It is often pointed out that the word history is a conjunction of the words “his” and “story”, but from a modern point of view, it is quite obvious that women have had a profound impact in shaping history. Historically, within American culture, women have been oppressed and subjugated to conditions alike to slavery. And yet, even with these deterrents and obstacles, they have made American Society what it is today.
In the early nineteenth century, as societies within the north and the south continued to dichotomize, a large movement began to formulate, known as the Abolition movement. Believing in its sinful nature, this movement sought to eliminate the institution of slavery. At the forefront of this movement, were women, who were able to empathize with the oppressed life of slaves. Some of these women included Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, who themselves were once slaves; Susan B. Anthony, who played a large role within the American Anti-Slavery Society; and Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote the famous book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which brought a harsh depiction of slavery to the forefront of northerners minds.
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Although women had been testing the bounds of the established patriarchy for years and even generations prior, it wasn’t until the abolition movement that women began taking a greater role in politics. In their book The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America, Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. Van Horne describe how the Anti-Slavery Conventions of American Women held from 1837 to 1839 provided some of the first organized platforms for women to express their political perspectives and helped to pave the way for future events such as the Seneca Falls Convention and other regional women’s rights conventions held about a decade later. They also explain how many of the women who participated within the abolition movement later took part in the fight for women’s suffrage as well. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for instance designed and had presented what would eventually become the Constitution’s Nineteenth Amendment. At the time, the presence of women within any political atmosphere was still quite a revolutionary concept for Americans. Women got petitions to be sent en masse to government offices and public officials advocating for the abolition of slavery. They held rallies and marches in protest of slavery. The widespread awareness this created fueled the abolition movement even more, resulting in women being given a public platform on which to voice their opinions. At a time when abolition was considered extremism, women were able to stir the pot, giving credence to both themselves and the idea of abolishing slavery. The abolition movement not only began to change women’s role within politics, but also religion.
Many abolitionists can tie their respective perspectives back to religion. Anna M Speicher in her book The Religious World of Antislavery Women: Spirituality in the Lives of Five Abolitionist Lecturers, argues that religion was the core motivating force in many abolitionist women. Her writing focuses on the Grimké sisters, Abby Foster, Sallie Holly, and Lucretia Mott. She explains that religions like the Quakers were responsible for instilling progressive or liberal values within many members of the abolitionist movement. These religions taught concepts of equality, which in turn, manifested within the political, social, and societal atmosphere. These women also had an influential role within the religions themselves, often making them more forward-thinking as they supported progressive causes and raised their children with the same liberal attitudes that they held through republican motherhood.
With women at the forefront of the progressive movement, they were able to bring about an era of social change that still reverberates through society today. They manifested the political changes they sought through extreme but necessary methods, such as freeing runaway slaves through the underground railroad or raising awareness by writing a book about the realities of slavey. Through abolition, women were able to change much about American society, but for many white women, their positions within the household and thus their socioeconomic status, remained largely stagnant. This, however, would not last.
Following the Civil War, many women began to realize their own oppression. In her article The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920, Paula Baker explains how women were unable to vote and were often subject to their husbands or even at the mercy of their husbands, who often came home drunk. They were expected to stay home to take care of children and were defined by their roles as mothers, daughters, and wives. Within the workplace, women were paid less than men and worked in odious and restricting conditions. Abolition, however, served as a catalyst for women to begin solving some of the cultural issues permeating post civil war America.
The suffrage movement and abolition movement often worked hand-in-hand with each other, but it wasn’t until after the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments (the reconstruction amendments) were ratified that the suffrage movement began to gain ground. As the extremism of the previous era began to become the norm, more and more people were open to the idea of giving women the right to vote. Abolitionists all over the country were also apart of the suffrage movement, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who were among some of the most influential women’s rights activists. With the formation of groups like the National American Woman Suffrage Association of 1890 or the proposition of a women’s suffrage movement, suffrage played an ever-larger role in the political playground.
Suffragists, however, sometimes butted heads over race. Allison L. Sneider in her article “The Impact of Empire on North American Woman Suffrage Movement: Suffrage Racism in an Imperial Context”, explains how following the civil war, the suffrage movement fractured over racism. She describes how large amounts of white southern women joined the movement, many of whom had little to no ties with the abolition movement. Even important suffrage leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton showed racism within their rhetoric. George Lipsitz explains the perpetuation of racial hierarchies, stating that, “political activity has also played a constitutive role in racializing U.S. culture” (George Lipsitz, “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Racialized Social Democracy and the 'White' Problem in American Studies”, 1995, p. 371). Here he alluding to political events such as the Jim Crow laws or, more relevantly, the exclusion of African American women within the suffrage movement reinforcing racial hierarchies.
With the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, women’s inevitable role within politics grew substantially. The eventual ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment led to the subsequent ban of the use of alcohol in all manners except for drinking. Prohibition was one of the first goals of women following obtaining the right to vote. While prohibition was largely unsuccessful and did not last, it was women’s first large-scale use of their power within politics that affected everyday American life. Today they use their power in the form of feminism, continuing to fight for equality and affecting everyday policy. This attitude of progressivism can be traced back to the work that the abolitionists and suffragists did to help bring equality to late nineteenth century and early twentieth century America.
Unlike abolition, however, religion’s role was much smaller within the suffrage movement. Evelyn A. Kirkley explains her article “‘This Work is God's Cause’: Religion in the Southern Woman Suffrage Movement, 1880–1920”, that suffragists were more likely to use arguments of natural rights and of long term benefits than religious arguments. Even the antisuffragists were disinclined to use religious based arguments, and instead, preferred to use arguments based upon the dangers of giving black women the vote or the sentiment that husbands represented their wives in the voting booth.
Although suffrage served to increase the political power of American women, their role within the household was predominantly the same as it was before obtaining the right to vote; however, a few women were beginning to test the social norms of the time. One example of this can be seen in the flappers of the 1920s. It can be argued that it was these women who really started changing the gender roles within America. Nevertheless, Baker explains that antisuffragists and suffragists alike still held to the belief that women belonged in the home, and that women’s role as mother and caretaker must be upheld. This sentiment was also known as republican motherhood.
Similarly to how the suffrage and abolition movements fueled each other, republican motherhood was deeply intertwined within the two. Linda Kerber, within her article 'The Republican Mother: Women and the Enlightenment - An American Perspective', describes republican motherhood as mothers instilling in their sons the concepts of liberty, republic, and masculinity, while preparing daughters with domestic skills and the ability to be the mothers that society expected them to be. It has helped shape and perpetuate gender roles within politics, society, and religion.
Republican motherhood also had the largest impact on women’s roles within American society at large. Kerber elucidates that republican motherhood “legitimized” political activism, allowing for women’s large role in abolition and for the suffrage movement to even take place at all. It also allowed for women to take greater responsibility within religion, due to the fact that they were the ones accountable for carrying on those religious values to their children.
Women have had a large and lasting impact on American culture, society, and politics, but throughout our history, we have excluded them from the history books. This has a substantial negative impact on the women studying those books. Individuals who do not see people who they can relate with or who resemble them, tend to have lower self esteem and bad self images. Children especially depend on seeing themselves represented within groups in order to gain confidence and motivation. The consequences of excluding women from history are unknown, but they are undoubtedly negative. Popular sentiments hold that if we do not know our history we are doomed to repeat it. Additionally, virtue ethics dictate that credit should be given where credit is due. Historically, women have been the ones upholding morality through republican motherhood within this country, and so excluding them further is no longer an option.
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