1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 2 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:10,440 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bob obam here. Sometimes it feels 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:13,240 Speaker 1: like the United States as a society has made major 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: strides in the ongoing fight for gender equality, and sometimes 5 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: reality rears its ugly head and you realize, well, the 6 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: country still has a long way to go. And the 7 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: truth is women continue to fight every day for equal rights. 8 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: And it wasn't that long ago that the female portion 9 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:31,560 Speaker 1: of the population, which is roughly half of the United States, 10 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 1: was prohibited from participating in politics until the Nineteenth Amendment 11 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:40,200 Speaker 1: changed that passed by Congress on June four of nineteen 12 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 1: nineteen and ratified on August eighteenth of nineteen twenty, the 13 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:47,279 Speaker 1: Nineteenth Amendment finally acknowledged women's right to vote in America. 14 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:51,199 Speaker 1: For the article of this episode is based on How 15 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:55,040 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. Spoke with Alison ka Lang, PhD, Assistant Professor 16 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: of history at Boston's Wentworth Institute of Technology, an author 17 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: of picturing political power images in the women's suffrage movement. 18 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:06,560 Speaker 1: She said the nineteenth Amendment prevented states from limiting the 19 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 1: right to vote based on sex. Women started voting in 20 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,040 Speaker 1: Wyoming in eighteen sixty nine, and won the vote in 21 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,319 Speaker 1: other states in later years, They could also often vote 22 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:19,280 Speaker 1: in local city elections or school board elections before the 23 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:24,040 Speaker 1: Nineteenth Amendment. Even so, the nineteenth Amendment was revolutionary because 24 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: it enfranchised more people than any other law in US history. 25 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:32,280 Speaker 1: Well before the Civil War broke out, many women were 26 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: beginning to push back against the idea that their role 27 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:39,320 Speaker 1: was confined to managing the husband's home and family. Women 28 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,680 Speaker 1: were playing leading roles in reform groups, religious movements, and 29 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: anti slavery organizations. All of these actions helped redefine what 30 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: it meant to be a woman in the eighteen hundreds 31 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: in America, but the first real proposal for the idea 32 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: of women's suffrage as a goal, a suffrage meaning the 33 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:00,520 Speaker 1: right to vote, began at the Seneca Falls Convention, which 34 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: was the first women's right convention in the United States. 35 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: It was held in July eighteen forty eight in Seneca Falls, 36 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,519 Speaker 1: New York. More than three hundred people, both men and women, attended, 37 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: including slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglas and leading women's right advocate 38 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: Elizabeth Katie Stanton, one of the meeting organizers. She kicked 39 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,680 Speaker 1: off the event with a rousing speech. She said, we 40 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:26,040 Speaker 1: are assembled to protest against a form of government existing 41 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: without the consent of the governed, to declare our right 42 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: to be free, as man is free, to be represented 43 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:34,920 Speaker 1: in the government which we are taxed to support, to 44 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,960 Speaker 1: have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to 45 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which 46 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 1: she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in the 47 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: case of separation, the children of her love. The delegates 48 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: of the convention wrote a declaration of Sentiments modeled on 49 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: the u S Declaration of Independence, right down to this 50 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,240 Speaker 1: line in the preamble, we hold these truths to be 51 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: self evident, that all men and women are created equal. 52 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 1: It included a list of eleven resolutions, the ninth encouraging 53 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 1: women quote to secure themselves their sacred right to the 54 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:14,120 Speaker 1: elective franchise, that is, their right to vote. It was 55 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:17,760 Speaker 1: by far the most controversial, even prompting many women's right 56 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: supporters to pull their support, and it barely passed, but 57 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 1: it also became the foundation of the women's suffrage movement 58 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: going forward. In the years following, women of all ages 59 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: began writing about, marching for and practicing civil disbedience, sometimes 60 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: referring to the Declaration of Sentiments in an effort to 61 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: change the Constitution, which originally permitted only landowning white men 62 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: aged twenty one and older to vote. Lang said suffrage 63 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,400 Speaker 1: was a popular term in the nineteenth century, and it 64 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: means the right to vote. Americans discussed male suffrage, female suffrage, 65 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: black suffrage, etcetera. Today, people often associate the term with 66 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 1: the women's voting rights movement. The Nineteenth Amendment was first 67 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 1: introduced in Congress in eighteen seventy eight, but it took 68 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:10,240 Speaker 1: more than forty years of organizing, petitioning, picketing, and more 69 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:14,400 Speaker 1: to finally get ratified. Over the decades, different strategies were 70 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:17,560 Speaker 1: employed to try to get the amendment passed, and some 71 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,599 Speaker 1: attempted to get suffrage acts passed in each individual state. 72 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: The tactic worked to an extent. By nineteen twelve, nine 73 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:29,840 Speaker 1: western states had adopted women suffrage. Other advocates went to 74 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,480 Speaker 1: court to challenge male only voting laws, and some suffragusts 75 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: organized and participated in parades, hunger strikes, and silent visuals. 76 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,400 Speaker 1: Regardless of the type of action these supporters took, these 77 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,479 Speaker 1: women almost invariably encountered countless forms of verbal and even 78 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 1: physical abuse. By nineteen sixteen, almost all the major suffrage 79 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:55,480 Speaker 1: organizations formed a united front to pass a constitutional amendment. 80 00:04:56,240 --> 00:05:00,080 Speaker 1: New York officially adopted women suffrage in nineteen seventeen, and 81 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:03,600 Speaker 1: a year later, President Woodrow Wilson changed his original position 82 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 1: on the matter and declared support for the amendment. Finally, 83 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,920 Speaker 1: on May twenty one, nineteen nineteen, the House of Representatives 84 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: passed the amendment, and the Senate followed two weeks later. 85 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:18,560 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty Tennessee became the thirty sixth state to 86 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:21,839 Speaker 1: ratify the amendment, and with three fourths of the states 87 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: in agreement, the US was finally able to officially adopt 88 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:29,680 Speaker 1: the new policy. The nineteenth Amendment states the rights of 89 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: citizens of the United States to vote shall not be 90 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:35,040 Speaker 1: denied or abridged by the United States or by any 91 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: State on account of sex. But as impactful as the 92 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: Nineteenth Amendment was, it didn't end the struggle. Lang said 93 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,600 Speaker 1: it's important to keep in mind that the Nineteenth Amendment 94 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,640 Speaker 1: did not grant all women the right to vote. Many 95 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,520 Speaker 1: poorer women and women of color were still subject to 96 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:58,559 Speaker 1: poll taxes. Literacy tests and other restrictive laws. American women 97 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,280 Speaker 1: gained greater access to the pole through other laws like 98 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: the Indian Citizenship Act of nineteen, the repeal of the 99 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: Chinese Exclusion Act in ninety three, and the Voting Rights 100 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:12,359 Speaker 1: Act of nineteen. Puerto Rico granted women the vote in 101 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:17,160 Speaker 1: nine so the Nineteenth Amendment opened up opportunities, but many 102 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: women still had to fight for the vote. Today's episode 103 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: is based on the article the Battle for the Nineteenth 104 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: Amendment and Women's right to Vote on how stuffworks dot Com, 105 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:33,680 Speaker 1: written by Michell Konstantinovski. Brain Stuff is production of by 106 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, 107 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:39,039 Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Clay. Four more podcasts. My 108 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: heart Radio was at the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 109 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.