The Womens' Suffrage Movement in the Early 20th Century: Gaining Momentum

Map of United States showing progress of equal suffrage, 1915.

"Votes for Women" pennant, undated.

Image from Jailed for Freedom by Doris Stevens depicting suffragists in prison clothing, 1920.

Image from Jailed for Freedom by Doris Stevens showing arrests of Womens' Suffrage activists, 1920.

Women vote!: fifteen New York State suffragists : in celebration of the 2017 centennial of women's right to vote in New York State, 2017.

1917 pamphlet explaining the future 19th Amendment to the Constitution and detailing the cases for and against. 

The Womens' Suffrage Movement continued to gain momentum as the 20th Century approached. The National American Woman Suffrage Association led by Stanton and Anthony, founded in 1890 had 2 million members by 1920. At the beginning of the 20th Century, women in 9 western states were given the right to vote by their state legislatures, but the movement continued to push for this right to be extended to all women in the United States. Aruguments for an amendment to the United States Constituton to give women the right to vote even attempted to placate southern states by assuring that Women's Suffrage would not affect Jim Crow laws in the south. The National Women’s Party, after meeting with and being rebuffed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, mobilized against Wilson during the Election of 1916 and afterwards. Daily picketing by suffragists at the White House was a source of embarrassment for Wilson. In 1917, during one such protest, several of the woman picketers were arrested by authorities. They were assaulted, jailed, and mistreated in jail. Their story is detailed in Jailed for Freedom (1920) by Doris Stevens.