Mrs. Preston:
Maud Preston is a fictional character in the Greenwich Village, 1913 game written by Mary Jane Treacy. The character is based on two real people from the suffrage movement, Carrie Chapman Catt and Harriot Stanton Blatch (Treacy 9). Mrs. Preston shares the qualities and points of view of these real people.
Maud Preston's viewpoints were obviously nurtured by her upbringing. Born in 1878, she was raised in Upstate New York by a family that had a large involvement in politics. Her father, a member of the New York State Assembly, encouraged her to form her own opinions on issues by playing political games with her at the dinner table that involved forming political campaigns. Her father was very open about discussing politics (Treacy 3). As a result, this nurturing caused Maud to show interest and have the confidence to discuss politics during a time when women were not usually involved in politics. She had the belief that women could handle involvement in politics and therefore was passionate about the cause of women's suffrage.
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Maud Preston received only a little bit of higher education. She was urged by her family to attend Smith College, an all-women's college, instead of pursuing a degree from Cornell. This did not last long, as she left college to marry a military officer who died shortly after. Afterward, she became more involved in politics. She was a member of WPU, Woman's Political Union, and NAWSA, National American Woman Suffrage Association (Treacy 3). She was a natural leader in these organizations and became dedicated to this cause.
Harriot Stanton Blatch
Daughter of famous suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot Stanton Blatch is a woman who contributed greatly to the cause of women's suffrage. Born in Seneca Falls, NY, the birthplace of the women's suffrage movement, Blatch was likely introduced to the cause by her mother. In her political life, she was a member of numerous organizations, including NAWSA and the Woman's Trade Union League. She also leads the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women, organizing parades and meetings. Blatch was able to see the results of her work after the victory in 1920 but remained active in women's rights reform ('Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch').
To earn the victory of suffrage, the suffragists had to come up with a plan to win. Different people in the cause had different opinions about how to approach this. NAWSA's plan was to gain suffrage by going from state to state pushing for state suffrage. The constitutional amendment would come later and be much easier to achieve ('NAWSA').
Harriot Stanton Blatch
The tactics of NAWSA required some real action. The group collected dues and donations from those who supported their cause. With this funding, they were able to spread the word about their cause and push people to accept their demands. They did this by holding parades, pageants, and marches. They also held conventions in which many of the leaders gathered to give speeches and bolster their campaigns. The association was organized on local, state, and national levels. Local and national committees of the organization published articles in the newspapers all around the country. Events were held by every level of the organization. Although some chapters had different rules and opinions of tactics differed slightly, they all had the same goal (Lange, 'Suffragists Unite').
However, '[leaders of NAWSA] faced strategic challenges from younger recruits such as Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, who favored militant tactics and focused exclusively on a US constitutional amendment' (Michals). These disagreements caused a split in the group. Alice Paul and other members who were more radical broke off and formed the National Women's Party. Afterward, NAWSA was able to adopt a plan that secured the win ('Woman Suffrage Timeline'). Maud Preston would have been more supportive of NAWSA leaders than Alice Paul and other radicals. Carrie Chapman Catt
Catt was an influential suffragist during the Women's suffrage movement. She graduated as the only woman in her class at Iowa State Agricultural College and joined the suffrage movement in the 1880s. She joined NAWSA and spoke all over the country. She became president of NAWSA in 1900. She was also interested in women's suffrage on an international level and formed the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, trying to give women around the globe a voice in democracy. She regained the presidency of NAWSA in 1915 and held the position through the passing of the 19th Amendment (Michals).
Carrie Chapman Catt
Unfortunately, the cause of women's suffrage could not totally unite into one powerful group. There were differing opinions on how to go about suffrage and who should be involved. Nationally, NAWSA was very open to all. However, they did not prohibit state and local organizations from adopting some questionable policies. Some of the 'conventions held in Southern cities like Atlanta (in 1895) and New Orleans (in 1903) were segregated. NAWSA also required black women to march separately during its 1913 parade in Washington, DC' (Lange, 'Suffragists Unite'). This division was detrimental to the group, but many of the women who allowed it to happen did not necessarily have bad intentions. They believed that they had to do what was necessary to gain the vote for women, even if it they had to exclude African Americans. However, some of the women, particularly southern elite women, were racist towards African Americans and did not like the idea of allowing black women to vote. The South had many problems involving race that the Women's suffrage group could not tackle all at once, even though many were supporting equal rights for African Americans too. The group was pushing for women's suffrage, and African-American suffrage was already guaranteed by the Constitution. Since an amendment allowing women to vote would be automatically inclusive of African Americans Important Dates
- 1848 – First Women's Rights Convention
- 1870 – African Americans gain suffrage
- 1890 – Wyoming becomes first state to grant women's suffrage
- 1913 – NAWSA organizes suffrage parade in Washinton, D.C.
- 1918 – Woodrow Wilson supports women's suffrage
- 1919 – The Nineteenth Amendment passes the senate
- 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, and women gained full voting rights
women, most of the exclusion of African Americans was just for showing and garnering the support of some groups, like the Southerners. It did highlight some big social issues in America during that time though.
Opposition:
For there to have been a discussion about whether women should be able to vote, there must have been opposition to women's suffrage. Opposition was faced mostly by anti-suffragists. In the early years of the anti-suffragists, they were not very organized. However, they were so opposed to the idea of women's suffrage that they formed a group in 1911 called NAOWS, National Association Opposed to Women's Suffrage. To voice their opposition, they did many of the same things that NAWSA did, including distributing publications and holding events (Lange, 'NAOWS'). One would think that the group would be primarily made up of men. However, there were many women who were opposed to suffrage, which gave the cause more credibility and hurt the cause of suffrage. Antis argued that 'women did not have time to vote or stay updated on politics…. [Also,] women lacked the expertise or mental capacity to offer a useful opinion about political issues' (Lange, 'NAOWS'). It may seem strange that a woman would believe that she was not smart enough to contribute to politics, but this is simply a result of the times. Most women and men believed that they had their places in society and that a woman's place was in the home taking care of the children. This belief was so ingrained into the culture of the time that many conservative people at the time could not imagine life any other way. They were afraid of change and did not see a need for women to vote, as the man of the family was supposed to be able to make the right decision and vote on behalf of the whole family. Fortunately, the opposition was not enough to stop the pro-suffrage groups.
The Win:
After winning voting rights in only 17 states and enduring many failures, women finally gained the right to vote. After being proposed in 1918, the amendment failed to pass the Senate. However, with the support of President Woodrow Wilson, the Senate passed the amendment in 1919. Then, it was smooth sailing as three-quarters of the states ratified the nineteenth amendment and it was added to the constitution on August 26, 1920 ('Woman Suffrage Timeline'). Thanks to the many women who fought hard for the rights that they deserved, like those who resemble Maud Preston, the long fight for women's suffrage was finally over.
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