Women's Emancipation Movements

Summary

     Women’s emancipation movement refers to the organized campaigns held for gaining women the right to vote during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Margaret Cavendish (1640s) was one of the first women to criticize the treatment of women in England. The best-known examples of the woman suffrage movement took place in English-speaking nations. However, other countries had their own woman suffrage movements too. The Scandinavian countries were among the first areas to grant women the right to vote. Most importantly, an internationa l organization was formed to share victories, encourage others, and provide information about the movement. During this time period, several regions of the world are successful with their woman suffrage movement.

Margaret Cavendish

United States

• In the United States, most positions of power outside the family were only available to men who owned property. Even after the American Revolution, female taxpayers still voted in only some areas. At the first women's rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton shocked her colleagues when she asked them to vote on a resolution demanding voting rights for women. 

   

• In 1832, their efforts resulted in the Great Reform of 1832, which extended suffrage to more males. An unfortunate result of the act, however, was the removal of the right to vote in local elections that some women had already enjoyed as taxpayers.

   

• In 1877, the members of National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) were determined to collect signatures for another petition supporting a women’s suffrage amendment. After Susan B. Anthony collected 10,000 signatures from 26 states, she presented them to the U.S. Senate. They responded with laughter.

   

• In 1880, the movement gained a better name when the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) endorsed woman suffrage.
• In 1919, the U.S. Congress approved an amendment that would guarantee women the right to vote and submitted it to the states. By the summer of 1920, 35 of the 36 states needed for ratification had ratified the amendment. Hoping to influence their legislature, suffragists and anti-suffragists gathered in Tennessee. The ratification was approved by one vote. The Nineteenth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920.

Elizabeth Cady Staton (Left) and Susan B. Anthony (Right)

Britain

     In 1874, working-class feminists founded the Women's Protective and Provident League, which was more concerned with rights for working women than with suffrage. However, when women in New Zealand and Australia received the franchise before 1900, women in Great Britain were inspired to increase their efforts. In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters founded the Women's Social and Political Union, which was devoted to using drastic socialist tactics to win the vote. Through mass demonstrations and breaking a few rules, the British suffrage movement brought attention to its cause. In 1918, women gained limited suffrage in Great Britain; full suffrage was granted in 1928.

Emmeline Pankhurst

Australia and New Zealand

1884 – 1^st women’s suffrage society founded by Henrietta Dugdale, Annie Lowe, and Vida Goldstein

1891 – New South Wales establishes the Womanhood Suffrage League

1894 – Women are granted voting in Southern Australia

1898 - Women are granted voting in Western Australia

1902 – Bill for women’s suffrage passed

In 1893, the small British state of New Zealand granted the right to vote to women. That was followed between 1893 and 1909 by the various Australian states. However, women were rarely taken seriously and politics remain mainly male-dominated for years to come.

Europe and Russia

• In Austria, Marianne Hainisch pushed for increased education for women and woman suffrage during the 1870s and 1880s.
• In Finland, Lucina Hagman worked for equal education for both girls and boys. She was a cofounder of the Suomen Naisluta (Finland's Women's Association) in 1884. She also eventually helped establish the Kvinosaksforbunds Unionen (Union of Women's Societies) to promote the woman suffrage movement. When the Russian Revolution of 1905 spread to Finland, women and laborers demanded universal suffrage. Finland, with the help of Hagman and Annie Furujhelhm, became the first nation in Europe to permit women for a national election when Russia granted suffrage to women in 1906.
• In Russia, Maria Trubnikova worked for higher education for women. In 1878, Kazan University as well as universities in St. Petersburg and Kiev offered courses for women of all social classes. With that higher education, Russian women were able to advance in professional careers. Therefore, Russia thus became a leading country for feminism.

Japan

     In Japan, feminism gained strength as part of social reform. In 1907, Hideko Fukuda began publishing Sekai Fujin (Women of the World). She used this magazine to report on feminist movements around the world. Sekai Fujin was written by women for women only, "promoting the self-awakening of women, bringing forth the inborn talent of each woman and giving birth to the female genius." Raicho Hiratsuka founded the Shin Fujin Kyokai (New Woman's Association) with Fusae Ichikawa and Oku Mumeo in 1920. The New Woman’s Association’s purpose was to reform the social and legal position of women and allow political activity by women. In 1922, women gained the right to participate in politics.