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The Suffragists Facts & Worksheets

The Suffragists are people who advocate the extension of voting rights to women.

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Generally, a suffragist is a person who advocates the extension of voting rights to women. In the 1840s, the women’s suffrage movement gained strength in the US. The Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention, was held in 1848. In the United Kingdom, the women’s suffrage movement was divided into two; the Suffragists who sought constitutional changes and the Suffragettes who resorted to active militancy. Today, both women and men could be a suffragist.

See the fact file below for more information on The Suffragists or alternatively, you can download our 29-page The Suffragists worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

  • One of the early accounts of women’s suffrage practices was written by Marie Guyart. Guyart was a French nun who became one of the first nuns to establish the Ursuline Order in New France. She was also regarded as the founder of the first girls’ school in the New World. 
  • In 1654, Guyart wrote how Iroquois female chieftains could make decisions like men. They can delegate ambassadors for peace and vote or depose hereditary male chiefs. 
  • Between 1776 and 1806 in New Jersey, unmarried white women who owned property could vote locally. Early women’s suffrage was also recorded in the Corsican Republic in 1755, Sierra Leone in 1792, the Pitcairn Islands in 1838, the Isle of Man in 1881, and Franceville in 1889-1890. 
  • Beginning in the 1840s, women in the Kingdom of Hawaii could vote in the House of Nobles. However, following the deposition of Queen Lili’uokalani in 1893, women asserted their right to suffrage. Before the US annexation of Hawaii in 1899, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) already advocated for women’s suffrage. 
  • New Zealand became the first self-governing nation to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections in 1893. By 1919, women could be elected in New Zealand. In 1894, women in South Australia were allowed to vote and stand for election. From conditional women’s suffrage in the 18th century, women in Sweden achieved voting equality in 1919. 
  • During the interwar period, major Western nations granted women the right to vote in national/general elections. Among them was Canada in 1917, Britain and Germany in 1918, the Netherlands in 1919, and the United States in 1920. 
  • More nations followed during and after the Second World War. French women gained the right to vote in 1944, women in Greece in 1952, Switzerland in 1971, and Liechtenstein in 1984. In 2015, Saudi Arabia became the last to grant women the right to vote. 

SUFFRAGISTS IN THE US

  • In Boston, Sarah Grimké published The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women in 1838. By 1845 Margaret Fuller published Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Both of their works were part of the broader movement for women’s rights, which served as an outlet in the emergence of the women’s rights movement in the US. 
  • From hindering women from participating in public affairs, the American Anti-Slavery Society Convention in 1839 began to appoint women in committees. At this time, a woman speaking in front of both men and women was heavily criticized. Early female speakers in anti-slavery and women’s rights lectures included Lucretia Mott, Abby Kelley Foster, Ernestine Rose, and Lucy Stone. 
  • On July 19-20, 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention was organized by four female Quakers and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The convention was the first for women who sought to discuss their civil, social, and religious conditions and rights. 
  • The outcome of the convention was the Declaration of Sentiments which was signed by 68 women and 32 men. According to abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the document was the “grand movement for attaining the civil, political, and religious rights of women.”
  • In 1851, abolitionist Sojourner Truth was disrupted in a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio, while delivering her ‘Ain’t I a Women?’ speech. 
  • In 1848, both the New York State Assembly and the General Assembly in Pennsylvania passed the Married Woman’s Property Act giving women the right to retain the property they bought and acquired during the marriage. This political advance gave American women new hope for women’s rights. 
  • When the American Civil War began in 1861, the women’s rights movement lost momentum. When the war ended, the 14th and 15 Amendments to the Constitution raised issues of suffrage and citizenship. 
  • The 14th Amendment ratified in 1868 granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the US, including formerly enslaved people. 
  • Adopted in 1870, the 15th Amendment aimed to protect the voting rights of African American men. 
  • After the Civil War, many suffragists believed that the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments was a sign for them to persuade lawmakers for universal suffrage. 
  • In 1869, women’s rights advocates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) to fight for a universal-suffrage amendment. In the same year, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was founded by Lucy Stone. The following year, the Woman’s Journal, a newspaper publication, began to voice out the women’s movement. 
  • The NWSA pursued its campaign at the federal level. They argued that the constitution enfranchised women through its guarantees of equal protection for all citizens. Many attempted to vote but were arrested.
  • The NWSA and AWSA became rival women’s organizations. Compared to AWSA, which focused on women’s right to vote, the NWSA advocated for a wide range of women’s issues, including divorce reform, equal pay, and property rights. 
  • Moreover, AWSA membership consisted of equal numbers of men and women. The presidency of the association was alternated between a man and a woman. As one of the founders, Lucy Stone served as chair of the Executive Committee, while Henry Ward Beecher was elected as its first president. 
  • Compared to the more radical NWSA, the AWSA supported the 15th Amendment. They also supported the institutions of religion and marriage. Among its leading members were Sojourner Truth, Julia Ward Howe, and Josephine Ruffin. 
  • The AWSA also used militant lobbying, petition drives, and public speeches as tactics, while the NWSA was utilized confrontational and militant strategies. 
  • The NWSA and AWSA merged and formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890.
  • From about 7,000, the NWSA became the largest voluntary organization in the US, with about two million members. When Anthony retired in 1900, she was replaced by Carrie Chapman Catt. 
  • Under Catt, the NAWSA recruited wealthy members. 
  • In 1910, Alice Paul joined the NAWSA and became instrumental in reviving the national interest of the movement. 
  • With the continued conflict in NAWSA tactic and leadership, Paul, inspired by the Pankhurst in Britain, formed the National Woman’s Party (NWP) in 1916. 
  • After the split, Catt returned as president of the NAWSA in December 1915 under the condition of appointing her executive board, which was previously elected in a convention. 
  • At this time, the US remained neutral in WWI. The NAWSA focused on educating the public about women’s suffrage. In 1916, the NAWSA refocused its priority to becoming a national suffrage movement while continuing its state-to-state campaign. 
  • In the same year, the NAWSA purchased the Woman’s Journal from Alice Stone Blackwell, daughter of Lucy Stone. It was renamed Woman Citizen. Later it was merged with The Woman Voter and the National Suffrage News and became NAWSA’s official newspaper. 
  • In 1917, the NWP began picketing the White House, demanding women’s suffrage. In response, over 200 were arrested, many of whom went on hunger strike. 
  • When the US formally entered WWI in April 1917, the NAWSA supported the government’s war efforts. The Women’s Committee for the Council of National Defense was headed by Anna Howard Shaw, president of NAWSA, in 1904. In contrast, the NWP took no part in the war effort. 
  • In January 1918, the House passed the suffrage amendment. In contrast with his earlier stand, President Woodrow Wilson appeared in the Senate to request the passage of the Amendment. 
  • On June 4, 1919, after Wilson’s call for a special session of Congress, the suffrage amendment was passed. The struggle now lay to the state legislatures to ratify the Amendment. 
  • In June 1920, after local pressures, the Democratic and Republican Parties endorsed the Amendment. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment, which granted women’s suffrage, was ratified. 

SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN THE UK

  • In the UK, women’s suffrage societies were divided into two. One was the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, founded by suffragist Millicent Fawcett in 1897. The NUWSS used peaceful and non-confrontational tactics to push for constitutional advancement. 
  • In 1914, NUWSS members grew to about 54,000. While most of its members were middle and upper class, the NUWSS primarily campaigned for the vote of women with property. During this time, property requirements also restricted British men from voting. Soon, the NUWSS was joined by working-class British women. 
  • The second women suffrage society was the Women’s Social and Political (WSPU) Union, founded by suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903. Along with her daughter Christabel and Sylvia, the WSPU adopted militant tactics. 
  • Amongst their tactics were disrupting public meetings, hunger strikes, arson, and damage of public property. In 1913, suffragette Emily Davison threw herself in front of King George’s horse at the Epsom Derby. This act later killed her. 
  • On February 6, 1918, the Representation of the People Act enfranchised women over the age of 30 who were either married to a property owner or owned property.
  • On November 21, 1918, the Qualification of Women Act allowed women to be elected in Parliament.
  • By 1928, the Representation of the People Act granted women in Britain, Wales, and Scotland equal voting rights as men (over the age of 21). 

GLOBAL SUFFRAGISTS 

  • Kate Sheppard was the leader of the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand. Born in Liverpool and largely raised in Scotland, Catherine Wilson Malcolm moved to New Zealand in the 1860s. In 1871, she married Walter Allen Sheppard. One of Kate’s early advocacies was the abolition of corsets and other constrictive women’s clothing. Moreover, she promoted physical activities such as bicycling for women. As the leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Kate wrote pamphlets, organized lectures and meetings, and petitioned the Parliament.  

Is it right that while the loafer, the gambler, the drunkard, and even the wife-beater has a vote, earnest, educated and refined women are denied it?

Kate Sheppard
  • Doria Shafik was an Egyptian educator and reformer who advocated women’s rights in Egypt. In 1948, Shafik founded the Daughter of the Nile or Bint al-Nīl. Educated by French and Italian schools, Doria was the first Egyptian woman to obtain a doctorate. In 1954, Doria and her followers went on a week’s hunger strike to protest women’s rights, particularly women’s franchise. 
  • Clara Zetkin was German women’s rights advocate. Zetkin believed that through socialist means, women should have equal opportunities and the right to suffrage. In 1907, she led the Women’s Office at the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). However, Zetkin was a known critic of bourgeois feminism. She believed that the feminist movement composed of the upper and middle classes was not the same as the working class. 
  • Catherine Helen Spence was a Scottish-born Australian teacher, journalist, and suffragist. Spence served as vice president of the Women’s Suffrage League. She traveled and lectured about women’s suffrage and feminism at home and abroad. 
  • Other famous suffragists included Jane Addams, Septima Poinsette Clark, Frederick Douglass, Wilhelmina Kekelaokalaninui Dowsett, Helen Keller, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Adelina Otero-Warren, Jeannette Rankin, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, and Zitkala-Ša.  

The Suffragists Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about The Suffragists across 29 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about The Suffragists who are people that advocates the extension of voting rights to women.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • The Suffragists Facts
  • Between the Two
  • Across the Globe
  • Famous Suffragists
  • Milestones
  • 19the Amendment
  • Women in Politics
  • Who Is She?
  • The NWSA and AWSA
  • Gender Today
  • Local Suffragist

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