Comparing The Women's Suffrage Movement And The Civil Rights Movement

The Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, reads “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” However, the United States has a complex past with equality and justice for all genders, races, religions, and beliefs. Although the United States was founded on the principles of equality and certain unalienable rights, pivotal movements, such as the Women’s Suffrage Movement, LGBT rights, and the Civil Rights Movement, to name a few, have helped change the United States into a more inclusive nation that truly grants equality and justice to every American citizen. Through these

The Women’s Suffrage Movement emerged prominently in the mid-to-late 19th century with the goal of giving women the right to vote in the United States. As aforementioned, the Declaration of Independence founded our nation on ideals of equality and inclusivity, but these rights were mainly reserved for only white, land-owning men at the time. Gender roles and the way that our nation views women has changed drastically over the past few hundred years, but a large portion of this change was catalyzed by the Women’s Suffrage Movement well over a century ago. Influenced by ideals of equality, suffragists argued that women should have the same political rights as men and should reserve the same voting rights. The movement started because women were completely excluded from political participation. The right to vote is a right that every citizen deserves in a democracy as this is how a democratic government functions at a basic level, and women are excluded from democratic participation altogether, which is highly

Ultimately, in a nation that has a long and turbulent past in relation to different races, ideals of equality, and discriminatory practices, the Civil Rights Movement finally steered our nation in the direction of racial equality and legal protection for African Americans in the United States. The movement not only changed the legal landscape of the United States, but also stirred larger social and cultural changes that fostered racial equality and integration for generations to come, forever changing our nation for the better. Both the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement helped change the United States forever by better aligning our nation with the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Challenging systemic injustices, these two movements reshaped the legal and social landscape of the United States, thus creating a nation that better aligns with its founding principles and moves forward from a past that is littered with injustices, segregation, and exclusivity in relation to both legal and social