Robert LaFollette, nicknamed “Fighting Bob”, born on June 14, 1855 in Primrose, Wisconsin and died on June 18, 1925. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin and studied law at Madison. He was a republican United States Senator from Wisconsin from March 4, 1885 to March 4, 1891. He strongly opposed the Treaty of Versailles as well as President Woodrow Wilson’s support for the United States allies during World War I. Robert LaFollette was a major leader for political reforms in Wisconsin, and wanted to spread his message to the nation.
The progressives, wanted to create a society that acted as one. The idea of being an individual was something to be forgotten in order to create a more perfect civilization of order and pureness. During this time of the progressive movement, the rest of society began to reject it ideology of their message and goals of nonpleasure and work. Especially around the Carina Arreola History 1302 W.Wooten time of World War One, the Great depression, and the New Deal.
One group of reformers that advocated peaceful social change by granting the power to vote to all workers were called Chartists. They were active in England from 1838 to 1848, and they presented a series of petitions (or "charters") to Parliament advocating political change. The Chartists reasoned that the Reform Act of 1832 did not go far enough in extending political power outside a small group of the wealthy and aristocrats. The Chartists also recognized that the Parliament, in 1833, had adopted some regulations that applied to the textile industry. The Chartists wanted more stringent regulations that would also extend to other industries.
The reformers had goals to earning women suffrage, and methods to help achieve that goal. For example women wanted the right to vote, in document 5 it shows how women feel they have no voice either in the election or legislation. In the 19th amendment women got the right to vote. The reformers method to getting women the right to vote was raising public awareness, in document 7 it shows how a member
Document 4 shows a petition made by the London Workingmen’s Association in an attempt to, “enact that every person producing proof of his being 21 years of age shall be entitled to have his name registered as a voter.” In 1838, the time that this petition was created, it was mainly nobles and upper class citizens who had the right to vote, so it makes sense that the working men of Europe wish for male suffrage because then they have the ability to elect people whom they believe will better improve their lives. Document 5 introduces a woman activist, Flora Tristan, who wants universal working rights for all citizens in the, “universal union of working men and women.” Document 8 introduces another woman activist, Pauline Roland, who claims that, “as soon as a woman comes of age, she has the right to arrange her life as she wishes.” Women have historically been undermined in the working society through such laws as the Factory Law or the Mines Act, which left women without work or having less hours.
The debate over the expansion of suffrage had supporters, the common people, who wanted to expand voting rights to them, and the opposers, the rich, who wanted to keep voting as a privilege for themselves. The working class took the pro side of the debate over expanding suffrage because they wanted the ability to vote and believed that balloting should be established on people’s thoughts rather than social status. For example, according to Nathan Stanford, a chairman of a committee that revised the state constitution, “the only qualifications [to vote] seem to be the virtue and morality of the people . . .those who contribute to the public support we consider as entitled to a share of the election of rulers”
The Second Reform Bill was a piece of legislation approved by the British Parliament in 1867 that gave more people, notably working-class males in urban areas, the ability to vote. For all British people, the measure represented a huge step toward democracy and political participation. Since women at the time were denied the ability to vote, the feminist movement of the 19th century was strongly related to the fight for voting rights. Suffragettes and other female activists battled tenaciously for the right to vote because they thought 8attaining social justice and gender equality depended on political representation. The Second Reform Law did not guarantee women the right to vote, but it did provide a framework in which they might demand suffrage
This movement fought for the right for women to vote because women were denied the democratic rights that were given to men and were forced to focus on the cult of domesticity. The movement started in the late eighteenth century however it was renewed during the Second Great Awakening when reform movements started gaining popularity. The suffrage movement was aided by the abolition movement because slavery gave women a reason to unite for a separate cause. This was a new reform movement, unlike women’s suffrage and abolition, which both had roots that were as deep as those of the country’s, and was unique because of the unusually undemocratic responses that society and its people reacted with. Unlike abolition and women’s suffrage, the asylum and penitentiary reform movement did not gather popularity
The London Workingmen’s Association wrote a petition to Parliament for the “People’s Charter” explaining that Parliament contains lots of power over lives and liberty, such as, labor of the unrepresented millions, income money, the ability to help the poor, and authorizing the power of the whole country, so the people want the government to allow “every person producing proof of his being 21 years of age shall be entitled to have his name registered as a voter . . . [and] that there shall be no property qualification for members of [Parliament]” (Doc 4). The working class has taken the initiative to to ask Parliament for assistance in permitting them with voting rights. The workers’ main goal is to convince the Parliament of their views, so their point of view is biased. Comparatively, Flora Tristan, a French writer and political activist, wants workers, “the victims of real inequality and injustice” to fight for justice and the equality of men and woman (Doc 5).
Pankhurst emphasized how women never had the right to vote. In her speech, she mentions two women that challenged Liberal Leader Sir Edward Grey by asking, "When are you going to give votes to women?" This shows how those two women were fearless and did not think about the consequences. They stood for what they thought was right, but the society reacted by rejecting them. She further explains the distinction made between men and women by the
Women began working outside of the home rebelling Victorian principles. Flappers were not politically motivated. This culture was more about rebelling authority and free spirit. This lifestyle strangely empowered the women’s movement leading to a woman’s right to vote. Such unrest, change, and free spirit only lasted a decade.
A historian once wrote that the 19th century was “a time of bitter conflict, as the world of the past fought to remain alive.” During the 19th century, there was an emergence of the political ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, and socialism. Liberalism sought to limit the government, preserve individual freedom and believed in the hierarchy of merit. Conservatism attempted to preserve the existing order and believed in tradition over reason. Socialists believed in strengthening parliaments and the working class to bolster laborers.
Although Mill was very keen on women being giving the rights to vote he was not taken by the idea of women become independent from their husbands. It is well known that the suffragettes contributed a great deal in which women were given the rights to vote worldwide. The suffragette movement didn’t begin to take place up until 1890. There were seventeen individual groups who came together all supporting the women’s suffrage. This included the London Society for Women’s Suffrage, Manchester Society for Women’s Suffrage and the Central Committee for Women’s Suffrage.
It was an enormous social change for women to take part in public decision making, and gave them a voice to abolish unjust laws. The suffragettes in Australia argued that they were intelligent enough to vote, that it was unfair for them to be taxed without representation, and that they were equal to men therefore should have equal rights. In contrary, the suffragettes’ opponents alleged that women already had indirect power through manipulating their husbands and father’s voting choices at the ballot box, that women were equal but different and that women could not fulfil the duties of citizenship therefore should not vote. The suffragettes encouraged people to sign their petition, as well as held meeting and debates in order to gain supporters. Women in Australia used civil methods of protest, and didn’t adapt the more radical methods used by suffragettes in other countries.
Suffrages chose to take a more militant style approach to capture the attention of the government in a way that could not be ignored. They became a public nuisance in terms of publically demonstrating their frustration through actions rather than words. In “Freedom or Death,” Pankhurst speaks on behalf of the suffrage women, “we were called militant, and were quite willing to accept the name. We were determined to press this question of the enfranchisement of women to the point where we were no longer ignored by the politicians” (Pankhurst, 2). Though militant had a negative association, the suffragists prided their actions fighting for an honourable peace.
