The Woman Suffrage Movement

Words: 642
Pages: 3

The Declaration of Independence states “All men are created equal”, but in 1776, colonists interrupted that in different ways than we do today. During that time, slaves were not treated equally since they were thought to be less than human. Even Thomas Jefferson, one of the writers of the Declaration of Independence, owned hundreds of African-American slaves in his lifetime. Even after slavery was abolished, we still fought hard to receive equal rights for African Americans. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, officially put an end to slavery. Nearly one hundred years after the this presidential proclamation, African-Americans still faced discrimination and forms of oppression. The Civil Rights movement, …show more content…
Women don’t always have the same rights as men. For example, it was a long battle for women to get the right to vote. The demand for women suffrage began in the 1840s. Under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Woman Suffrage Movement officially began 1848. They rallied up members and formed two groups, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), who undertook campaigns and lobbied President Wilson and Congress to pass a woman suffrage Constitutional Amendment and the National Woman’s Party (NWP) undertook radical actions. In 1920, because of the efforts of the NAWSA and NWP, the 19th Amendment was finally changed so women were given the right to vote. This victory is considered the most significant achievement of women in the Progressive Era and it was one step closer to equality. In our society today, women are still not treated equally. Men tend to have higher pay than women. Statistics show that for most jobs, a men’s pay stops increasing at age 48 while a women’s pay stops growing at age 39. The goals of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, signed by John F. Kennedy, have not been completely fulfilled. The wages of women have risen from 62% of men’s earnings in 1979 to 80% in 2004, but different gender are still not paid the same, which is way the ideal of equality has not been fully reached