Early History

• April 22, 1913
  
  The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments forged at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 marks the first formal demand for suffrage based on a Jeffersonian idea of citizenship and the abolitionist movement. This was the beginning of the American feminist movement. Frederick Douglass and Henry Blackwell, as well as suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone worked for equality for women and African Americans.
  
  

Women's Groups

• Suffrage HQ, 1912, Ohio
  
  In 1869, the inclusion of the word "male" in the 14th Amendment and leaving women out of the 15th Amendment catalyzed the movement, and two organizations resulted: the National Woman's Suffrage Association, led by Anthony and Stanton, and the American Women Suffrage Association, led by Stone and Henry Ward Beecher. Stone's group crusaded solely for the right to vote, while Anthony and Stanton's included other causes on their agenda.
  
  In 1878, an amendment was introduced into the legislature for the first time. After little headway, the two organizations merged in 1890 to form the NAWSA.
  
  

Influences

• Women's clubs played a big part in the suffrage movement in the early 20th Century. Clubs like the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC ) which grew out of numerous literary clubs, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union incorporated upper- and middle-class white women, while clubs such as the National Association of Colored Women and Ida Wells brought black women into the cause.
  
  

Path to Ratification

• But poor organization, opposition from the liquor industry, big business and even politically connected women in the anti-suffragist movement slowed progress. Stymied by this opposition, Carrie Chapman Catt refocused the NAWSA's efforts on a national constitutional amendment. Joined by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, they triumphed in 1920.
  
  

Misconceptions

• Many confuse suffrage with the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), introduced first by Daniel Anthony of the House in 1923, and drafted by Alice Paul of the National Women's Party. The ERA was re-introduced many times until it expired in 1982.