Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an equal rights suffragist, voiced the popular opinion of the times, stating that black men should not be elevated over “women of wealth, education, virtue and refinement.” Furthermore, she urged women to not put the fate of society in the hands of the “lower orders of men.” Though these ideas were largely agreed upon, the concept of enfranchisement quickly split into two arenas: that of social feminism and equal rights feminism. Social feminists were eager to illustrate the kinds of contributions women could make to society as a result of attaining enfranchisement, while equal rights feminists insisted that they should already be allowed to vote since it was implied in the original constitution. Some even went so far as to say that women were morally superior to men. Often times, men found that it was easier to sympathize with the more right wing, conservative, social feminists, rather than the left wing, equal-rights feminists.
Each wing attacked the other wing’s rhetoric. Many of the conservative women did not, in fact, desire the privileges that the left-wingers were fighting for, while the left-wingers saw the conservative women as merely being meek in their objectives, a hindrance to their own more radical goals. The more conservative women’s organization of the times was known as the AWSA—more commonly identified in terms of social feminist rhetoric, while the more radical left-wing women’s enfranchisement organization was known as the NWSA—more commonly identified in terms of equal rights feminist rhetoric. It is worth mentioning though, that men found it difficult to keep up with the difference between the two, especially in light of the fact that they often spoke about similar issues such as the expansion of educational and employment opportunities. It is not surprising, for that reason, that both organizations eventually joined forces to form the NAWSA.
Another social feminist organization, the WCTU, led by Frances Willard, addressed a broad spectrum of radical issues including safety legislation for the workplace and “equal pay for equal work,” as well as international peace, social purity and temperance. Prior to her leadership and after her death, the group returned to its original focus of liquor prohibition. Such groups as this one often times found their goals to be too broad and needed to return to their original focus.
Some organizations didn’t realize that focus was necessary in order to win the sympathy of the male governing body. Instead they would bombard senators with a wide range of issues. Susan B. Anthony, president of the NAWSA, felt that women’s indifference was the primary problem, which stood to keep women from being enfranchised. Her campaign efforts focused on increasing membership. She said, “In the indifference, the inertia, the apathy of women, lies the greatest obstacle to their enfranchisement.” Perhaps she felt that a wider range of issues would draw a larger number of women to the NAWSA and didn’t realize that the diversity of interest within the organization would be perceived as a weakness. Theodore Roosevelt, a moderate supporter, acknowledged the lack of unity. He felt that women could get the vote whenever “women as a whole show any special interest in the matter.” Thereby, he implied that women’s interests were too diverse.
Just when it seemed that the NAWSA had the most political clout ever, and Carrie C Catt had managed to convert President Woodrow Wilson to a sympathizer, two new developments further stifled the NAWSA’s efforts to gain constitutional enfranchisement for women: the occurrence of World War I and the presence of a rival suffrage organization, the National Women’s party (NWP). The NWP was a militant organization that was composed of dissenting former members of the NAWSA and focused on attacking the political party in power, the democrats. The NAWSA feared that the NWP would alienate currently sympathetic democrats. Fortunately, despite the NAWSA’s objections, the NWP’s picketing tactics caused the president and congress to get nervous and embrace the more conservative wing, the NAWSA, which was patriotically supporting the current war effort, thereby helping working middle-class women gain favor and expediting the enfranchisement process.
In the end, as a result of Woodrow Wilson’s administration, the favorable public opinion of women’s patriotism during wartime and the enormous membership of the NASWA, which peaked at 2 million, congress finally passed a woman’s suffrage amendment. The amendment was legally endorsed nationwide by late August of 1920. In conclusion, the enfranchisement effort was long threatened by the inconsistency, the lack of focus and unity by the various women’s organizations, but in the end, that same lack of unity forced the American government to consider the amount of energy that women were investing into this movement. Women dynamically showed their desire to become enfranchised, each in their own way: some by picketing, some by lobbying senators, some by merely holding membership in an organization. It was this phenomenal membership and its capacity to do either harm or good that eventually overwhelmed the male governing body.
