On The American Woman Suffrage Movement

As an important component part of the American Feminism Movement, the woman suffrage struggle, whose contents involve a good many aspects such as politics, economy, culture, etc., has left an indelible print in the American society. Thus, studying and working over the American Woman Suffrage Movement contribute greatly to our knowing and investigating the history of the United States. This thesis, using the fundamental of historical materialism, analyzes and demonstrates the American women's struggle for suffrage before 1920, expecting to have a complete and objective understanding of the American Feminism Movement and the history of the United States.The article is divided into five parts.Chapter 1 discusses the origin of women's struggle for suffrage. The fetters given to women by the religious and secular rights in the colonial period, the influence of the western thoughts of enlightenment, and the favorable social environment in the first half of the 19th century gestated the Feminism Movement and at the same time begot women's struggle for suffrage.Chapter 2 deals with how woman's suffrage was brought forward and its early struggle. It was at the Convention of Senaca Fall's in 1848 that the problem of woman's suffrage was advanced but it was not an important topic for discussion even after the Civil War. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of Constitution passed in 1868 and 1870 accelerated the development of the Woman Suffrage Movement.Chapter 3 describes the slow development of the Woman Suffrage Movement. The movement struggling for woman suffrage got victory first in the west but evolved slowly in the advanced east.Chapter 4 probes into the incorporation of two large women suffrage organizations and the period of"doldrums"which the Woman Suffrage Movement entered."The National American Women Suffrage Association"adjusted their struggle strategies but failed to gain the anticipative harvest. On the contrary, the Woman Suffrage Movement turned into low tide.Chapter 5 analyzes the triumph of women's struggle for suffrage and its existent problems. In the early 20th century, along with the revival of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the west and the subsequent participation of the United States in World War I, the two lage women suffrage organization, by adopting two kinds of strategies, radical and traditional, finally obtained suffrage in 1920.The conclusion points out that, though they have formally acquired suffrage equal to men, American women have not fundamentally changed their social and economic status. The acquirement of woman suffrage is a great victory of the American Feminism Movement and an important sign that the civilization of the United States has been upgraded.