The journey to women's voting rights and the Nineteenth Amendment
The journey to women's voting rights and the Nineteenth Amendment
Learn more about the women's suffrage movement in this interview with Dr. Colleen Shogan, vice chair of the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission and senior vice president at the White House Historical Association, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
SPEAKER: So Colleen, thank you so much for joining me today.
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Thank you for having me. I look forward to the conversation.
SPEAKER: So before we get into some of the specifics, can you go back and explain exactly what the 19th Amendment states?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: The 19th Amendment says that the right to vote shall not be denied on the basis of sex in the United States by any state in the United States or by the United States.
SPEAKER: When the women's right movement started, what was their initial goal? Was it always to get an Amendment passed? Or did it start more at a local and state level?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Well, when it first started in 1848, they simply stated the fact that women should have the right to vote. After the Civil War, after it was determined in the 15th Amendment that enfranchised African-American men but not women, the goal of the women's suffrage movement was to see whether women actually had the right to vote already in the Constitution based upon the 14th Amendment and the definition of citizenship.
Women were always considered citizens of the United States. So the argument went if they are considered citizens, and citizens could vote, adult citizens could vote, then why couldn't women also vote?
So in the 1870s, there was a movement for women to test this out. And many women including Susan B. Anthony and others attempted to vote and they were either prevented from voting. Or in Susan B. Anthony's case, she was arrested and tried for voting and found guilty.
SPEAKER: What I found interesting in my initial research was how long it took for this Amendment to pass. It was first introduced in 1878 but didn't pass until 1920. Can you talk a little bit about why it took so long and some of the resistance that the movement faced?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Yes. The primary resistance to the movement was really just cultural views of women and the role of women in society. In those early years after the Amendment was actually introduced in Congress in the 1880s, the 1890s, even into the early part of the 20th century, the Amendment really got almost no traction, very, very little support.
When it would be brought up for a vote in either house, it would gather less than a quarter of the number of legislators actually voting for it. What had to change were people's opinions, their hearts and minds, and what they thought about women's role in society.
The other opposition, which is important to note besides the cultural opposition, there were also organized interest groups that were opposed to women voting. That would include manufacturing industry was opposed to it, the railroad industry, and then also the liquor industry.
So any time that women would make gains towards the passage of a federal amendment or gains in state voting rights at the state level, they always found opposition from those three organized interest groups.
SPEAKER: Who were some of the key figures and leaders of the women's rights movement?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Sure. So as you mentioned, the women's suffrage movement went for 72 years. So the women who began the movement unfortunately were not alive to see the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. So some of the early leaders that many people are familiar with would be women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Also other women that you'd be less familiar with are women like Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, an African-American woman who was a slave and then after escaping slavery became an advocate for women's rights and women's voting.
And then as you go on towards the 20th century, you have a new crop of women who are leaders, a really diverse group of women, some white women and some African-American women, but advocating nonetheless for the right to vote for women.
SPEAKER: And how did they campaign at the time? How did they get their message out there? What type of strategies and actions did they take? I think we're so used to social media now. It's so easy to get your message out there. But 100 years ago, they had nothing like that.
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns ran one of the suffrage organizations called the National Woman's Party. They were typically the organization that younger women joined. And they were also viewed as being the more radical of the two major suffrage organizations. But they were masters at strategy.
And what they decided to do, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, was starting in 1917, they decided that suffragists would pick at the White House. And the first pickets picketed on the White House property right on the sidewalk in front of the fence on January 10, 1917. And they would hold signs.
And the signs would say things like, Mr. President, how long must we wait for liberty? As time went on, the signs got more pointed and directed towards Woodrow Wilson. And one of my friends and colleagues Rebecca Roberts, who's written a terrific book on the suffragists, she likens those signs to what we would consider to be the modern day tweets.
And they really were. They were very short, pithy sayings that were very pointed and direct. And they were very catchy because they had to stand there in front of the White House. And they wanted to gather attention for the cause.
SPEAKER: You had mentioned that the picket sign is kind of like today's modern day tweet. Obviously, the women's rights movement, one of the most historic movements in our history. But over the last couple of years and even currently, we're seeing a lot of other movements.
We had the #MeToo movement still going on, LGBTQ rights, and most recently Black Lives Matter. What kind of similarities are you seeing in the movements of today and the women's rights movements of-- or the women's rights movement of 100 years ago?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: I think one lesson that can be learned that I emphasize when talking to younger people or people that want to learn historical lessons from the movement itself is that social change in the United States takes a very long time to effect.
They had to change, as I said before, what people thought of women and what women were capable of. The ability to be able to change about how people thought about women, particularly how men who were in power thought about women, took decades.
So when you participate in a democracy like the United States, a separated power system or constitutional system that on purpose separates authority and power into three distinct branches, it takes a long time in order to do that.
As I talked about earlier, first they thought that they could vote and that their appeal would be to the judicial branch. And they soon quickly learned that the judicial branch was not going to be supportive. They did not believe the Supreme Court that women had the right to vote because of the 14th Amendment. So when they learned that, they knew that they had to actually get a federal amendment passed and enacted into the Constitution.
So all of that takes a very long time. And I think that people sometimes find frustration, the fact that they don't see change right in front of them. And by learning about the women's suffrage movement, we can appreciate why change takes so long and also learn from them good strategies about how you can push it along, why making smart decisions can actually help your cause and make the change happen earlier than possibly it would have happened otherwise.
SPEAKER: Yeah, I think it's pretty amazing to look back 100 years, and they were picketing and protesting in front of White House in 1920. And today in 2020, we're still doing the same to make change. How can people support and follow what you're doing with the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Yes, you can find us online. We have a terrific website womensvote100.org. So that's a terrific place to go. And also, you can find us on Facebook and on Twitter. Just look for womenvote100, and that's our tagline.
SPEAKER: That's great. It's a great historic milestone obviously celebrate 100 years. It's amazing. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today and sharing your knowledge.
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Thank you.
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Thank you for having me. I look forward to the conversation.
SPEAKER: So before we get into some of the specifics, can you go back and explain exactly what the 19th Amendment states?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: The 19th Amendment says that the right to vote shall not be denied on the basis of sex in the United States by any state in the United States or by the United States.
SPEAKER: When the women's right movement started, what was their initial goal? Was it always to get an Amendment passed? Or did it start more at a local and state level?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Well, when it first started in 1848, they simply stated the fact that women should have the right to vote. After the Civil War, after it was determined in the 15th Amendment that enfranchised African-American men but not women, the goal of the women's suffrage movement was to see whether women actually had the right to vote already in the Constitution based upon the 14th Amendment and the definition of citizenship.
Women were always considered citizens of the United States. So the argument went if they are considered citizens, and citizens could vote, adult citizens could vote, then why couldn't women also vote?
So in the 1870s, there was a movement for women to test this out. And many women including Susan B. Anthony and others attempted to vote and they were either prevented from voting. Or in Susan B. Anthony's case, she was arrested and tried for voting and found guilty.
SPEAKER: What I found interesting in my initial research was how long it took for this Amendment to pass. It was first introduced in 1878 but didn't pass until 1920. Can you talk a little bit about why it took so long and some of the resistance that the movement faced?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Yes. The primary resistance to the movement was really just cultural views of women and the role of women in society. In those early years after the Amendment was actually introduced in Congress in the 1880s, the 1890s, even into the early part of the 20th century, the Amendment really got almost no traction, very, very little support.
When it would be brought up for a vote in either house, it would gather less than a quarter of the number of legislators actually voting for it. What had to change were people's opinions, their hearts and minds, and what they thought about women's role in society.
The other opposition, which is important to note besides the cultural opposition, there were also organized interest groups that were opposed to women voting. That would include manufacturing industry was opposed to it, the railroad industry, and then also the liquor industry.
So any time that women would make gains towards the passage of a federal amendment or gains in state voting rights at the state level, they always found opposition from those three organized interest groups.
SPEAKER: Who were some of the key figures and leaders of the women's rights movement?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Sure. So as you mentioned, the women's suffrage movement went for 72 years. So the women who began the movement unfortunately were not alive to see the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. So some of the early leaders that many people are familiar with would be women like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Also other women that you'd be less familiar with are women like Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, an African-American woman who was a slave and then after escaping slavery became an advocate for women's rights and women's voting.
And then as you go on towards the 20th century, you have a new crop of women who are leaders, a really diverse group of women, some white women and some African-American women, but advocating nonetheless for the right to vote for women.
SPEAKER: And how did they campaign at the time? How did they get their message out there? What type of strategies and actions did they take? I think we're so used to social media now. It's so easy to get your message out there. But 100 years ago, they had nothing like that.
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Alice Paul and Lucy Burns ran one of the suffrage organizations called the National Woman's Party. They were typically the organization that younger women joined. And they were also viewed as being the more radical of the two major suffrage organizations. But they were masters at strategy.
And what they decided to do, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, was starting in 1917, they decided that suffragists would pick at the White House. And the first pickets picketed on the White House property right on the sidewalk in front of the fence on January 10, 1917. And they would hold signs.
And the signs would say things like, Mr. President, how long must we wait for liberty? As time went on, the signs got more pointed and directed towards Woodrow Wilson. And one of my friends and colleagues Rebecca Roberts, who's written a terrific book on the suffragists, she likens those signs to what we would consider to be the modern day tweets.
And they really were. They were very short, pithy sayings that were very pointed and direct. And they were very catchy because they had to stand there in front of the White House. And they wanted to gather attention for the cause.
SPEAKER: You had mentioned that the picket sign is kind of like today's modern day tweet. Obviously, the women's rights movement, one of the most historic movements in our history. But over the last couple of years and even currently, we're seeing a lot of other movements.
We had the #MeToo movement still going on, LGBTQ rights, and most recently Black Lives Matter. What kind of similarities are you seeing in the movements of today and the women's rights movements of-- or the women's rights movement of 100 years ago?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: I think one lesson that can be learned that I emphasize when talking to younger people or people that want to learn historical lessons from the movement itself is that social change in the United States takes a very long time to effect.
They had to change, as I said before, what people thought of women and what women were capable of. The ability to be able to change about how people thought about women, particularly how men who were in power thought about women, took decades.
So when you participate in a democracy like the United States, a separated power system or constitutional system that on purpose separates authority and power into three distinct branches, it takes a long time in order to do that.
As I talked about earlier, first they thought that they could vote and that their appeal would be to the judicial branch. And they soon quickly learned that the judicial branch was not going to be supportive. They did not believe the Supreme Court that women had the right to vote because of the 14th Amendment. So when they learned that, they knew that they had to actually get a federal amendment passed and enacted into the Constitution.
So all of that takes a very long time. And I think that people sometimes find frustration, the fact that they don't see change right in front of them. And by learning about the women's suffrage movement, we can appreciate why change takes so long and also learn from them good strategies about how you can push it along, why making smart decisions can actually help your cause and make the change happen earlier than possibly it would have happened otherwise.
SPEAKER: Yeah, I think it's pretty amazing to look back 100 years, and they were picketing and protesting in front of White House in 1920. And today in 2020, we're still doing the same to make change. How can people support and follow what you're doing with the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission?
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Yes, you can find us online. We have a terrific website womensvote100.org. So that's a terrific place to go. And also, you can find us on Facebook and on Twitter. Just look for womenvote100, and that's our tagline.
SPEAKER: That's great. It's a great historic milestone obviously celebrate 100 years. It's amazing. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today and sharing your knowledge.
COLLEEN SHOGAN: Thank you.