Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage is the movement to secure women's legal right to vote in political elections. It also names the resulting voting rights.

Seneca Falls Convention: A 1848 gathering in New York that issued a declaration demanding social, civil, and religious rights for women. Its Declaration of Sentiments made voting rights an explicit demand in the United States.
Petition: A formal request submitted to an authority, often bearing signatures in support of a proposed action. Suffrage groups used petitions to press legislatures and demonstrate organized public support.
Susan B. Anthony: An American reformer who campaigned for women’s voting rights and was arrested for voting in 1872. Her organizing and public advocacy helped sustain the United States movement.
Universal suffrage: The extension of voting rights to all adult citizens, subject to limited lawful qualifications. Women’s suffrage advanced toward this ideal but often left racial and class exclusions intact.
Equal Franchise Act 1928: A British law that gave women the vote on the same terms as men, at age 21. It ended the age and qualification gap left by Britain’s 1918 law.
Declaration of Sentiments: A 1848 manifesto asserting women’s equality and listing grievances against their legal and social subordination. It adapted the Declaration of Independence’s language to argue for women’s political rights.
Civil disobedience: The deliberate breach of a law or command to protest injustice, typically without violence. Some activists used arrests and lawbreaking to force public attention onto disenfranchisement.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American women’s rights activist and writer who helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention. She developed arguments for suffrage and co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association.
Abolitionism: The movement to end slavery, especially in the United States and the British Empire. Abolitionist networks and arguments shaped early suffrage activism, while emancipation did not ensure women’s votes.
Voting Rights Act of 1965: A United States federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and providing federal enforcement mechanisms. Its protections addressed barriers that had kept many Black women from voting despite constitutional guarantees.

Linked from 84 pages