Women's Right to vote. Why was it so difficult? (week 6)

In the 19th century women struggled in having equal treatment as men. Most were not seen capable to do many of the tasks that men set themselves to do. The 19th amendment which was passed until 1920 stated " The right of citizens in 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" (A-13). Before this women were not seen as equals. They had no say in the government or even in their private lives because their husbands ruled their life.  It was so difficult to establish 19th century Women's Rights policies like the 19th amendment because, many of the laws that existed did not protect women's rights or they were ignoring that women possessed equal rights as men.


Susan B. Anthony, born 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts was a feminist and president of the National American Women Suffrage. After Anthony was arrested for attempting to vote in 1872, thereafter she wrote a speech to inform people of women's unfair treatment and also argue that women do have the right to vote. In her speech she points out that to deny women the right to vote is practically removing one half of the population and that would be a a violation of the supreme law of land (58). This proves that the states should not have made the decision of excluding women. It was difficult for women to receive fair treatment because the state law stated one thing while the national law stated anotherTherefore it complicated in making decision or enforcing rule. Much of the time the government also used the laws to their advantage and would tweak the words of the laws or interpret them differently in order to have it fit what they wanted their purpose to be. 


Anthony also made a strong argument in questioning, why do women have to pay taxes or be charged with violating a Civil Rights law when as a matter of fact they are not being taken into consideration when it has to do with voting (58). This is one of the reasons why it was so difficult for women to get their rights because the government was ignoring the part where women owned the right to vote but instead they focused in making sure they pay taxes.The laws were being manipulated into mens favor.


The 15th amendment states " 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 race, color or previous condition of servitude"(59). Anthony argues "How can the state deny or abridge the right of the citizen, if the citizen does not possess it?"(59). This shows that it was hard for women to get the right to vote because the law stated that their rights could not be taken from them, however women had never possessed the right to vote so it ended up meaning nothing.