Why Is The 19th Amendment Important In The 1920s

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The 19th amendment was established as a way for citizens to vote in elections and not be denied the right to vote based on their sex. This amendment didn’t just get passed overnight, years and years of creating organizations and protesting were put in place until this amendment got passed in 1920. Many organizations came together and broke apart, then reformed again. One example being the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) which was originally the National Woman's Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association and came together in 1890. The NAWSA was lead by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone and her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell. Together, they could get closer to winning women the …show more content…

The women’s suffrage movement began in 1848 and continued through the 1920’s when women gained right to vote. A suffragist is a person who is part of the suffrage movement and fought for women’s right to vote. Suffragists at this time included powerful and determined women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the most well known, Carrie Chapman Catt. They all lead an organization called the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Another person who was part of NAWSA as the chairperson was Alice Paul who left the organization in 1913 because she was impatient with how Carrie Chapman Catt was running everything. So, she took things into her own hands and formed the Congressional Union. The overall reason women won the right to vote in 1920 was because of Alice Paul who picketed in front of the white house for women’s right to vote and Carrie Chapman Catt who worked on a state level to grant women the right to vote and then later created the “Winning Plan.” Because of these two women and the help of others in and outside of the organization, women earned the right to vote in …show more content…

Her involvement in the women’s suffrage movement allowed her to carry out her vision, creating the “winning plan” which ultimately passes the 19th amendment that allowed women to vote. Carrie Chapman Catt was re-elected as the president of NAWSA, working her way through networks of state organizations. She did this as a way to pressure state legislators to pass laws giving women the right to vote. From 1907 to 1916, the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and affiliates won the vote in Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Illinois, and Alaska territory. And, in 1916, Catt hoped to quietly influence President Wilson to support the federal amendment by establishing a rapport with him. In 1916, the NAWSA held a convention, where Carrie Chapman Catt informed her council about what she called the “Winning Policy,” which was later changed to the “Winning Plan.” In the winning plan, Catt believed that the more states that allows women partial suffrage, would end up increasing the pressure to pass the 19th amendment. To get the 19th amendment, it would have to be submitted to congress and then ratified by the 36 needed states. To help get this passed, she assigned certain tasks to the 36 leaders who signed a secret document that pledged themselves to the goal. Carrie Chapman Catt told the people at the NAWSA convention, ““We should win...a few more states