What does the 19th amendment say?
Pre-Questions
Before studying the documents below, express your own personal feelings
- What are the social expectations for women in the United States today?
Analyze the following documents
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quote
"On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment—giving women the right to vote—was ratified, ending more than seventy years of political pressure by suffragists. Ironically, the amendment came three years after the first woman, Jeannette Rankin, had been elected to the House of Representatives, and eight years after Julia Clifford Lathrop was named director of the Children's Bureau, representing the first time a woman headed a federal agency. Also in 1920, the League of Women Voters was organized to educate women about politics and promote the status and rights of women. Three years later, the first version of women's equal rights amendment was submitted to Congress."
(Bruun, Erik and Jay Crosby eds. Our Nations Archives, p556.)
The Last Few Buttons
State of NJ Senate Resolution 1920 PDF version (0.3MB)
19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Ruth Dyk Quote
"This was our big time. We had worked so long, we had worked so hard. We never thought it would happen. If you had worked for years to do it, if you believed in it, if you thought great things were going to come out of it—great in terms of the position of women in our culture, position of women in their jobs, position of women everywhere, and this was going to improve that—I mean lives would be changed."
Ruth Dyk
(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 ix)
Susan B. Anthony Quote
"We shall someday be heeded, and—everybody will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people think that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses always were hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon today has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past."
Susan B. Anthony
Ethal Hall Quote
"I had just been graduated from college, and up there we were taught the slogan, 'Not for ourselves alone, but that we must teacher others.' I felt [voting] was something I could do for my country. And I was very happy about it."
Ethal Hall
(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. ix)
Post-Questions
- What were the long term and short effects that resulted when the 19th amendment was passed?
- Does the 19th Amendment provide sufficient rights to women?
- What obstacles and/or challenges do women face today?