Women, Workers, And Reform: How Freedom And Democracy Were …show more content…
A spark of the women’s rights movement came from the fight for the abolishment of Slavery. Abby Kelly spoke up publicly against slavery, fighting the common idea that women did not have a place in the public sphere. This led the way for more women to stand up for their beliefs and more change to occur. A great stride towards increasing the freedom of women came from the Utopian communities that arose around the early 19th century. Although these communities had varying rules regarding women, almost all shared in the idea of “an end to men’s ‘property in women.” This was an incredible step for women’s freedom as the concept of women as property had existed forever. Some of the communities, notably the Shakers, went as far as to say that women and men are completely equal. It could be argued that the Shakers contradicted themselves by assigning “each man… a ‘sister’ to take care of his washing and sewing,” which seems to go against their ideas of equality. Another Utopian community that contributed to the increase in the rights and freedoms of women were the Owenites, created by Robert Owen. He believed women should be free from their husbands and abandoned the idea that there were significant differences between men and women. Although the reforms made within these “Utopias” were mostly contained to the individual communities, the influence on the outside world was tremendous. For this …show more content…
The movement began to yield results, By 1900 four states had, excluding presidential elections, adopted women’s suffrage. After another 14 years, seven more states could be added to that list. Presidential voting rights were first given to women in 1913 in Illinois. A strong counter argument to Women’s suffrage in all states, through an amendment, was that nothing great had come from women's suffrage in the few states that it existed. Despite this, freedom reigned supreme “with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920,” which granted Women’s Suffrage throughout the nation. This was a huge step, not only for women but, for the expansion of democracy in the United States of America. Democracy is defined as a “government by the people” and although not every single person was being represented, women’s suffrage granted representation to a large group of people. Women’s rights played a large role in the expansion of freedom in