1770s
PROTEST AGAINST BRITAIN
In the tense years leading up to the Revolution,
American women found ways to participate in
the protests against the British. Homemakers
boycotted tea and British-made clothing. In the
painting at right, Sarah Morris Mifflin, shown
with her husband Thomas, spins her own thread
rather than use British thread. Some business-
women, such as printer Mary Goddard, who
produced the official copies of the Declaration
of Independence, took more active roles.
1848
SENECA FALLS
As America grew,
women became
acutely aware of
their unequal
status in society,
particularly their
lack of suffrage, or the right to vote.
In 1848, two women—Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, shown above, and
Lucretia Mott—launched the first
woman suffrage movement in the
United States at the Seneca Falls
Convention in Seneca Falls, New
York. During the convention, Stanton
introduced her Declaration of
Sentiments, in which she demanded
greater rights for women, including
the right to vote.
THE RIGHT TO VOTE
More than a half-century
after organizing for the
right to vote, women finally
won their struggle. In 1920,
the United States adopted
the Nineteenth Amendment,
which granted women the
right to vote.
Pictured to the right is one of the many suf-
frage demonstrations of the early 1900s that
helped garner public suppor t for the amendment.
1920
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Women and Political
Power
In their families and in the workplace, in speeches and in print, countless American
women have worked for justice for all citizens. Throughout the history of the United
States, women have played whatever roles they felt were necessary to better this
country. They also fought to expand their own political power, a power that through-
out much of American history has been denied them.
