After the civil war...did the women of america get what they wanted or all their efforts were failed and unsuccessful?

Essay by bossplaya786High School, 11th gradeA, March 2004

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

Downloaded 64 times

After the Civil War, we had new laws, reconstruction plan but most of all we forgot about the women's rights. The lives women living in the US changed dramatically. They faced continuing hardships. But this struggle against material deprivation eventually united women into a movement that won them legal rights, culminating in the 19th amendment. .

During the war, feminists claimed, women had proven their political abilities and importance to the nation. After the war, they felt sure; politicians would express their gratitude and reward them. The reward they were expecting was to vote. When congress proposed suffrage for black men during Reconstruction, feminists demanded eh same right for women. Not only was the vote women's due for having helped to fight the war, but it was also woman's natural right. Reconstruction, according to the women, was the time to grant. The 14th amendment contained the word "male citizens", this theoretically did not assure women as the citizens of U.S.

The 20th amendment, granting women the right to vote in national elections, did not co me until 1920, half a century later. Abolitionists also refused to support woman suffrage. They thought that the vote was more important for the blacks than for women. After Reconstruction the women's movement no longer spoke for black freedom. The failure of feminists to win the vote and the further effect of splitting apart the women's movement. All feminists felt betrayed, but Lucy Stone, Julia How, and others who live in Boston remained intimately connected with the Boston-based abolitionist movement. In 1869 Stanton and Anthony withdrew form the Equal Rights Association and called a secret meeting of their own followers to form the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Other women also organized the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Revolution touched on every aspect of...