The struggle for women’s suffrage began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Fifty years later that fight would come to the women of the New South as they struggled with the growth after Reconstruction and the accompanying problems of urbanization. A few of the issues that directly affected women were overcrowding in the cities, lack of services for the poor, and alcoholism. It was these urban problems that brought them together and would eventually lead the women of the New South to form organizations in an effort to reform the problems that they were confronted with. Along with these newfound problems of urbanization, women of the New South were battling the long standing, prevailing attitude that women would…show more content… During the 1870s and the 1880s, Greenwood defines the “better” classes as both black and white business and professional people. Greenwood suggests that class conceptions were redefined in the later part of the nineteenth century due to economic developments; specifically the “establishment of the textile industry.” It is within this context that Greenwood argues that the separation of the urban middle class and the manufacturing elites came about because of differing sets of values in response to the plight of the poor community members. Greenwood suggests that the “reforming activities of members of the middle class……defined them as a cohesive class and set them apart from both the elite and poorer members of the…show more content… Many “elite” women, both black and white, fought for suffrage. One of these women was Minnie Stowe Puett of Belmont, North Carolina. Puett came from a prominent white family whose businesses included textiles, lumber, and banking. As a member of the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina, as well as the League of Women Voters in North Carolina, Puett lived most of her life without the right to vote (1871-1945) and her membership in the above mentioned clubs demonstrates her commitment to women’s suffrage. Puett’s involvement in these clubs also shows that not all women from the “manufacturing elite” were
