For this week’s new discussion, I decided to read, “Women Who Won The Vote”. This Achieve article was about women’s journeys to gain rights. It all started with women wanting equal rights as men. They gave their lives up to this cause after WWI and would do almost anything to be able to have rights. This all started on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson’s 1913 inauguration where women had their first suffrage parade. Lawyer Inez Milholland Boissevain led the procession while many other women followed. They had thousands of banner-carrying marchers interspersed with floats, bands, and mounted brigades. Many people came to watch. Many more parades happened through the years, but that still didn’t work. Women had to get to the most important person, President Wilson’s front yard. People began to picket his house. About 2,000 women from 30 states took shifts holding signs, some of which featured quotes from Wilson’s own speeches to call him out for supporting democracy abroad while denying citizens’ rights at home. Finally, in 1918, Wilson called on Congress to pass the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Women finally won this fight and got the right to vote thanks to the 19th amendment.
https://portal.achieve3000.com/kb/lesson/?lid=18789&step=11&c=222&sc=1961&oid=904&ot=5&asn=1
- If you were alive during this time would you participate in the parades?
- Do you think that the parades were effective or just the picketing?
- What would you have done to have women gain their rights faster?