AGREE OR DISAGREE? - 'It was the work that women did during the First World War that earned them the vote'?

Question

btw if you think not, please state why, and what you think DID earn them the vote?

Answer 1

It may have swung some votes, but I largely disagree.  The movement for Women's Suffrage dates back to the 19th Century, and grew out of the Abolitionist movement.  Actually, women played a far larger role in the Civil War than in WWI, where Americans fought in relatively few battles and the Germans surrendered as the nation was moving into full mobilization.

Answer 2

Disagree, I believe it was the work of the women's suffrage movement.

One group (Silent Sentinels) picketed the White House every day and night, except Sundays, starting in Jan. 1917, before America joined the war, and lasted until June 1919, when the 19th amendment was passed.

Go to " Banners" and see some of the examples in source.

Edit:

Also read " response " in source. On Jan. 9, 1918, President Wilson annouced his support for the womens suffrage movement. The next day, the House of Representatives passed the 19th amendment but the Senate refused to even debate it until October and then it failed by only two votes.

Another group, the National Woman's Party, urged citizens to vote against anti-suffrage Senators up for re-election in the fall of 1918. After the 1918 election most members of Congress were pro-suffrage. In May of 1919, the House passed the 19th amendment and two weeks later the Senate followed.

Answer 3

Gotta disagree, the constitutional amendment in 1920 was the big one, but woman had been challenging their rights since the 1800,  I am unaware of woman taking over all that much before WWII.

Answer 4

I certainly believe it helped. Remember the only decision makers at that time were men, so they had the final say. Without WW1, women would have eventually got the vote as the world, and it's decision makers were becoming more open to women's feelings, but I think it would have taken a lot longer.

You have to put yourself into the mind set of the times when women had no say in anything outside the home

Answer 5

I would agree that it played a part in the decision to give women the right to vote but I wouldn't agree that it's the only thing.  I think another part of it was simply the fact that the country evolved to live up to it's ideals and it took time for each stage to occur.  The abolition of slavery, women being allowed to vote, civil rights are all things that a country that is truly founded on "liberty for all" must address.  The U.S. is still a relatively young nation so it has taken time to achieve many of the things that enable this country to live up to what it has always taught, that America was "conceived in liberty" to quote Lincoln.

I think if it was just a matter of the work women did during WWI that gave them the right to vote then blacks in this country would have had more rights after their service in WWII but much of that didn't happen for another 20 years.