Speech-Giving and the Woman Suffrage Movement: Exploring Government Databases for Women’s Voices

Abstract

This article addresses the Woman Suffrage Movement of the 19th century and its continued significance through the exploration of primary source government documents that largely focus on speeches delivered by women, such as Isabella Beecher Hooker, to Congress and current documents that inform these speeches through relevant historical contexts, such as the Equal Rights Amendment. The goal of engaging with these government documents in this way is to encourage increased accessibility of government information relevant to the Woman Suffrage Movement in teaching and learning within libraries and the US K-12 education system.

The Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States was a major milestone in women’s fight for political, social, and economic equality.1 The movement can be traced back to the mid-19th century when a small group of women began advocating for women’s rights. In 1848, a group of women, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, organized the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. At the convention, they issued a “Declaration of Sentiments,” modeled after the Declaration of Independence, that demanded women’s right to vote and women’s equality with men.2 The document asserted that women had the same rights as men and called for the end of woman’s oppression.