The document summarizes the history of the women's suffrage movement in the United States from the late 18th century to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. It discusses early organizing efforts in the 1800s, the state-by-state fight for voting rights, and the final push to pass an amendment at the federal level during World War 1. It also notes how changing gender roles, the rise of consumerism, and women's expanding public roles contributed to the shifting social views that helped secure suffrage.

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Women in Early 20th
Century America
Suffrage, Consumerism, Changing Gender
Roles

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The Fight for Suffrage: Early Organizing
1790s-1850s 1860s
 1790: All free inhabitants of New  1859: rubber vulcanized—reliable
Jersey have the right to vote condoms available soon after. U.S.
birth rate begins to decline.
 1807: Women lose their voting
rights in New Jersey  1868: 14th Amendment to Constitution
essentially defines “citizen” and
 1848: Seneca Falls, NY: 1st “voter” as male
women’s rights convention in the
U.S  1869: 2 major women’s orgs founded
 “Declaration of Sentiments and
(split over 15th Amendment)
Resolutions” signed  National Women’s Suffrage
(organizing principles for Association (more radical, women-
suffrage movement) only)
 American Women’s Suffrage
 1854: Massachusetts grants Association (supported
women property rights amendment, included men)

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The Fight for Suffrage: State-by-State
1870s 1880s-1890s
 1870: 15th Amendment enfranchises  1883: Women in Washington territory
black men granted full voting rights
 1869-70: Utah and Wyoming  1887: U.S. Supreme Court
organized into territories; women have disenfranchises women of
Washington territory
suffrage rights in both states
 1890: NWSA & AWSA merge to
 1874: Founding of Women’s Christian become National American Women’s
Temperance Union Suffrage Association
 1878: Women’s suffrage amendment  1890: Wyoming admitted to the Union
first introduced in U.S. Congress with women’s rights to suffrage intact
 1883: Women in Washington territory  1893: Colorado passes women’s
granted full voting rights suffrage

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The Fight for Suffrage: Taking it Public
1890s-1900s 1910-1912
 1896: Formation of the National  1910: Washington, now a state,
Association of Colored Women in grants women full voting rights
Washington, D.C.
 1910: First large-scale suffrage
 1896: Utah admitted to the Union with parade, held in NYC
women’s rights to suffrage intact
 1911: California grants women full
 1903: Formation of Women’s Trade voting rights
Union League of New York (later
International Ladies’ Garment  1912: Progressive Party (Teddy
Workers Union, ILGWU) Roosevelt’s party) makes suffrage
part of their political platform
 1909: 20,000 women workers strike in
the NYC garment district  1912: Kansas and the Arizona and
Alaska territories grant women the
right to vote

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The Fight for Suffrage: Taking it to D.C.
1913-1917 1918-1923
 1913: Congressional Union (later  1918: President Woodrow Wilson issues a
statement in support of women’s suffrage
National Woman’s Party) formed;
stages sit-ins and hunger strikes to
 1918: The 19th Amendment passes the
draw attention to suffrage cause. House of Representatives
 1914: Women win the right to vote in  1919: Women are granted voting rights in
Nevada and Montana Oklahoma, Michigan and South Dakota
 1916: First woman in the House of  1919: The Senate finally passes the
amendment
Representatives (Jeannette Rankin,
Montana)  1920: 19th Amendment ratified by state
legislatures; becomes law August 26th
 1917: New York State grants women  NAWSA disbands, its members form the
full voting rights; other states grant the League of Women Voters
right to vote in presidential elections
 1923: The ERA is first proposed. (Still has
never been passed!)

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Changing Views of Women
Additional Factors During Prohibition
 Roles of women during the Civil  Increasing consumer power
War and especially WWI  Fashion
 Home
 Women as advocates for and
providers of services to the  Greater interest in birth control
poor and needy  First as a social issue
 Hull House, Jane Addams,  More & better barrier methods
1890 become available
 Emerging consumer society  More rigorously educated
 Mt. Holyoke, 1837
 Growth of advertising
 2-3 generations of college-
educated women

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So it isn’t just about suffrage!
 By the mid-1920s, women are emerging as equal players
 Especially true among upper classes (wealth enables privilege)
 Fitzgerald’s novel depicts a set of related anxieties about
shifting, ungrounded gender roles
 Best embodiment of these anxieties is not Gatsby or Tom but
Nick (esp. when talking to or about Daisy or Jordan)

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F. Scott & Zelda
 Fitzgerald, like Nick, is involved with 20s high society after his
first novel is a success
 F. Scott & wife Zelda are literary celebrities of their day; live a
high-flying life of alcohol and parties
 F. Scott borrows from their relationship and Zelda’s writing in
his own works, & is generally thought to have done so without
her consent