July 14, 1848 the Seneca Country Courier announced that on the following Wednesday and Thursday a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women would be held. The Convention issued a document titled the Declaration of Sentiments, a statement written by Stanton and modeled on the Declaration of Independence. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuses allegiance to it, and organizing its powers in such form as to them government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. But when a long train of abuses designed to reduce them absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries on the part of man toward women having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her to prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. Married women are legally dead in the eyes of the law. Women are not allowed to vote. Women have to submit to laws when they have no voice in their information Married women have no property rights. Husbands have legal power over, and responsibility for, their wives to the extent that they could imprison or beat them. Divorce and child custody laws favor men, giving no rights to women. Women have to pay property taxes although they have no representation in the levying of these taxes. Most occupations are closed to women, and when they do work they are paid only a fraction of what men earn, Women are not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or law. Women have no means to gain an education since no college would accept them. With a few exceptions, women are not allowed to participate in the affairs of the church. Women are robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect, and are made totally dependent on men. Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, -in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these Unites States. In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to affect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country. The 19 th Amendment 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 statenine western states adopted woman 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. Some lectured, wrote marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience. Often supporters met fierce resistance. Opponents heckled, jailed, and sometimes physically abused them. Victory finally came in 1920 when the 19 th Amendment guaranteed: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States of by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Equal Rights Amendment 1972 A primary goal of the modern women s rights movement which began in the late 1960 s was the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). This amendment was first proposed in 1923; just three years after American women gained the right to vote through the Nineteen Amendment. Its earliest proponents, members of the National Women s Party, were aware that receiving the vote did not end all the lingering justices faced by the women of the nation. These women, and ERA supporters in the 1960s and the 1970s, believed that adding the ERA to the United States Constitution would make any laws denying equality to women unconstitutional and thus sweep away all the old laws that they considered unfair to women. One of the most important victories in the history of the modern women s rights movement came in 1972 when Congress approved the ERA by overwhelming majorities. The House approved it in October 1971 by 354 to 23, and in March 1972 the Senate approved it by 84 to 8. When the ERA was submitted to the states for ratification, there was a mad scramble to ratify fourteen states ratified within a week. Within three months, twenty states had ratified. By the end of 1972, thirty states had approved it and only eight more were needed for ratification. The ERA was not ratified; however, as it never met the requirement established by framers of the Constitution that amendments must be approved by three fourths of the states. In 1978 Congress extended the original 1979 ERA deadline to 1982, but when the new deadline came and went, the ERA remained three states short of ratification. Equal Rights Amendment, 1972 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the Untied States or by any State on account of sex. 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date or ratification.
Step 4: Leader asks the discussion questions below to the group members. If your group is not able to answer the questions, review the information again. Discussion Questions 1. How is the experience of women in their quest for civil rights, similar/different than that of African Americans or other minority groups? 2. In the early stages of the movement, how effective was using the Declaration of Independence as a means to justify giving women their rights? Is it as effective today? Explain. 3. What prejudices do you think had to be overcome before women go the right to vote? Were these the same prejudices experienced by African Americans? Explain. Step 5: If time permits complete the Gender Barriers Activity. **** Before you move to the next center please return all items to the folder.