User:KMmullins/Women's suffrage in the United States

History of Woman Suffrage
In 1876 Anthony, Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage began working on the History of Woman Suffrage. Originally envisioned as a modest publication that would be produced quickly, the history evolved into a six-volume work of more than 5700 pages written over a period of 41 years. '''Susan B. Anthony had been collecting material, such as newspaper articles and reports, during her time as a women's rights activist. Due to the amount of work required from the project, Susan B. Anthony would take their belonging, and materials related to their research to Stanton’s household in 1876. Reviewing their past efforts was a strenuous activity for Anthony, as each letter or article gave her less hope that they’ll be able to complete this retelling of history. [2]'''  Its last two volumes were published in 1920, long after the deaths of the project's originators, by Ida Husted Harper, who also assisted with the fourth volume. Written by leaders of one wing of the divided women's movement (Lucy Stone, their main rival, refused to have anything to do with the project), the History of Woman Suffrage preserves an enormous amount of material that might have been lost forever, but it does not give a balanced view of events where their rivals are concerned. '''Lucy Stone is known to have little interest in Anthony and Stanton’s book because she believed that history should be refrained from being recorded by the parties involved. Stone was concerned about the possible bias thoughts that could be included in the book, and only gave limited information about  Stone’s party (AWSA)[1]. A 107 page summary was included in the final draft of the “History of Woman Suffrage” depicting the history of Lucy Stone’s wing, the American Woman Suffrage Association. Although Lucy Stone’s views on the Anthony and Stanton’s efforts to record history while it's happening, Stone did not resist or attempt to remove the summary of her organization from her rival’s books.''' Because it was for years the main source of documentation about the suffrage movement, historians have had to uncover other sources to provide a more balanced view.

New Women
The concept of the New Woman emerged in the late nineteenth century to characterize the increasingly independent activity of women, especially the younger generation. The move from households to public spaces was expressed in many ways. In the late 1890s, riding bicycles was a newly popular activity that increased women's mobility even as it signaled rejection of traditional teachings about women's weakness and fragility. Susan B. Anthony said bicycles had "done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world".[179] Elizabeth Cady Stanton said that "Woman is riding to suffrage on the bicycle.[180] The free movement of women allowed the newly formed feminists to break away from the dependency of their male counterparts. Women could be seen extending themselves into realms such as the workforce, society and the fields of education.[3] Industrialization of the United States allowed for changes in the workforce and in the end, the social structures that Americans live by. These dramatic alterations to the standard boundaries that women lived by assisted in creating a larger backing for the Suffragettes due to the new sense of independence.  Activists campaigned for suffrage in ways that were still considered by many to be "unladylike," such as marching in parades and giving street corner speeches on soapboxes. In New York in 1912, suffragists organized a twelve-day, 170-mile "Hike to Albany" to deliver suffrage petitions to the new governor. In 1913 the suffragist "Army of the Hudson" marched 250 miles from New York to Washington in sixteen days, gaining national publicity.[181]

College Equal Suffrage League
For decades the Women’s suffrage movement’s organizations were continuously lead by their original founders, meaning that the younger generation of women activist had ceased to have an impact on the organizations such as NAWSA.When Maud Wood Park attended the NAWSA convention in 1900, she found herself to be virtually the only young person there. Maud Wood Park had realized that women on college campuses had little interest or appreciation for the grueling decades of dedication Susan B. Anthony, Alice Stone Blackwell and other Suffragettes, for their basic rights.[4]  After returning to Boston, she formed the College Equal Suffrage League with the assistance of fellow Radcliffe alumnae, Inez Haynes Irwin. The College Equal Suffrage League would become affiliated with the NAWSA through the persistence of Park. Maud Wood Park would eventually begin holding tours across the United States colleges to spread knowledge on to the young generation of women receiving an education or alumnae. [5] The hard work of Maud Wood Park and her colleagues created the foundation for the new generations of women’s suffragettes and allowed for the revolutionizing ideas to inspire efforts of larger or similar organizations. Largely through Park's efforts, similar groups were organized on campuses in 30 states, leading to the formation of the National College Equal Suffrage League in 1908.[183] The College Equal Suffrage League would eventually disband in 1917, with the recruitment of new members ceasing. The organization fostered many suffragettes that would lend a hand in the passing of the nineteenth amendment in 1920 through protesting and other acts. Park accomplished their goals of spreading an awareness of the women’s rights movements, and assisted in creating impactful leaders for their causes. Although the College Equal Suffrage League disbanded, the men and women involved were directed to other organizations at the time like NAWSA.