Women's Suffrage

The Electronic New Jersey Women's Suffrage module uses primary source documents to illustrate how women in New Jersey lost and eventually regained the right to vote. Analysis of primary source material such as: government documents, posters, music, photographs, letters, and political cartoons, is the focal point of the site.

  • Introductory Activity

    Through analysis of primary source documents students will learn how women were excluded from voting in New Jersey.

  • Central Questions

    Through analysis of primary source documents students will address the following questions:

    • Opposition/Support

      Why would a man be in favor of women's suffrage? Why would a woman be opposed to women's suffrage?

    • Privilege or Duty

      Is voting a privilege or a duty?

    • Exploitation Possibilities

      If you can't vote can people exploit you?

    • Competency Issues

      Why were women considered incompetent to vote yet competent to raise children?

    • Voting & Status

      If a woman votes does it make her more or less a woman?

    • 19th Amendment

      What does the 19th amendment say?

    • Culminating Activity

      Through an interactive simulation/role play, students will analyze both historic and contemporary issues related to the roles of women in society and the struggle for women's suffrage and social equality.

"Thomas Jefferson had proclaimed in 1776 that equality would be the bedrock of a new American government. But it took 144 years for women finally to achieve full citizenship in the United States..."

Ward, Geoffrey C. and Ken Burns. Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. p vii.


Unless otherwise specified, all documentary and photograph sources used in this section of Electronic New Jersey were provided courtesy of the Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives, the NJ State Archives, and/or the NJ Historical Society