The Impact of World War I and President Wilson on Womens Suffrage Essa

The Impact of World War I and President Wilson on Womens right to vote On November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed that ended World War I. The Allies, including the United States, had won. The very next year the nineteenth amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote passed Congress and in 1920 went on to be ratified by the states. The women of the United States had also won. This timing was not mere coincidence. The war had a profound impact on the right to vote movement. It became the central issue in womens activism for a federal vote amendment. In turn, the women used it as a plea and a bargaining nick for the support of politicians, specifically President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was a pivotal figure in the last two years of the fight for womens suffrage, 1917 and 1918. It was his influence on suffrage that ultimately won women the vote by his support of the federal amendment as an emergency war measure. Wilsons support for a federal amendment was remarkable be cause originally the war, he had not considered womens suffrage a federal amendment issue. Other historians rightfully credit Wilson for his all-important support of the federal suffrage amendment. Yet slightly do not document the evolution of his ideology on the issue, and those who do not go faraway enough.For years, Wilson had held the position that womens suffrage was a states rights issue. On August 15, 1912, as Wilson was campaigning in Massachusetts, Governor Eugene Noble Foss wrote him to ask about his position on womens suffrage. The Governor stated that he had been to a lower place pressure from local factions of the womens movement to learn Wilsons thoughts on the issue. Two days later Wilson responded and spelled it out for the Governor. I must s... ...unardini and Steinson clearly shows Wilsons important influence on the suffrage movement. It even conveys the fact that Wilson had not always supported a federal suffrage amendment, but neither Lunardini nor St einson goes far enough in explaining the why and the how of his conversion. Through his correspondence with leaders in the womens movement and other politicians, Wilson abandoned his previous position of suffrage as a states rights issue. He came to believe in a federal amendment for a variety of philosophical as well as mulish concerns. This conversion and its process were important occurrences in the course of American womens history. Without Wilsons support it is impossible to tell how much longer the suffrage strife would have worn on, and his support would never have come about if it were not for all these influences on his evolving ideology.