1900-1920

Women's Suffrage- In the early 19th century may women were second-class citizens because their life only consisted of taking care of their homes and their familys. Many women after they were married were not allowed to own property, maintain wages, sign a contract, or even vote. Many women in the 19th century had to be independent on their husbands. Women were not allowed to travel or better yet speak in public. Women had to listen to their husbands at all times and the women were inferior to their husbands. Alice Paul and The National Women's Party begun using more tactics to work for a federal suffrage amendment to the constitution. The women staged the white house with large marches and demonstrations, going to jail. While these women were going on march they would strave their self the whole time through out the march and the police forced tubes down the womens throat so that they could eat. Thousands of women took part in these marches. In 1913 Paul led a march of eight thousand women on President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration day. During the second inaugural Paul led a march around the White House. During World War 1, when women took up jobs in factories to support the war, as well as taking more active roles in the war than in previous wars. After the war, even the more restrained National American Woman Suffrage Association, headed by Carrie Chapman Catt, took many opportunities to remind the President, and the Congress, that women's war work should be rewarded with recognition of their political equality. Wilson responded by beginning to support woman suffrage. On June 4, 1919, the United States Senate also endorsed the Amendment, voting 56 to 25, and sending the amendment to the states. And so on August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law, and women could vote in the fall elections, including in the Presidential election. \ b