Women's Suffrage - Basic Terminology
"Women's suffrage" refers to the right of women to vote and to hold public office. The "women's suffrage movement" (or "woman suffrage movement") includes all the organized activities of reformers to change laws that kept women from voting or to add laws and constitutional amendments to guarantee women the right to vote.
You'll often read about "woman suffrage" and "suffragettes" -- here are some clarifications on those terms:
- Suffrage: where does this word come from?
- Suffragette - is this the correct term to use for those who worked to win the vote for women?
- Woman or Women? - which term, "women's suffrage" or "woman suffrage" is the correct one for the movement and its goal?
Test Your Knowledge
Check out how much you know about the women's suffrage movement with this online quiz:
Who's Who in Women's Suffrage
Who were the people involved in working to win the vote for women? Here are some handy resources to learn more about these suffrage workers:
- A list of those who were key in working for the vote for women: Women's Suffrage Biographies
- An image gallery to see what these suffrage workers looked like: Pictures of Women's Suffrage Activists
- More women's suffrage pictures: Pictures of Women's Suffrage Movement
When: Timelines of Women's Suffrage
Key events in the struggle for women's suffrage in America:
When did women get the vote?
- American State-by-State Suffrage Timeline
- International Suffrage Timeline
- Who Was the First Woman to Vote?
- Suffrage Chart - as published in 1915
How: How Women's Suffrage Was Fought for and Won
Overviews:
- Long Road to Women's Suffrage
- Women's Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment
- The Progress of Fifty Years (1893)
- August 26, 1920: The Day the Suffrage Battle Was Won
Seneca Falls, 1848: First Woman's Rights Convention
- Seneca Falls Convention
- Declaration of Sentiments
- We Now Demand Our Right to Vote
- Seneca Falls Resolutions
19th Century
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Reminiscences
- Address To The First Anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association (1867)
- The Woman's Question in the South (1891)
20th Century
- Women Marchers Attacked at Inauguration (1913)
- 1913-1917: Suffrage Protests (Images)
- Brutal Treatment of Women Suffragists at Occoquan Workhouse
- August 26, 1920: The Day the Suffrage Battle Was Won
- Voices of 1920 Heard Today
Original Sources: Documents of Women's Suffrage
- Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
- Woman and Her Wishes (1853)
- Address To The First Anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association (1867)
- The Other Side of the Woman Question (1879)
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Reminiscences (1881)
- The Woman's Question in the South (1891)
- Solitude of Soul (1892)
- The Progress of Fifty Years (1893)
- Considering Woman Suffrage (1906)
- Suffering Suffragettes (1912)
- Two Suffrage Movements (1912)
- Woman and the Republic (1913)
- Are Women People? (1915)
- Woman Suffrage is Inevitable (Carrie Chapman Catt to Congress, 1917)
- Why Women Should Vote (about 1917)
What: Suffrage Events, Organizations, Laws, Court Cases, Concepts, Publications
Major women's suffrage organizations:
- American Equal Rights Association
- American Woman Suffrage Association
- National Woman Suffrage Association
- National American Woman Suffrage Association
- Congressional Union
More:
- Pictures of Women's Suffrage Movement
- United States v. Susan B. Anthony (1872-73)
- Minor v. Happersett (1872-74)
- Fourteenth Amendment
- Woman's Journal
- Suffragette Definition
- Woman or Women? A Clarification of Terms
More on Women's Suffrage and Votes for Women, including an index to articles on this site and to articles on the Net:
Women's Suffrage Overview | Women's Suffrage pre 1848 | Women's Suffrage - 1848-1864 | Women's Suffrage - 1865-1899 | Women's Suffrage -1900-1920 | Anti-Suffrage | Women's Suffrage -British | Women's Suffragists | Women's Suffrage Quiz
