7 Lessons from the 100th Anniversary of Women's Right to Vote in the US

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in 1920, giving women the right to vote. It took a progressive movement over seventy years to achieve that goal. That movement was led by some exceptional woman leaders over those decades, including Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns. Here are several tactics that helped those leaders achieve their goal.

1 - Have a Proposal - In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony led a meeting of people seeking women's suffrage known as the Seneca Falls Convention. One hundred the attendees at that convention - 68 women and 32 men - signed a Declaration of Rights and Sentiments summarizing their goals. It was a document authored mainly by Stanton and modeled on the American Declaration of Independence from 1776. The document must not have perfectly captured every attendee's every want because only about one third of attendees signed it. But 100 people did sign it and it provided a clear statement of the problems that needed to be addressed and the solutions the movement wanted. Thirty years later, Anthony and Stanton put the capstone on their proposals by arranging for an amendment giving women the right to vote to be formally introduced in the US Congress. This amendment would be ratified by enough states 42 years later and become the 19th Amendment.

2 - Organize - Anthony and Stanton were a strong partnership in organizing to push for women's rights. Together they founded the New York Women's State Temperance Society in 1852, the Women's Loyal National League in 1863, and the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, and the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. These organizations gave them a foundation to be seen as speakers and to organize petition drives. Having organizations gave them a cause bigger than themselves they could recruit others to.

3 - Keep Publishing Content - Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susa B. Anthony kept publishing and speaking about women's rights to keep it in the public discourse. They were a complementary team. Anthony was the better organizer and speaker. Stanton was the better writer. They divided the work, and Anthony even helped Stanton find time to write by supervising Stanton's children. In 1869, Anthony and Stanton began publishing a women's rights newspaper called The Revolution. In 1876, Stanton and Anthony worked with Matilda Joslyn Gage to create a six volume History of Woman Suffrage book.

4 - Learn from International Allies - Alice Paul, one of a generation of leaders of the women's suffrage movement to emerge after Anthony and Stanton, moved to England in 1907 after finishing college and her master's degree. She became involved in the British women's suffrage movement. She met fellow suffrage leader Lucy Burns there. They learned from the tactics the British movement was using to get attention to their cause. There were suffrage movements in many countries around the world at the time, providing an opportunity to find moral support and best practices to achieve common goals.

5 - Organize Protests - The leaders of the women's suffrage movement organized public protests to bring attention to their cause, especially among politicians. Early in the movement, Anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting and got a lot of publicity from the trial. Later in the movement, Alice Paul started applying the civil disturbance tactics she had learned while in England. Paul had been arrested several times in England and achieved notoriety back in the United States for her actions. After moving back to the US, Paul continued to organize protests for the cause. Her biggest project was organizing a large parade for women's rights in Washington DC on the day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Paul then organized picketing around the White House to keep putting pressure on President Wilson to stop opposing the women's voting rights amendment.

6 - Prepare for Backlash - Paul and others were arrested and imprisoned for their protests. While jailed, Paul and others demanded to be treated as political prisoners and Paul went on a hunger strike and was force fed. The stories about their treatment put more pressure on President Wilson to finally support the passage of the women's right to vote in 1918.

7 - Maintain Unity - Since it took decades for the goal of women's voting rights to be achieved, there were natural splits and conflicts along the way. In 1869, there were competing associations in the movement - the National Woman Suffrage Association led by Anthony and Stanton and the American Woman Suffrage Association led by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward-How and others. In 1890, the two associations merged into a new association, helping to provide unity to focus on their shared interests. In the 1913 parade in Washington just before President Wilson's inauguration, Ida B. Wells, an African-American leader in the women's right movement, defied the request of one group in the parade to split her African-American group from the rest. Instead, she made a point of linking arms with her fellow white suffragists in the march.

The march to equal voting rights for women in the United States required women leaders from one generation to another passing the torch over decades. It is an amazing story of perseverance, bravery, and hard work across generations. Leaders today can learn from their success and the path they took to get there.

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About the Author: Victor Prince is a corporate trainer, executive coach, and best-selling author who helps organizations build leadership, strategy, communications, and critical thinking skills. Follow Victor on LinkedIN to access his 100+ articles on leadership, strategy, learning & development, and more.

Sources - All facts gathered for this article came from Wikipedia.com.