Equal Rights: Early Revolutionaries, Social Reform Workers, and the Suffragists

Votes For Women: Not very long ago women did not have the right to vote anywhere in the world. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Consitution was ratified on August 18th, 1920, after over a century of difficult work by suffragists. Without their efforts women today would not be considered equal citizens in this country. Many suffragists were also abolitionists, fighting to end slavery. Their work should never be forgotten.

The Emancipation of Women in Great Britain was fought for from 1700 to 1920

The Women Who Won the Vote -75 American suffragists profiled

Created Equal: History of the U.S. Suffrage Movement has a chronology with highlights and also biographical information about suffragists.

Letters on the Equality of the Sexes by Sarah Grimke are worth reading. Grimke was a prominent suffragist as well as a supporter of the abolitionist movement to end slavery. These letters she wrote in 1837 are addressed to Mary Parker, president of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.

The Women's Rights National Historic Park is located in Seneca Falls, NY, site of the important 1848 women's rights convention. Their site has information on the park, the convention, and online exhibits.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's House is part of the Women's Rights Nat'l Historic Park.

150th Anniversary of the Women's Right Movement is a great site created in 1998 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention.

The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions is one of the most important pieces of writing in American history, although most people have never heard of it. It was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton who cleverly used some of the words of the Declaration of Independence, changed to declare women's equality, and presented at the Seneca Falls Convention.

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Papers Project Online from Rutgers University

Susan B. Anthony dedicated her life to the suffrage movement and, like Stanton, is one of the most important figures in American history

At the Susan B. Anthony House site you can find info about her and take a virtual tour of her home which has been designated as a historic landmark. Her birthplace is in the National Registry of Historic Places

"Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabethe Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony" is an excellent documentary recently made by PBS. The film's web site contains links to important documents from the suffrage movement.

Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921 is a collection from the Library of Congress you can browse online. This organization that was founed by Stanton and Anthony.

"Votes For Women", Suffrage Pictures from 1850-1920 is an exhibition by the Library of Congress of photographs and drawings from the suffrage movement

Materials Related to the 1850 Convention for women's rights in Worcester, MA also has documents related to other aspects of the suffrage movement

Sojourner Truth was an ex-slave who traveled the country giving prolific speeches for the abolitionist and suffragist movements despite the fact she had not been allowed to learn how to read or write. Her most famous speech is "Ain't I a Woman?"

Matilda Joslyn Gage was a suffragist, abolitionist, author, lecturer, and historian

Lucretia Mott was another influential suffragist and abolitionist.

More Than The Vote: While the fight for women's suffrage was one of the most important social movements of all time, there were other women activists in the 19th century and earlier who fought for women's rights in different ways. Their work was often as revolutionary, or more so, than the fight for suffrage, yet their work is often overlooked, as though there is only room for one topic in the discussion of women's liberation. This section is about women who fought for our rights in other ways.

Update, 2004: Find out how to register and vote this year on this new page.

Also: You can now buy books by women on the suffrage movement, in the women's history section of this website's new Women's Bookstore and help support this site!

Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them is a book excerpt with brief, biographical data on many women involved in various causes, including suffrage.

A History of Fighting for Women's Freedom gives a brief description of how the libertarian socialist movement, also refered to here as the anarchist-syndicalist movement, fought for women's rights.

The Emma Goldman Paper Project has important writings by this original anarchist-feminist who did not believe suffrage would bring equality to women. More of her writing is available at this site of Emma Goldman's Collected Works.

Margaret Sanger Documents on the Web (broken link) -This important woman dedicated her life to giving women reproductive freedom. Here is a brief biography of Sanger.

Jane Addams was social worker dedicated to improving the lives of poor people. She opened Hull House and worked there with a group of like-minded women (broken link)

Dorothea Dix worked as the first Union supervisor of female nurses during the Civil War and as an advocate for the mentally ill

Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1830-1930 -a large collection of primary texts by women involved in many activist efforts

Feminist Foremothers: 1400-1800 biographies and writings of a select group

History of Pre-First Wave Feminism (outdated link) has articles and other resources about feminism before the 19th century. The term "First Wave" refers to the suffragists' era.