SUTTERFIELD FINANCIAL FEATURE
Suffering for Suffrage by Janice P. Dreiling The first public demand that women be allowed to vote came from the Seneca Falls, New York, Convention of 1848, 72 years after the Declaration of Independence proclaimed “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It did not occur to the “signers” to include women. It would be another 72 years before the 19th Amendment — stating the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex — would become part of the U.S. Constitution. From 1848 to 1920, suffragists witnessed 17 Presidents of the United States, the population grow from 23 to 106 million, and the number of States increase from 30 to 48. At first travel was by steamboat, canal boat, stagecoach, wagon, horseback, and on foot. Travel by train was in its infancy. Communication consisted of newspapers, handbills, letters and lecturers. Telegrams did not
come along until 1861, and the telephone not until 1876.
tionists themselves, condemned the women.
Most of the women who started the movement died before it was over. And none of the thousands of women marchers in the 10 years prior to the amendment’s ratification in 1920 had been born when the movement started.
Suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone were paid lecturers for the Anti-Slavery Society before they began
Why did it take so long? The short answer is change is not acceptable to the powers that be, the powers that profit from the way things are. The long answer includes the obstacles and relentless opposition suffragists faced. Prevailing mores of 1848 dictated women’s “sphere” was the home, and men’s “sphere” was everywhere else. Women were not to speak in public. In the 1830s, when some women joined abolitionist groups and a few spoke out, the religious leaders of the day, joined by many of the male aboliElizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
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b Monthly | MARCH 2020
