Jane Addams On Women's Suffrage

Decent Essays
As Jane Addams wrote this source on “Why women should vote, 1915”, she directed an issue that women faced during the early twentieth century, known as woman suffrage. In this historical document, Jane Addams explained the importance of a woman’s right to vote. First, she makes a claim that for all centuries it’s evident that a woman’s role is to take care of everything pertaining to her home, including her family. However, Addams explained that women (in general) cannot fully maintain their role if they’re not handling business outside of their homes. For instance, she illustrated events that have taken place in Chicago, Italy, and other countries that stated the importance of a woman’s need to vote in society (Modern History Sourcebook: Jane …show more content…
Based off the reading, Addams had a desire to make change in the world by the way people treated one another (Reconstruction, Chapter 20, Section III, www.americanawp.com). This trait shows that Addams had a desire for women to have the same right men have in the area of voting. Throughout the document, she stated things that women faced, such as the scarlet fever that spread in the spring of Chicago to their children in the schools, the cow milk that made their babies sick, girls working in factories and shops, and so forth to make a claim that if women had a right to vote many of these issues would resolve (Modern History Sourcebook: Jane Addams, “Why women should vote, 1915”). In addition, she points out a few women that responded to the things that were going on during this time period that needed enforcement (Modern History Sourcebook: Jane Addams, “Why women should vote, 1915”). Based off the reading, many women and men pushed for women to have the right to vote to help “clean up politics and social evils” (Reconstruction, Chapter 20, Section III, www.americanawp.com). Basically, many suffragists wanted to see women take a role in the way society operates so that everyone may have a right to do what needs to take place to impact the society. This document illustrates that Jane Addams embraces the fact that men are needed in today’s society, but recognizes the need for

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