Instead of a podcast this week, comment or ask questions about the videos for the week:
“Fighting for the Vote, Part I” and “Fighting for the Vote, Part II“
Fighting for the Vote (instead of podcast)
Published inPodcasts
Instead of a podcast this week, comment or ask questions about the videos for the week:
“Fighting for the Vote, Part I” and “Fighting for the Vote, Part II“
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In the videos assigned for class, the complicated history of women’s suffrage is outlined. The Women’s Rights Movement lasted many years and required a large amount of work. Since the approval of the vote for women, there has been vast improvement in the fight for equal rights between men and women. However, to this day, we have yet to have a woman as president in the United States of America. What will it take for a woman to become president? What sort of qualifications would be necessary? Would she need to uphold additional qualification compared to her male competitors?
While I found the videos a little weird to watch (haha, someone just recorded their screen), they were significant to watch. This is a topic that is personal to me because I am a woman and something that should be personal to everyone. It is exciting to see the progress of woman’s rights, but it is also disappointing that it is 2020, and we still haven’t accomplished equal pay, and people are still trying to take away our reproductive rights and so forth. Why is it that people want to take back what has been acquired? And with the death of RBG, is it possible that we move backward?
I thought these videos did a good job highlighting the main aspects of the fight for women’s suffrage. After learning about all the trials and tribulations that they endured just to have the right to vote, it amazes me that today some people still do not vote even though they are fully able. Has there always been a population that just does not vote, simply out of lack of caring/education/etc, or is this a fairly recent concept?
I found the two videos on the Women’s Suffrage Movement to be very interesting. More specifically, I found it fasinating how wars have played both a good and bad role in regards to the movement. The Civil War ended up putting the movement on pause whereas the First World War propelled the Women’s Suffrage Movement into gaining the right to vote via the 19th Amendment. Something that I am wondering is, was America late to the game? Meaning were they one of the first nations to give women the right to vote or have other nations already began doing this prior to America?
I found these videos on women’s suffrage to be very interesting. One thing that stuck out to me was how long it took. It took 72 years for women to gain the right to vote. This was because the civil war put the protest for women’s right to vote on hold. While the civil war put it on hold, it was said that WW1 refocused the protest. Why did the civil war cause a loss of focus, while WW1 caused a re focus?
There were many parts of the women’s suffragist movement that I was unfamiliar with, especially the parts where the women opposed the amendment that would give the former male slaves the right to vote and make discriminating on the basis of gender illegal. I also was unfamiliar with the horrible arguments they made against the black voters saying that white women needed to “even things out”. Why do you think this part of this history is glossed over?
The idea of these videos was interesting to me because while it seems like they are discussing such an outdated topic, it is actually becoming increasingly relevant again (sadly). I was shocked when in the first video I heard them say “a women did not own her own body”. This is something that sounds so horrifying to me as a woman and it is scary that we are reaching a point where that idea is even up for discussion again. Why is it that there are people that want to move back in history and un-do thing thats women fought for for so long?
Do you think when the word “male” was added to the Constitution, it was intentional? This was the first time they used a gendered term but it seems too coincidental.
Do you expect a similar push for the Equal Rights Amendment that we saw with the Nineteenth Amendment after WW1? If so, what would be the event that would push us over the edge?
I enjoyed watching these videos, as I feel they did a good job highlighting the long and laborious process of fighting for women’s suffrage. Despite this, however, women still do not have equal rights today. Do you think that some of the current events going on in today’s world, such as the Women’s March movement and the hearings of federal judge Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court justice, are enough to spark the same type of social change and revolution that occurred during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for women’s rights? Are these social factors more, less, or comparable to the types of pressures and issues that women faced at the time? What types of leigislation might women pass to ensure the equality we are fighting for, such as the ERA or other non-discrimination legislation?
Are white women, in part, to blame for exacerbating racial tensions for black American men and women? I recognize that blaming individuals does no one any good; however, similar to the women’s suffrage movement, people should be held accountable for their actions- in this case, white women. In response, what could our world look like if women received the right to vote before black American men? Would black American women have been included to receive the right to vote along with white women or would they be excluded?
The videos about the women’s suffrage movement highlighted many important aspects that I hadn’t thought of before. The movement began all the way back in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention and grew in conjunction with the abolition movement. Women were upset that their right to vote wasn’t included in the fifteenth amendment, but I think it was mostly due to the fact that the war that was just fought was for the rights of another group so they couldn’t group women’s rights into the Civil War. However, when the next major war came along, women jeopardized on this opportunity because a time of struggle for a country is often when the most reform happens. We are seeing it today with the BLM movement during the pandemic. If the US had engaged in another large war before WWI, could women have earned suffrage sooner? Also, were any women who went to the Seneca Falls Convention alive for when women’s suffrage was achieved?
The videos discussed parts of the women’s suffrage movement that I was unfamiliar with. Although women are still not treated as complete equals, I find it somewhat relieving that I am not a woman living at a time when I had to fight to vote. Will women ever be viewed as equal? How does the increasing population of LGBTQ affect equal rights?
I thought the two videos about the women’s suffrage movement assigned that were assigned for class were informative and interesting, especially when describing the intersection of the abolitionist movement and the women’s suffrage movement. Did Frederick Douglas harbor resentment towards Susan B Anthony/Elizabeth Cady Stanton after their rejection of the 15th amendment as he was a supporter of both movements? Was their further resentment after they partnered with the more “conservative women” who made racist claims, or did he understand that they were just using tactics to gain support? What were their final relationships like?
I believe that these videos did an excellent job highlighting the key points of the fight for women’s suffrage. My question is, what lessons can be learned from the Women’s suffrage movement that can further the rights of suppressed people in the United States today. I believe that there are many things that can be taken away and applied to modern-day suppression, so I am wondering what aspects of women’s suffrage could apply to oppressed groups of people today.
The documentaries “Fighting for the Vote – Women’s Suffrage in America” effectively captured the struggles women faced upon their journey to secure the right to vote in the United States. The documentary included prominent historians and feminists who made very eye opening points regarding women’s fight to gain suffrage in America. For example, Gloria Steinem, the co-founder of the Ms. Magazine, remarked that “when slaves were brought to this country, their model for legal status was the status of women.” One reason women were mistreated in society and not given the right to vote prior to 1920 was because they were excluded from the Declaration of Independence in the line “…all men are created equal…” I was wondering if Thomas Jefferson ever encountered any backlash from the American people within his lifetime for not including “women” in this line?
After watching these videos, I learned more about the sad truth of the oppression of women that has gone on for centuries. I have been taught many times about the treatment women received as if they were a lesser human, but I never understood why these unjust treatments started in the first place. What is the origin story of the unequal treatment of women and when did it begin?
Women have had to overcome a lot over the years, and have been treated unfairly practically since the beginning of time. These videos emphasized to me the fight women endured during the women’s suffrage movement. My question is to what end? What more do women have to do or achieve to be looked at as equals to men? When are women gonna get the credit they deserve for all their achievements?
how did support from abolitionists in the suffrage movement change after its leaders sought alliances with racist, conservative women’s organizations? Despite the immorality of the racist arguments incorporated into the suffrage movement, is there any justifying this from a pragmatic perspective? What harmful effects arise from teaching the women’s suffrage movement without recognition of its racist components?
These videos were very interesting and informative and I found them very relatable given the supreme court elections and how the judge elected will have an impact on specifics womans rights. The video got me thinking about how things are still unequal today and when a woman one day becomes president or maybe vice president, will she be judged harder than her previous male counterparts? When we talked about intersectionality we discussed women in the workplace and how they have to act a certain way. In order to get things done, especially with congress, do you think a female president would have to adapt her mannerisms to be successful?
After watching the two videos for today, I am left with two bigger questions about the implications of the suffrage movement that last today. First, how much of the toxic white feminist culture that we struggle with today stems from the original suffrage movement and the racially exclusionary nature of it? Second, did Virginia recently ratify the ERA as a symbolic or genuinely strategic move?