Women, Politics, and American Society, pg. 19-40 -- Reaction

Textbook Reading

Nancy E. McGlen, Karen O'Connor, Laura van Assendelft, Wendy Gunther-Canada



What stood out to me the most was actually near the end of our reading assignment, that New England and the South were the last two areas opposing women's suffarge strongly. Coming from New England, I was surprised since it's always seemed to me to be a very liberal place in general. However, it did make sense when I continued reading and realized that they opposed suffrage mostly because of the economy and what women's rights would ahve done to it.

I always find it interesting to read up on the history of suffrage, and because each time I do it I learn a little more it means that the things I originally learned are engraved into my mind. For example, I have known the date of the Seneca Falls Convention since about fourth grade, as well as the names of Susan B. Anothony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. But putting them in perspective with what I know now and what I'm reading about them always makes for interesting relevations. I'd like to believe that Stanton and Anthony used their racist platform just as that, a platform, but I'm still never sure. It strikes a nerve in me that they would ever for that at all. Fighting for equal rights means just that, equal rights. Fighting for women's rights by pushing down and scrambling on top of other groups is just as bad as not having them, if not worse.

The connection between the women's movement and the prohibition movement also struck me, that the first thing women ever did politically independent of men was eliminate alcohol, maybe they did have something to fear afterall. Like what is generally stated therough out any equal rights movement is tht it worked the best when all the different factions came together, the liberal women working with the conservative women. That is what finally got it passed. In this day and age there are so many sides to so many different issues, that it seems almost impossible that we'll evr be able to unite behind one solid cause ever again.

There is something to be said that it got done once though. Unfortunately, there was a lot of compromising, "conservatizing" the ideas so that Southern women would feel more comfortable, which meant excluding several black women. I strongly oppose this, excluding any type of person, but I do understand the need for compromise, and only after that happened did the amendment go anywhere.

This article, or reading assignment, makes me want to look up the British Suffrage movement even more, and compare the various international suffrage movements to the American one. To see whether the more militant nature was more successful or whether there was another approahc all together would be extremely interesting.