Women - Key Dates, Figures/Groups, Stats, Acts and Case Studies:
1866 – American Equal Rights Association (AERA) founded to remove restrictions on both racial and
gender grounds.
1868 – 14th Amendment guaranteed equal rights but only penalised states who denied rights to ‘any
of the male inhabitants of such state’.
1869 – National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and American Women Suffrage Association
(AWSA), rival suffrage organisations, founded. NWSA campaigned for national change under
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. AWSA aimed to get wines voting in individual
states and were a one-issue organisation under Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe.
1870 – 15th Amendment specifically stated voting rights could be denied ‘on account of race, colour,
or previous condition of servitude’ but did not mention sex.
1872 – Susan B. Anthony famously arrested for attempting to vote and tried for electoral
malpractice.
1874 – Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) wanted to ban alcohol by appealing to
Protestant opinion. Wanted to ban it to safeguard the family.
Gilded Age (1875-96):
1880 – WCTU grown to become a national organisation in 24 states with a membership of 27,000.
Soon reached 168,000 later in the decade.
1880s – Female graduates pioneered the settlement house movement, establish some 400
settlement houses in cities.
1890 – Formations of the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA); rival suffrage
organisations united. Focused efforts on temperance and social reforms.
Suffrage campaigners had managed to get 8 statues to hold a vote on women voting rights.
Campaigns in 33 states on the issue but only Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896) voted in
favour before 1912.
Daughter of the American Revolution founded. Were a more conservative association who
aimed to commemorate and celebrate key elements of US history.
1891 – Populist Party founded to protect small and medium farms under competition due to falling
food prices. Women became active in rural protests and spoke at public meetings. Elizabeth
Lease was a well-known orator for the party.
1892 – Populist Party received over 8% of votes in the Presidential election.
1900 – Old splits in organisations for greater rights for women had not been entirely healed.
Southern organisations unwilling to give AA women the vote.
Not complete agreement about which types of women could vote.
Movement distracted by other causes, such as temperance.
1900s – Twenty states permitted only widows with school-age children to vote and, even then,
hostile crowds often prevented women from casting their votes. Many men saw it as
unnatural and a distraction from their domestic duties.
1911 – National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage established. Saw women’s rights as
undermining the special place and respect for women in their work in the home. Feared
political equality would work against the interests of women.
Both Catholics and Southern Democrats were against female suffrage, fearing a weakening of
the family and a potential introduction of labour laws that would harm the South.
1913 – Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed the more militant Congressional Union (later named
National Women’s Party in 1916).
WW1 – Leader of NAWSA, Carrie Chapman Catt, insisted promise of suffrage would induce women to
support the war effort wholeheartedly, President Wilson agreed.
Women war effort made states more receptive to NAWSA arguments. New York and Illinois
enfranchised women in 1917
1917 – Margaret Sanger set up first US birth-control clinic
1919 – House of Representatives passed the women’s suffrage (Nineteenth) Amendment, giving
1866 – American Equal Rights Association (AERA) founded to remove restrictions on both racial and
gender grounds.
1868 – 14th Amendment guaranteed equal rights but only penalised states who denied rights to ‘any
of the male inhabitants of such state’.
1869 – National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and American Women Suffrage Association
(AWSA), rival suffrage organisations, founded. NWSA campaigned for national change under
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. AWSA aimed to get wines voting in individual
states and were a one-issue organisation under Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe.
1870 – 15th Amendment specifically stated voting rights could be denied ‘on account of race, colour,
or previous condition of servitude’ but did not mention sex.
1872 – Susan B. Anthony famously arrested for attempting to vote and tried for electoral
malpractice.
1874 – Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) wanted to ban alcohol by appealing to
Protestant opinion. Wanted to ban it to safeguard the family.
Gilded Age (1875-96):
1880 – WCTU grown to become a national organisation in 24 states with a membership of 27,000.
Soon reached 168,000 later in the decade.
1880s – Female graduates pioneered the settlement house movement, establish some 400
settlement houses in cities.
1890 – Formations of the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA); rival suffrage
organisations united. Focused efforts on temperance and social reforms.
Suffrage campaigners had managed to get 8 statues to hold a vote on women voting rights.
Campaigns in 33 states on the issue but only Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896) voted in
favour before 1912.
Daughter of the American Revolution founded. Were a more conservative association who
aimed to commemorate and celebrate key elements of US history.
1891 – Populist Party founded to protect small and medium farms under competition due to falling
food prices. Women became active in rural protests and spoke at public meetings. Elizabeth
Lease was a well-known orator for the party.
1892 – Populist Party received over 8% of votes in the Presidential election.
1900 – Old splits in organisations for greater rights for women had not been entirely healed.
Southern organisations unwilling to give AA women the vote.
Not complete agreement about which types of women could vote.
Movement distracted by other causes, such as temperance.
1900s – Twenty states permitted only widows with school-age children to vote and, even then,
hostile crowds often prevented women from casting their votes. Many men saw it as
unnatural and a distraction from their domestic duties.
1911 – National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage established. Saw women’s rights as
undermining the special place and respect for women in their work in the home. Feared
political equality would work against the interests of women.
Both Catholics and Southern Democrats were against female suffrage, fearing a weakening of
the family and a potential introduction of labour laws that would harm the South.
1913 – Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed the more militant Congressional Union (later named
National Women’s Party in 1916).
WW1 – Leader of NAWSA, Carrie Chapman Catt, insisted promise of suffrage would induce women to
support the war effort wholeheartedly, President Wilson agreed.
Women war effort made states more receptive to NAWSA arguments. New York and Illinois
enfranchised women in 1917
1917 – Margaret Sanger set up first US birth-control clinic
1919 – House of Representatives passed the women’s suffrage (Nineteenth) Amendment, giving
