The Seneca Falls Convention, the first U.S. women’s rights convention held in New York on July 19-20, 1848 is seen as the starting point of the women’s movement in the United States. Over 300 men and women attended the convention among the principal organizers of the event Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (History, Art & Archives). During the convention many issues were address, some of them were the property rights of married women, equal standing for women in the legal system, and improved access to quality education. It was at the conference that Elizabeth Cady read her famous “Declaration of Sentiments”. This declaration spelled out all the injustices women faced every day. The beginnings of the Women’s Suffrage movement began
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Eventually the CU became the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Paul and the NWP emphasized working for a federal constitutional amendment for suffrage. Their position was at odds with the position of the NAWSA, which was to work state-by-state as well as the federal level. Even though the two groups were at odds with each other, the work they did help build the fight and keep women’s rights at the forefront. When NAWSA won in elections state wide, it would mean the more politicians at the federal level had a stake in keeping women voters happy (Lewis). By the end of 1913 the NAWSA ask Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, co-founder of CU, to resign from the CU and join them on a permanent level. Paul and Burns refuse. Paul and Burns continue to head the CU, when in 1914 the National Advisory Council convenes and decides that the CU should send two organizers to every suffrage state to mobilize woman voters to oppose any congressional candidate from the Democratic Party, which had blocked passage of the federal suffrage amendment. While in Chicago’s Blackstone Theater a convention of women voters organized from the CU officially formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The goal of “world’s first women’s political party” is remaining independent of existing political parties and campaigning on a platform of one plank-immediate passage of federal woman suffrage amendment. In November 1916, the first member of Congress, Jeanette Rankin, is elected to the House of Representatives; and formally joins the House on April 2, 1917. While in office Rankin voted against going to war with Germany, which she lost. The NAWSA distanced themselves and the suffrage movement away from Rankin saying she was not voting for the suffragists, but for her state of Montana (History, Art &
Eventually the CU became the National Woman’s Party (NWP). Paul and the NWP emphasized working for a federal constitutional amendment for suffrage. Their position was at odds with the position of the NAWSA, which was to work state-by-state as well as the federal level. Even though the two groups were at odds with each other, the work they did help build the fight and keep women’s rights at the forefront. When NAWSA won in elections state wide, it would mean the more politicians at the federal level had a stake in keeping women voters happy (Lewis). By the end of 1913 the NAWSA ask Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, co-founder of CU, to resign from the CU and join them on a permanent level. Paul and Burns refuse. Paul and Burns continue to head the CU, when in 1914 the National Advisory Council convenes and decides that the CU should send two organizers to every suffrage state to mobilize woman voters to oppose any congressional candidate from the Democratic Party, which had blocked passage of the federal suffrage amendment. While in Chicago’s Blackstone Theater a convention of women voters organized from the CU officially formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The goal of “world’s first women’s political party” is remaining independent of existing political parties and campaigning on a platform of one plank-immediate passage of federal woman suffrage amendment. In November 1916, the first member of Congress, Jeanette Rankin, is elected to the House of Representatives; and formally joins the House on April 2, 1917. While in office Rankin voted against going to war with Germany, which she lost. The NAWSA distanced themselves and the suffrage movement away from Rankin saying she was not voting for the suffragists, but for her state of Montana (History, Art &