Suffragists In The 1900s

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Woman suffragists of the 1900s would stand in even the worst conditions to protest the equal rights for women. Who gave them the inspiration was Susan B. Anthony and all that she stood for. Her gavel represented a silenced suffering that women have been enduring since the beginning of time. The gavel is more than a piece of wood that was banged after every important decision the suffragists made. It is a tool that represents something so much more. The gavel is a piece of history, more importantly a tool that lead to a revolution. Without the woman's rights movement women today would not have the ability to achieve great things, such as Hillary Clinton running for president. The gavel is an artifact that held the entire women's rights movement …show more content…
Anthony lead the suffragists for more than fifty years. She didn’t start off that way young Susan was born in a Quaker family based out of Massachusetts. Her earliest reform work included abolishing traditional values set for marriage and children. This reform put her in contact with women such as Lucy Stone and Lucretia Mott, who also were suffragists. Originally Anthony held back on petitioning for women’s rights until she was denied permission to speak at a sons of temperance meeting. Following that outrage Anthony and other female speakers walked out and formed the Women’s State Temperance Society of New York and Susan B. Anthony fully committed herself to the fight for women’s rights. One of her many acts of defiance was wearing a bloomer costume which consisted of a short dress and trousers. The pressure she put on women’s rights lead to a law that gave married women more land ownership. She led the war against gender inequality “It is because of a false theory having been in the minds of the human family for ages that woman is born to be supported by man and to accept such circumstances as he chooses to accord to her”(Working Women…). Susan B. Anthony and women everywhere were committed to destroying the stereotype that a woman was not a person without a man. During this time period it was highly unusual for a woman to work or to even attend college. Once a woman reached an appropriate age it was expected for them to settle down with a man and keep a home for him. Women were the lowest on the totem pole, this was proven when the male African Americans were given the ability to vote. One would think that after that women would also have the same right but that was not the case. The suffragists attempted to press for qual rights but were told by many former abolitionist colleagues “that it was "the Negro's hour" and that women should wait until African-American males had won the vote before advancing their own