Women's Rights and the 19th Amendment
For decades women in the United States fought for some form of rights, however the fight for the vote did not start until around 1848 and it ended more than seventy years later. Women believed they were just as smart if not smarter than their male counterparts, and therefore should have just as many rights. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed and it allowed women to vote in every state. It also allowed them to progress toward full equality and gave them the ability to obtain other rights like having equal pay, having the ability to get birth control, having protection from discrimination in all jobs including ones in the government, having the right to be in control of their own bodies, and legally being seen as equal to men in schools and military positions. Leading up to the passing of this amendment the women's suffrage movement really started picking up speed, and more women started to believe that they are a valuable asset to society. Women started fighting for themselves and wanted to become more independent. It was not until 1848 when the Married Women's Property Act was passed in New York, that women's rights really started becoming a widespread idea. With the passing of this law, women were no longer “automatically liable for” their “husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf.” While this law helped the fight immensely women still could not have any career they wanted, trade on the stock market, or most importantly, vote.
Before women were given the right to vote the 14th and 15th amendments were passed. The 14th amendment granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” including former slaves. It also said that states cannot deny anyone "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The 15th Amendment states that the right to vote should not be denied based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Neither one of these amendments mentioned women, but many believed they should still protect them.
Virginia Minor was an officer in the National Woman's Suffrage Association, and she believed that the 14th Amendment should be extended to women. When Virginia went to register to vote in St. Louis she was denied because she “ was not a ‘male citizen of the United States,’”. Virginia decided to sue the voting registrar, Reese Happersett, saying that she had been denied one of the “‘privileges and immunities of citizenship’ guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.’” Virginia believed that all native-born women were citizens, just like all men, and therefore the 14th Amendment should be extended to them. By having this right as a native-born woman, the Missouri law stating that suffrage was only for men was in violation of her rights. The Missouri Supreme court ruled with Happersett, and Virginia Minor appealed the case and it was brought to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided that the amendment did not guarantee any right to suffrage for women and that it should be up to the states to decide if they would allow women to vote, the Missouri law was not in violation of the constitution and could stay in place.
In 1878 a Woman Suffrage Amendment was proposed in Congress, but this amendment did not pass. In 1894 600,000 signatures were presented to the New York State Constitutional Convention, in an attempt to get a woman suffrage amendment to individual voters. In 1912 the women's suffrage movement was, for the first time, supported by a political party, the Bull Moose Party. By 1918, 15 states granted women full voting rights. The women in these states used their newfound power of voting to elect congressional representatives that supported the suffrage movement. By 1916, representatives for both the Republican and Democratic parties endorsed the fight for women's suffrage. Finally, in 1919, an amendment worded exactly the same as the failed one in 1878 was passed through Congress. This amendment became the 19th Amendment in the constitution and was sent to the states for ratification. Once the amendment was passed, there was a lot of backlash, and some states, mostly southern, did not want to comply.
The amendment was passed on June 4th, 1919 and ratified on August 18th, 1920, but it was not until February 27, 1922, that it was legally upheld.
February 27, 1922, was when the Supreme Court decided the outcome of the case, Leser v. Garnett. Leser v. Garnett was about whether or not the state of Maryland should have to legally uphold the 19th Amendment. The case was brought forward by qualified male voters who wanted the court to remove the names of women from the registered voters list. They believed the Constitution was only for men and used the fact that the Maryland courts voted against the ratification of the amendment as ammunition to support their case. The men arguing this case believed “the state constitution” limited “suffrage to men and that the 19th Amendment to the federal Constitution was not validly adopted” and is therefore not “maintainable under the Maryland law” The Supreme Court ruled that the Amendment was the law and legally has to be upheld in all states, this ruling was the final step in finally confirming the vote for women.
Women have been fighting for equal rights since the government was created. The passing of the 19th Amendment let women believe they too, could make a difference. It was one of the biggest steps towards full equality that women have ever gotten. Women in America take a lot of their rights for granted and living in Trump’s America it is becoming more and more apparent how quickly the rights that women do have can be taken away. Modern women can vote, hold any job they want, own their own property, and they have many other rights that the women in 1922 did not have, but this does not mean that they are treated as equal to men. Women pay more for essential things, like socks, shampoo, and deodorant, and women are statistically underrepresented in government, media, and CEO jobs. Women have a higher chance of being sexually assaulted or living in poverty than men do, and contrary to popular belief most women still are not getting paid as much as their male counterparts. In most jobs, women would have to work an extra 40 days a year to make up for the pay gap. Supreme court cases that grant women basic rights over themselves, like Roe v. Wade have been repeatedly challenged. Women have come a very long way from where they started but the fight is not done. The passing of the 19th Amendment lit a spark in American women, and it let them believe they too could make a difference. I believe that modern women need to take that same spark and use it to continue to fight for the rights they have, and use it to gain the rights they do not have. "Forward out of Darkness, Leave Behind the Night, Forward Out of Error, Forward Into Light" - Inez Milholland
Works Cited
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“Woman Suffrage Timeline (1840-1920).” History of U.S. Woman's Suffrage, www.crusadeforthevote.org/woman-suffrage-timeline-18401920/.
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