Essay On A Primary Source Analysis Of The National American Woman Suffrage Movement

(1500)A Primary Source Analysis of the Growing Power of the National American Woman Suffrage Movement Association (NASMA) in the Early 20th Century

This primary source analysis will define the growing power of the National American Woman Suffrage Movement Association (NASMA) through the increasing organizational leadership of women leaders in the early 20th century. In the article, “The Call for the Fortieth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Movement” of 1908, Ann H. Shaw’s leadership of the NASMA defines the major change in public opinion on the subject of women’s suffrage, which was increasingly overcoming the patriarchal barriers to equality for women in the United States. During the late 1900s and into the 1910s,

More so, it shows that women had found locations in which they could voice their opinions outside of the saloon culture of patriarchal politics. The event was attended by nearly 300 suffragists (both male and female), and it shows the increasing power of these suffragette institutions to demand greater political power in the public sphere. Historically women were not able to garner greater support in the public sphere by outwardly finding locations, such as the Y.M.C.A that show an ionic support of certain male-based institutions to support women’s rights in the community. Often, the Y.M.C.A. would often allow women to debate the issue of suffrage with male members in the community, which set a forum for women to organize and speak about their grievances. In many cases, women did not garner greater public support for their cause in the late 19th century, but eventually, the Y.M.C.A (an organization typically meant to support young Christian men) provided a location for women to meet and debate these issues: “The agency of the YMCA had awakened to the emerging women’s movement…women’s historical agency began to reshape the YMCA programs”. In this manner, the article correctly identifies the corporation between men at the YMCA and the NASMA as part of the growing popularity of public reform related to women’s voting rights. This type of large venue in Buffalo certainly defines the importance of the women’s suffrage movement when this article was written in 1908. These are the important aspects of the growing power of the NASMA movement in 1900s, which has been defined in this critical examination of the article, “The Call for the Fortieth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Movement”, published during this crucial time for women’s rights in American