Women’s Suffrage

The Oxford Dictionary defines “suffrage” as the right to vote in political elections. Today, voting is a key role in the political structure of multiple nations, such as the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. The electoral system was first developed to ensure the democracy of a nation: that the people are allowed to choose their leader, and that they will not be under the authoritative governing of a monarch. However, does a nation’s electoral system consider all of its citizens equally? Luckily, in the present, most nations that do elect for a president or government official have guaranteed all their adult citizens the right to vote.

Even so, until one century ago, half of the population in the world did not have the right to participate in political elections.

The first ever convention for women’s rights, the Seneca Falls Convention, was held in Seneca Falls, New York, 1848. The participants of this convention, including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many more female suffragists, worked with concerted effort to develop the Declaration of Sentiments. The declaration, like any other declarations at the time, demanded equality and freedom. Specifically, it advocated for gender equality and the rights of women, especially the right to vote. The authors of the document encouraged women to fight for their own suffrage. The Declaration of Sentiments gained support from abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was among the first allies of feminists.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.” (A famous quote from Declaration of Sentiments and an amendment to the initial Declaration of Independence.)

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. (www.archives.gov) It was not until 72 years after the first effort to approach women’s suffrage that the Constitution finally ratified the 19th amendment and guaranteed all women that are citizens of the United States the legal right to vote.

After hundreds of conventions, protests, direct conflicts with anti-suffragists, and rejections from multiple state legislations, the final decision of the ratification of the 19th amendment was left to Tennessee during August of 1920. It was completely up to the House of Legislation of Tennessee to decide whether the decades of harsh efforts of the early feminists and suffragists would be diminished or finally consummated. The battle was intense, and the vote was a tie. However, a family letter changed the course of women’s history forever.

Harry Burns, a legislator in the House, had initially voted to deny women’s suffrage and reject the 19th amendment. However, just as the House was struggling to decide the result of the two-week debate, Burns received an urgent letter from his mother hurrying him to “vote for Suffrage”. Touched by his mother’s determination for women’s suffrage, Burns decided to change his vote at the last minute, breaking the 48-to-48 tie, making Tennessee the 36th state and the last state required to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S.

Constitution. By then, the Constitution officially legalized women’s suffrage, which is why all United States citizens above the age of 18, regardless of biological sex, are able to participate in the presidential election.