Teaching Justice: Frenemies

Jeannette Rankin on the balcony of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's Washington, D.C., headquarters with Carrie Chapman Catt standing behind her

National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress)

Created in collaboration with the Hard History Project

Grade Level:

This activity is designed for high school students in grades 9-12 (ages 13-19.)

Anti-Bias Objectives

Identity

• Students will recognize that people’s multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals

• Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in multiple spaces.

Diversity

• Students will develop language and knowledge to accurately and respectfully describe how people (including themselves) are both similar to and different from each other and others in their identity groups.
• Students will examine diversity in social, cultural, political and historical contexts rather than in ways that are superficial or oversimplified.

Justice

• Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics.
• Students will identify figures, groups, events and a variety of strategies and philosophies relevant to the history of social justice around the world.

Guiding Questions

How do we resolve conflict? What happens when those working for change agree on the goal but not the methods?

Winning women’s right to vote took the energies of three generations of women, the support of a few men, and nearly a century to accomplish. Along the way, there were many disagreements about methods and ideas. Groups split apart and joined together. Alliances were formed and then broken. What does the history of the suffrage movement reveal about the work for social change?

Strategies and Conflicts in the Suffrage Movement

Explore the history of disputes among leaders of the woman suffrage movement. 

Flexing Feminine Muscles

Read this article by Susan Goodier, who studies US women’s activism, particularly woman suffrage activism, for an overview of the tensions in the long fight for women's right to vote.

Flexing Feminine Muscles: Strategies and Conflicts in the Suffrage Movement

The movement started among abolitionists working to end slavery. After the Civil War, reformers founded the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) to work for full citizenship rights, including the right to vote, for all people regardless of sex or race. But AERA broke apart because of disagreements about whether to support the Fifteenth Amendment, which was designed to protect Black men's suffrage but excluded women. 

Two woman suffrage organizations formed after the split: The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA.) There were many years of animosity between the leaders of the two groups. In 1890, as the next generation of suffragists worked to heal the rift, the two joined to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA.) But in the early 20th century, another fight was on the horizon.

Battling Suffragists

Read about some of the players in the long-running suffragist saga:

• Lucy Stone  (click link for a short biography) remained steadfast to her belief in equal rights for all. When a schism erupted in the woman suffrage movement over support of the 15th Amendment, she formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), with a mission to work for incremental progress, even when it meant that some goals were not yet achieved. Fun fact: Lucy Stone kept her maiden name when she married Henry Blackwell in 1855. Women who followed in her footsteps were often called "Lucy Stoners."  
  
  Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Assocation (NWSA) after their refusal to support suffrage for Black men if it meant leaving women behind. 

Back Together

In 1890, the two suffrage organizations joined to form the National American Woman Suffrage Assocation (NAWSA).

• One of NAWSA's most effective leaders was Carrie Chapman Catt. Read about her life of activism in this article: "To the wrongs that need resistance:” Carrie Chapman Catt’s Lifelong Fight for Women’s Suffrage

Despite decades of work around the country by two generations of suffragists, there were only a few states where women won the right to vote equally with men. In other states, women might be able to vote in local or school board elections. There were more defeats that victories. Progress was slow.

New Suffragists Enter the Fight

Despite decades of work around the country by two generations of suffragists, there were only a few states where women won the right to vote equally with men. In other states, women might be able to vote in local or school board elections. There were more defeats that victories. Progress was slow.

Younger suffragists began challenging NAWSA leaders, believing that their strategies were too cautious. One of those was Alice Paul, who would eventually break with NAWSA to form the National Woman's Party. Read Alice Paul’s Crusade: How A Young Quaker from New Jersey Changed the National Conversation and Got the Vote

Watch this Suffrage in 60 Seconds video about the tensions between Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul. Read the article Did You Know? Alice Paul Versus Carrie Chapman Catt to find out how their feud showed up in an early version of photoshopping.

• 

  Suffrage in 60 Seconds: NAWSA Versus NWP

  Did you know? The National Woman's Party was not the largest or most prominent organization during the fight for women's right to vote. Carrie Chapman Catt led the National American Woman's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) which had more members, more power, and more money than the NWP. Although Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt were both fighting for woman suffrage, they often fought each other as they worked for passage of the 19th Amendment. Whose side would you have been on?

  Duration:

  1 minute, 5 seconds

Betty Gram holds up the tattered sheets of the suffragists' lobby list at the end of the ratification campaign in West Virginia. She is wearing her suffrage prisoner pin.

National Woman's Party

Vocabulary

crusade: a strong campaign for social, political, or religious change
enfranchisement: giving a right or a privilege, especially the right to vote
hypocrisy: when a person's behavior doesn't match what they claim to believe
suffrage: the right to vote
suffragist: someone who works for the right to vote, especially for women
tactician: a person who uses careful plans to achieve something

Are there other words in the essays that are new to you? Find the definitions to help you understand.

Think About It

• Which side of each dispute do you agree with? Would you join NWSA or AWSA? NAWSA or NWP? Explain your answer.
• What other solutions might the suffragists have tried other than forming competing organizations?
• Think about social movements happening today. What tactics, ideas, or leadership styles remind you of the fight for women's suffrage?
• If you were designing a campaign for social change, what aspects of the suffrage movement would you use? What would you do differently?