Woman Right to vote: A Distance To Travel Essay, Research Paper

A Distance to Travel

August 26, 1920. It was a twenty-four hours that to many was the

It was possibly one of the greatest triumphs of the century. Now as the polls

unfastened adult females and work forces stand following to each other and cast a ballot which holds the

same importance. The clip and attempt it took to acquire here shall be ingrained in

every individual? s head as they approach the canvass booth. There was a battle to

over come and that battle was won, in the terminal by 43 words. The

landmark credence of the Nineteenth Amendment changed the manner of life in

American forever, from the clip before, to the clip of, to the clip after.

? We were 16 adult females sitting in 16 chairs, hankering to stand.

( Dubois 250 ) ? This quotation mark given by Mary Baker before the Pass of the

Nineteenth Amendment is used to demo how adult females were desiring and desired

to stand following to me in a line of equal steps. Before 1920, life being female

was assumed to be a life lived in the house observation over the kids and

doing certain that everyone was happy. If a female stepped out of this common

topographic point it would be looked upon as being a extremist, one who would ne’er get married,

and one who would be forced to populate her life in the shame of the town. Acerate leaf

to state it was a clip where the lines between the male gender and the female

gender was one of great rebelliousness. As Mary White Rowlandson remarked in her

deceasing words, ? It is a life I am no longer willing to take. I am old so it is better

for me to decease without the battle, but you are immature so fight and be seen. Today

replaces yesterday, for as yesterday you had nil to populate for, today you have

the world. ? It was the new life that was waiting behind the Nineteenth

Amendment, and every adult female knew that it must be achieved the wall between

genders had to fall and it was to fall now. The lone thing standing in the manner of

this Amendment was the barrier of adult male. Ever though non every adult male stood in

this line, there were plenty to keep adult females down for many a decennaries ( Mackey

34 ) . The work forces who fought for the adult females were forced into silence due to the

self-importances of themselves and those around them, they were every bit scared as the adult females

were to stand up, even if justness was on their side ( Mackey 34 ) . Before the

passing of the Nineteenth Amendment adult females were shunned and placed as

background scenes to a male dominated phase.

When the clip came to force a batch of adult females stood to take the brut of

the statements about the confirmation of the Nineteenth. As Alice Paul said, ? We

came to be heard, non to be questioned or to be turned about. We will reply

your inquiries and you may turn us about, but we will turn out the load of

justness in our favour so you can no longer do us go forth. With that we will

stay. ( Foner 765 ) ? As the ladies decided that this would be their topographic point to remain, in

clip and in history, the male gender parted seas and allowed the females to

hammer their manner to the following minute in clip. Till the twenty-four hours of the go throughing the

Nineteenth was the lone statement that could coerce sides to be taken among

households, friends, and society in general. Augu

st 20, 1920, the Nineteenth

Amendment was passed leting adult females the right to vote as the peers of work forces.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall non be denied

or abridged by the United States or by any State on history of sex.

The Congress shall hold power, by appropriate statute law, to

implement the commissariats of this article. ( Weatherford 245 )

These few words gave the female race in America the right to stand with their

caputs high and as equal to that of their work forces counter parts. The following election

over eight million adult females went to the polls to vote, they out numbered the male

count by about one 3rd. For some work forces this scene would be counted as the

ruin to the democracy, which we live by ; still for others this was the

result of demand, each adult females would now be one ballot of equal value. ? It was a

dream which I could ne’er had thought to populate to see. My female parent would stand in

her grave in pride. ( Kraditor 240 ) ? This quotation mark by Blatch gives the bases for why

of all minutes this one would stand in the memories of many. It was Stanton

who deserved to see this minute but she would be the 1 who could see

nil from her position ( Kraditor 247 ) . Every adult female who was alive would

retrieve the minute when the Nineteenth passed ; the pride, the joy, even the

cryings of sorrow for those who died in the battle.

Now, today, about eighty old ages subsequently this one Amendment covers over

one half of the American population. To those who remember the narratives each

ballot is filled with that same pride, joy, and cryings as their female parents or

grandmas felt. In the modern clip we look at that Nineteenth as being

something that was fought for and won, but to history it shall everlastingly be a

bequest. ? We came to contend, and we won. We came to see, and we envisioned.

We came to rectify the unfair, and we became justnesss. We came to vote, and

we voted. ? Ida Husted Harper was right in everything she said, from so to

now it has been a history of failures and triumphs, but in the terminal it shall wholly be

made equal by jurisprudence.

1776 to 1920, it about seemed as if nil was traveling to alter. There

were times of silence and times of tumult, but in the terminal it was the concluding canvass call

which told the narratives whole. There were those who fought and there are those

who stand to vote, we in the present shall retrieve the past merely to populate our

hereafters under the same Torahs of justness. To the Nineteenth Amendment there is

award, obeisance, and pride, all of which will ne’er decease in this clip or in those to

follow.

Dubois, Ellen Carol. Woman Suffrage and Women? s Right. New York

University Press. New York, 1998. 304pp.

Foner, Eric. Reader? s Companion of American History. Huughton Miffilin

Company. Boston, 1991. 826pp.

Kraditor, Aileen S. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920.

Norton. Washington, 1980. 313pp.

Mackay, Andrew. One One-half of the Peoples: The Fight for Woman Suffrage.

University of Illinois. Chicago, 1982. 123pp.

Weatherford, Doris. American Women? s History: A to Z of People,

Organization, Issues, and Events. Prentice Hall. New York, 1994. 396pp.