We explain what suffragism was and how is the history of feminist movements in different countries.
What was suffragism?
It is known as suffragism to Movements of women who fought to obtain the right to vote and other political rights in the different countries of the world. This struggle is part of the general history of feminism, which is understood as a political, social and cultural movement that seeks to achieve equality in living conditions between women and men.
The origins of feminism are found in the organized activity that different women began to carry out towards the end of the 18th century in France, with the aim of achieving the same political rights as men. Since then, the history of feminism was marked by different “waves”, with different characteristics, struggle and forms of activism. It is considered that suffragist movements correspond to the “first wave” of feminism.
At the end of the 18th century, with the first liberal revolutions against monarchical regimes and social hierarchy, The first women’s clubs organized for the achievement of their political rights appeared. In France, Olimpia de Gouces led feminist activism. He criticized the government established by the French Revolution, which advocated equality but, in turn, excluded women from political rights, which represented more than half of the population.
During the nineteenth century, liberal regimes were implemented in Western countries that They enable the political participation of men, but excluded women. In that context, the first suffragist movements appeared. The most important were the American and British movement.
Thanks to its activism, Women achieved their right to vote representatives in 1918 in the United Kingdom and in 1920 in the United States. However, in most countries in the world, women managed to obtain this right only in the 1950s and 1960s, after World War II.
See also: Feminist Movement
The first feminist movements (1789-1870)
Historical context
During the 18th century, European society was characterized by what is known as “the old regime”. It was a society divided into “states” (or “estates”) and structured around the legal inequality of the different sectors of the population.
The “first state” and the “second state” were made up of noble and clergy, and enjoyed privileges (tax exemption, monopoly of high public positions, laws and special courts). The “third state” was composed of the rest of the population and was characterized by the absence of political rights (vote) and freedoms (expression, meeting, religion).
On the other hand, in terms of gender, The women had a social role circumscribed to the domestic, to the work of the house, of the procreation and care of the children. Legally, they were subordinated to man (father or husband).
The French Revolution (1789) and the subsequent liberal-bourgeois revolutions of the nineteenth century raised as a central objective the achievement of legal equality and freedoms and political rights for all citizens.
However, in this context the great contradiction that marked the struggle of the first feminism arose: The freedoms, rights and legal equality that had been the great conquests of liberal revolutions did not include women. The “rights of man and citizen” that proclaimed the French revolution referred exclusively to the “man” and not the whole of human beings.
From that moment, in Western Europe and the United States appeared different groups that fought for equal rights between women and men, and began the feminist movement. During that period, the main objective of the most important groups was to obtain political rights and, specifically, in the achievement of the right to vote.
The French Revolution and Women’s Rights
Among the enlightened French who elaborated the ideological program of the revolution, the figure of the Nicolás de Condorcet (1743-1794), who in his work stands out Sketch of a historical table of the progress of the human spirit (1743) claimed the recognition of the social role of women. Condorcet compared the social status of women of their time with that of slaves.
However, after the triumph of the revolution in 1789, an obvious contradiction soon emerged: a revolution that based its justification on the universal idea of natural and political equality of human beings (under the well -known motto “Freedom, equality and fraternity”), He denied women’s access, half of the population, to political rights, which actually meant denying their freedom and equality regarding the rest of the individuals.
The theatrical author and revolutionary activist Olimpia de Gouces (1748-1793) was the protagonist of the female answer. In 1791 he published the Declaration of Women and Citizen Rights which was, in fact, an imitation of the text of the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen approved by the National Assembly in August 1789, but with the explicit inclusion of women in the acquisition of rights.
This way, Olimpia de Gouces denounced that the revolution had forgotten women in their equal and liberating project. She claimed that the “Woman is born free and must remain the same as man in rights “and that” the law must be the expression of the general will; All citizens and citizens must contribute, personally or through their representatives, to their training. “
Olimpia de Gouces’s approach was clear:
- Freedom
- Equality
- Political rights, especially the right to vote, for women.
However, the feminist proposal was not shared by the men who directed the revolution, even the most radical revolutionaries refused to consider equal rights between women and men.
Because feminist allegations highlighted the hypocrisy of the revolution, The new revolutionary government dictated the imprisonment and execution of Olimpia de Gouces.
Ten years later, with the publication of the Napoleonic Civil Code (1804), in which the main social advances of the Revolution were collected, the defeat of the first feminist movement was consecrated. The Code denied women recognized civil rights for men During the revolutionary period and discriminatory laws were explicitly imposed, which established that the exclusive scope of female action was home (private and domestic scope).
Married women continued subject to her husband in terms of residence, succession, property management, exercise of the profession, access to the salary and family assets. The right to divorce was limited, which was definitely eliminated in 1816.
The first British feminism
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) started with his work Vindication of women’s rights (1792) The long tradition of Anglo -Saxon feminism. Race to the absolutism of the kings, he pointed out the existing connection between that political system and the power relations between the sexes. Men exercised a true absolutist tyranny about women in the field of family and home.
For Wollstonecraft, the key to overcoming female subordination was access to education. Educated women would not only reach a plan of equality with respect to men, but could develop their economic independence by accessing paid activities. Wollstonecraft, however, did not give importance to political claims and did not refer to the right to female vote.
Among the British liberal thinkers, the figure Dejahn Stuart Mill (1806-1873) stands out, who, together with his wife Harriet Taylor Mill (1807-1856), published Women’s submission In 1869. Mill placed in the center of the feminist debate the achievement of the right to vote for women: The solution of the feminine issue went through the elimination of any discriminatory legislative work.
Once these restrictions were suppressed, women would overcome their “submission” and reach their emancipation. Individual freedom provided by the disappearance of legal impediments would allow the development of women’s personality and the full exercise of their abilities.
Mill’s book had a huge impact. Published in 1869, it was a key element of the expansion and internationalization of the suffragist movement. That same year was published in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden and Denmark, and the next appeared in Italy and Poland, and aroused the interest and reflection of many women among the high -class sectors.
John Stuart Mill presented to the English Parliament in 1866 a lawsuit in favor of the female vote. His rejection caused that in 1867 the first British suffragist was born: the National Society for Woman’s Suffrage (National Association for Women’s suffrage), led by Lydia Becker.
The beginnings of American feminism
The feminist movement in the United States was rapidly consolidated due to the social, political and economic conditions of American society.
In the United States there was a political system in democratic principle but, as in all countries, Women were excluded from the political rights that men had. On the other hand, it was a society in which slavery still existed.
In this context, Feminism was born linked to the Protestant movements of religious reform that advocated a moral regeneration of society and the abolitionism of slavery. The important female participation in humanitarian movements for the abolition of slavery helped generate a profound social awareness of women. Women saw the analogy between slaves without rights and the lower position of the female population Before the domination of men.
On the other hand, Protestant religious practices promoted the individual reading and interpretation of sacred texts. This favored Women’s access at basic literacy levelswhich caused female illiteracy to be practically eradicated in the early nineteenth century.
Unlike Europe, since the mid -nineteenth century we met a wide layer of middle class educated women that became the promoter of the first feminism.
The first collective document of American feminism was Seneca Falls statementapproved on July 19, 1848 in a Methodist chapel of that town in the state of New York. In the statement The grievances that women had suffered throughout history were denounced.
After the secession war (1861-1865), the feminist movement (which had largely linked his fate to abolitionism) suffered great disappointment. Despite the triumph of the Nordist side, supporter of the suppression of slavery, the XIV amendment of the Constitution, which granted the right to vote to the released black slaves, He denied the woman the right of suffrage.
In response, activists Elisabeth Candy Stanton (1815-1902) and Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) created the National Association for Women’s SuffrageFirst Association of American Feminismindependent of the most general political parties and reform movements.
The rise of voting (1870-1939)
Historical context
By 1870 the second industrial revolution was unleashed, which was characterized by the appearance of new technologies that accelerated the industrialization process. This generated a series of political, economic and social changes that, in turn, were conducive to the growth of the different feminist movements.
Women were inserted in the labor market with greater proportionwhat was conducive to its economic and civil autonomy. In Great Britain, for example, at the beginning of the 20th century 70.8 % of single women between 20 and 45 were paid work.
On the other hand, the labor insertion of women had social consequences in relation to their own conception of the roles and functions that they had to fulfill in their family environments. Among the middle class sectors, The number of adult women who kept single and dedicated themselves to their profession increased.
Since then, the distribution of roles within marriage began to be questioned: why men could work to supply their family and women had to leave their professions and deal only with domestic affairs. The “marriage career” recorded a certain setback for many women, not only as a life project, but also as an economic option.
With the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), The labor insertion of women in the field of factories became massivesince the men who had left the warfall should be replaced.
This allowed the revaluation of the social position of women with respect to men, who took care of industrial production. This new awareness of its social value encouraged the demands of the right to female suffrage.
The main objectives of the suffragist movements of this era were: the right to vote, the improvement of education, professional training and the opening of new labor horizons, the comparison of family rights.
The great novelty was in the wide collective mobilization that managed to direct the suffragist movements of the different countries.
The rise of American vote
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, American feminists began an active campaign for the achievement of suffrage. During this period, the most important suffragist activism was directed by Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), Lucy Stone (1818-1893) and Elisabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902). From the American National Association for Women’s suffrage (National American Woman Suffrage Association) They worked to get the vote in the various states and force a change in the US Constitution.
Thanks to the work of the suffragists, The female vote was gradually approved through popular consultations in various states: Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893), Idaho (1896), Washington (1910), California (1911), Oregon, Arizona and Kansas (1912) and Nevada and Montana (1914).
In 1917 the first congressman of the United States, Jeanette Rankin, was chosen in Montana. Finally, in 1919, the President Woodrow Wilson, of the Democratic Party, personally announced his support for female suffrage. In 1920 the XIX amendment to the Constitution of the United States through which the right to vote to women at the national level was recognized.
The radicalization of British voting
Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the British suffragist movement was divided into two trends: a moderate and a radical one, in favor of direct action.
Millicent Garret Fawcet (1847-1929) headed the moderate suffragists who grouped into the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. In 1914, this association came to have more than 100,000 members and focused its work on political propaganda, through persuasion manifestations and campaigns, always under a strategy of order and legality.
The absence of effective results of the moderate strategy led to the creation of another organization, the social and political union of women (WSPU), led by Emmeline Pankhurst. Its members were known as the “sufffragettes.”
In addition to the traditional propaganda means such as rallies and demonstrations, The WSPU resorted to violent tactics such as sabotage, the fire and public establishments fireor the aggressions to private homes of prominent politicians and members of Parliament.
Before the growing government repression, The “sufffragettes” responded with hunger strikes in jail to which the administration responded with forced food. Parliament approved the law known as the “cat and mouse law” by which women (the “mice”) would be released by the authorities (the “cat”) when their physical state was worrying. However, once they were physically recovered again they were arrested and imprisoned.
The virulence of the suffragist protest caused traditional political parties to begin to reconsider their attitude towards the female vote.
World War I marked a truce in the suffragist demands, and after the conflict, in which women accumulated merits such as the workforce that allowed the operation of the economy, Women’s suffrage had to be finally recognized.
In 1918, A new electoral law allowed women over 30 years old obtained the right to vote. Ten years later, in 1928, a new law, the “Equal Franchise Act”, made, finally, all women of legal age reached the longed for suffrage.
The extension of World War I led women to join the work fields traditionally reserved for men. Governments at war encouraged this to avoid industrial collapse. In the following table you can see how in the United Kingdom the presence of women increased in different work items during the war period:
| Percentages of women about men used by sectors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Industry % | Transport % | Agriculture % | Trade % |
| 1914 | 26 | 2 | 9 | 27 |
| 1918 | 35 | 12 | 14 | 53 |
| 1920 | 27 | 4 | 10 | 40 |
Chronology of voting
1791
- Olimpia de Gouces publishes the Declaration of Women and Citizen Rights.
1792
- Mary Wollstonecraft public Vindication of women’s rights.
1843
- Public Tristan Flora The Workers Union.
1848
- Seneca Falls statement (New York).
1869
- Wyoming is the first state of the USA. In granting the right to female vote.
1869
- John Stuart Mill Publica Women’s submission.
1879
- August Babel publishes Women and socialism.
1893
- New Zealand is the first country that grants at the national level the right of suffrage to women.
1897
- Lydia Becker and Millicent Fawcet found the National Union of Societies for Women’s Suffrage (National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies – NUWSS).
1903
- Emmeline Pankhursst and their followers leave the NUWSS and form the Political and social union of women (Women’s Social and Political Union – Wspu).
1906
- Finland, the first European country granted by female suffrage nationwide.
1907
- Under the presidency of Clara Zetkin, the I International Socialist Women Conference.
1913
- The British Parliament approves the “law of cat and mouse.”
1917
- Jeanette Rankin is the first woman chosen as a member of the United States Congress.
1918
- The British Parliament approves an electoral law that grants the suffrage to women over 30 years.
1920
- The 19th amendment to the US Constitution is approved by which all women of legal age obtain the right to vote.
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References
- Alberdi, I. (2020). History of feminism. In: Western Magazine, 46617-25.
- AUFFRET, S. (2020). The great history of feminism: from antiquity to the present day. The sphere of books.
- Castillo, GP, & Torres, JR (2013). World War I in the rear: the main woman. HISTORY AND SOCIAL COMMUNICATION, 18191-206.
- Suari, Gra (2015). The evolution of women’s vote in the world and its implications. Legislative Journal of Social Studies and Public Opinion, 8(16), 147-163
