UNITED STATES HISTORY DBQ

1.

Explain how the American Womens suffrage movements developed through the periods of 1848 to the present time.

Use the documents and your knowledge to answer the question.

Document A
Part of Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but on to which the laws of nature and of natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women 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; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.

Document B
Part of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Keynote Address at Seneca Falls in 1848 The right is ours. The question now is: how shall we get possession of what rightfully belongs to us? We should not feel so sorely grieved if no man who had not attained the full stature of a Webster, Clay, Van Buren, or Gerrit Smith could claim the right of the elective franchise. But to have drunkards, idiots, horse-racing, rum-selling rowdies, ignorant foreigners, and silly boys fully recognized, while we ourselves are thrust out from all the rights that belong to citizens, it is too grossly insulting to the dignity of woman to be longer quietly submitted to.

Document C Part of Article from LIFE Magazine, 1906 To make the woman vote valuable to society and helpful to good government it is not necessary that the great mass of women should vote more wisely than the mass of men. It is only necessary that a larger proportion of the women should be wise voters than of the men. We may come to think after awhile that a larger proportion of the women have sense enough to vote right than of the men. There are some reasons why they should have. Our women, as a rule, have more leisure than our men; they read more; as a rule they stay longer in school; their personal habits are better; they smoke tobacco hardly at all, and they drink incomparably less rum than the men do. As a rule they are thriftier and less wasteful than men. They pay more attention to character-building, say their prayers oftener, go to church more and try somewhat harder to be good. Perhaps, being less implicated in active business, they would be less influenced in their voting by pecuniary considerations.

Document D Editorial cartoon from the WASHINGTON POST, October 31, 1909. Mark Twain signed the petition.

Document E

The Awakening by Henry Mayer, 1915

Document F

Nineteenth Amendment of the United States of America, 1920 The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Document G Employment rates, by sex, 1976 to 2007

Document H