The Fight for Suffrage and America's Entry into WWI

Women's Rights and Political Landscape in the Early 20th Century

• Continuing Disparities Post-$19^{th}$ Amendment: Even after the $19^{th}$ Amendment, women still lacked equal rights as citizens. For instance, in several states, women could not independently obtain a bank loan or open a line of credit in their own name.

• Resolution and Ongoing Challenges: The $19^{th}$ Amendment definitively resolved the issue of voting rights based on sex, but other legal and economic inequalities persisted.

The Suffrage Movement: Evolution and Division

• in Early Political Position for Women (19th Century):

  • Women were generally barred from most forms of political participation beyond local voting in some areas.

  • Limited Suffrage: In certain Western states, women were allowed to vote upon admission to the Union, and some could vote in municipal or school board elections before $1920$. However, this was not a national standard; women's political access varied by state, similar to people of color due to Jim Crow laws and social mores.

  • Barriers to Participation: Women were largely excluded from serving on juries, holding or running for elective office (national level), or being appointed to most offices.

  • Pioneering Women: Despite barriers, some women attempted to run for high office (e.g., Victoria Woodhull for President in $1872$, notable for not informing her VP candidate, Frederick Douglass). Others were elected to local and state offices even before national suffrage.

  • First Woman in Congress: Jeannette Rankin (Montana, elected $1916$) was notable as the only member of Congress to vote against U.S. entry into both World War I and World War II.

  • Alternative Political Engagement: During the Progressive Era, women participated in politics through protests, lobbying public officials, and campaigning for causes and politicians advocating for reforms.

• Clarifying Terminology: Suffragists vs. Suffragettes:

  • Suffragette: A term primarily used in Britain (often embraced by some women there) that was generally seen as derogatory in the U.S. It implied a feminized, diminutive, and militant image, often used by anti-suffragists to mock mostly elite white women and minimize their work.

  • Suffragist: The preferred and more encompasssing term in the U.S., referring to anyone (men and women, across races) working for the right to vote for more people, avoiding the gendered and diminutive implications of