Women's Suffrage in the United States

• 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in the United States.
• Initially, only men with property could vote in most American states.
• Women were excluded from voting due to prejudices.
• Many women fought against these prejudices by founding activist groups and organizing conventions.
• A convention held at Seneca Falls in 1848 resulted in a ‘Declaration of Sentiments’ which contained a list of grievances aimed at the American government, with the lack of women’s suffrage as the first grievance.
• The struggle of women was not just about the right to vote, but extended to other rights like equal pay for equal work, as emphasized by activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Opposition to Women's Suffrage

• Not all women favored universal suffrage.
• Anti-suffrage groups believed politics was a dirty business and women should not partake in it.
• They also worried that women acting like men would destroy the family and promote socialism.
• These women were usually white and upper class, fearing that giving rights to the poor would lead to the loss of their privileges.
• Brewers and distillers opposed women's suffrage, fearing women would make alcoholic drinks illegal due to the women's movements' fight against alcoholism.
• Some industrialists opposed women's suffrage, believing women would support the abolition of child labor.

The Nineteenth Amendment

• In 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was founded to protest the exclusion of women from the political organization of society.
• The US entry into World War I in 1917 changed things as women substituted men in factories and offices.
• In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson acknowledged women's contributions to the war effort.
• In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the American Constitution granted universal suffrage.
• New Zealand (1893) and Australia (1902) had already granted women the right to vote.

Gender-Inclusive Language and Social Activism

• Aspects of American society favored men politically, economically, and culturally, also true for many other societies.
• Languages can also have a male bias.
• The European Parliament issued guidelines to change discriminatory terms that are only used in the masculine.
• Examples include using 'chairperson' instead of 'chairman,' 'humanity' instead of 'mankind,' and 'police officer' instead of 'policeman.'
• The United Nations also has guidelines favoring gender-inclusive language and discouraging discriminatory expressions towards both women and men.
• The fight of women for the right to vote proved that progressive political reforms are often determined by popular pressure.