FIRST WAVE FEMINISM
Following its solidification and growth during Reconstruction, the First Wave movement continued to gain momentum. The Women’s Rights Movement drastically expanded during the late 19th century and early 20th century with the addition of new groups like the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the Women’s Trade Union League, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
Activists started to identify as ‘suffragettes’, as gaining voting rights became the main goal of the First Wave Movement. Original Women’s Rights leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, continued their efforts, even petitioning Congress demanding “that your Honorable Body… enact a law during the present session that shall assist and protect [women] in the exercise of that right” to vote.(1)
NEW METHODS
The modernized movement used more public displays than their founding mothers did in the mid 19th century. Picketing and marches became frequent and advantageous tools for suffragettes to use, as they brought much more attention to the demands being made by the protestors. Women’s Unions and Suffragettes alike used picketing to strengthen their campaigns in the early 20th century.(2) As voting legislation failed to be passed, more and more picketers (like the ones pictured to the left) appeared outside the White House, demanding immediate action from President Woodrow Wilson.
ALICE PAUL & THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S PARTY
Alice Paul, a Quaker activist, helped inspire the First Wave feminists to use more militant forms of resistance.(3) Paul believed that picketing, marches, and rallies were the best way for the suffragettes to gain support, and promoted a more confrontational methodology than NAWSA did. Due to the differing beliefs, Paul formed the Congressional Union or eventual National Women’s Party, to rival NAWSA. The National Women’s Party more confrontational and public methods appealed to younger women. Paul’s leadership helped get a young and energized generation of ladies involved in the movement.(4)
VICTORY: THE 19TH AMENDMENT
On August 26, 1920, 72 years after the Seneca Falls Convention, the First Wave feminists finally achieved their goal: universal suffrage. After having suffrage granted to women living in select states, the ratification of the 19th Amendment ensured that all women across the country were granted the “inalienable rights” they had fought for so long to have.(5)
Works Cited
*Letter by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, December 1871, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1634184.
Women's Movement," in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. William A. Darity, Jr., 2nd ed. (Macmillan Reference USA, 2008), http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3045302985.
"The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920," History, Art & Archives: United States House of Representatives, https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/.
Ibid.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Declaration of Sentiments," 1848, EJ2161000037, U.S. History in Context, Gale.
Photo Credits:
Intro photo: "Suffragists March" Google Images
New Methods photo: "Suffrage Picketing". Google Images
Alice Paul photo: "Alice Paul Raises Glass". Google Images
19th Amendment photo: "Suffrage Wins". Google Images