| By Galfe Staff |
Seventy-two. That’s how many years passed between the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848—the formal beginning of the women’s rights movement in the United States—and the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Suffragists fought the battle in courtrooms, at protests, and in countless homes and hearts.
During Women’s History Month each March, we reflect on women like Carrie Chapman Catt, Sojourner Truth, and Mary Church Terrell, whose stories remind us not only of the progress that’s been made but also of the work that remains. The questions suffragists raised are still shaping public discourse today. Alice Paul, for example, drafted the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1923, and it remains a topic of debate more than a century later.
Bring these women’s stories to life with in-depth content from Gale In Context: High School and Gale In Context: College. To get you started, we’ll introduce you to a curated list of suffragists with accompanying biographies that you can explore in greater depth via Gale In Context. But first, we’ve designed a suite of flexible resources to complement your classroom activities and research—Women’s History Month: 72 Years to Suffrage.
Women’s History Month: 72 Years to Suffrage
Gale In Context offers thousands of curated topic pages, including one on the Women’s Suffrage Movement for both high school and college, as well as dedicated Women’s History Month pages for Gale In Context: High School and Gale In Context: College. Each features biographies, journal articles, news items, reference entries, videos, and more.
To make the most of this content, we created a robust package of worksheets to support your students’ research. Whether used to support a single assignment or an extended project, these tools can be integrated into your lesson plans to guide students in learning about the suffrage movement.
Here’s what’s included:
- Video Tutorial: Preview the Women’s History Month topic pages with this brief video. [High School Video Tutorial | College Video Tutorial]
- Women’s Suffrage Timeline: Piece together critical moments from the 72-year struggle for suffrage to better understand the movement’s progression. [High School Activity | College Activity]
- Suffragist Research Templates: Research key figures in the fight for political enfranchisement.
- Customizable Research Templates: Encourage students to chart their own course by researching a suffragist or movement milestone of their own choosing. [High School Activity | College Activity]
Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)
High School Biography | College Biography
Sojourner Truth’s fiery words rang out at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, and across the centuries: “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!”
Born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, Truth dedicated herself to tirelessly assisting freedmen in securing land grants after the end of the Civil War. Her extemporaneous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, quoted above, exemplifies her passion for the intersectionality of civil rights.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
High School Biography | College Biography
The suffrage movement’s first sparks were ignited at the Seneca Falls Convention, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton unveiled the Declaration of Sentiments. This document demanded far more than voting rights. Stanton demanded “from the ground up” reforms around women’s societal roles: equal access to education, property rights within marriage, workplace equity, and personal autonomy.
Stanton’s advocacy for women’s rights was groundbreaking but was not without its flaws. In her limited perspective, she sought to shape the suffragist movement on her terms, sidelining or marginalizing those who didn’t fit her vision. Lori D. Ginzberg, author of Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life, puts it succinctly: “She primarily had in mind women much like herself: white, middle-class, culturally if not religiously protestant, propertied, well-educated.”
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
High School Biography | College Biography
Susan B. Anthony’s childhood prepared her for a life of advocacy, thanks to a Quaker upbringing that valued equality and social justice. Initially a teacher, she soon found herself channeling her energy into movements like abolition, temperance, and women’s suffrage. Anthony traveled nationwide, delivering impassioned speeches to often hostile audiences and organizing countless campaigns to demand voting rights.
One of the movement’s most defining moments was her arrest for voting illegally in 1872. In her court statement, she told the judge, “May it please your honor, I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty . . . And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim, that ‘Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God’.”
Between 1881 and 1902, Anthony partnered with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, and later, Ida Husted Harper to publish volumes I–IV of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage. The final two volumes were published in 1922.
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
High School Biography | College Biography
As president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), Carrie Chapman Catt announced her “winning plan” to secure the vote in 1916. Her unifying strategy took a two-pronged approach to advancing the suffrage movement: It mobilized local groups to push for state-level victories in places like New York, while concentrating national lobbying efforts on Congress to secure a federal amendment. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 26, 1920.
However, Catt recognized that although the battle had been won, the war still wasn’t over. She wanted to ensure women were educated and empowered as civic participants. To that end, Catt formed the League of Women Voters in 1920, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to informing women about the democratic process and helping with voter registration.
Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)
High School Biography | College Biography
Born to formerly enslaved parents who became some of the first black millionaires in the South, Mary Church Terrell continued the family’s pioneering legacy as one of the first black women to earn a college degree upon graduation from Oberlin College in 1884. Terrell dedicated herself to education and activism. She was a professor and principal at Wilberforce University in Washington, D.C., and served as the city’s first African American woman member of the Board of Education.
Terrell also co-founded and became the first president of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896, a position in which she asserted that suffrage for black women was “inseparable from questions of black men’s disfranchisement and the broader freedom struggle.” In 1913, Terrel marched in the first women’s suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., and continued to picket over the next decade as a member of the Equal Suffrage League and Silent Sentinel alongside Alice Paul.
Jeannette Rankin (1880–1973)
High School Biography | College Biography
Long before she became the first woman elected to Congress, Jeannette Rankin was a leading advocate for suffrage and social reform in her home state of Montana. Her work as a lobbyist for NAWSA secured the right to vote for Montana women in 1914.
Montana was one of the few states to grant women suffrage before the passage of the 19th Amendment, following victories in Wyoming in 1869 and Colorado in 1893. This move allowed Rankin to run for office, making history as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives in 1916. In her first term, Rankin—along with 49 male representatives—voted against U.S. entry into World War I in 1917. As the only woman in Congress, she faced intense scrutiny, with critics questioning whether her opposition to the war reinforced doubts about women’s political judgment. Though she lost reelection in 1918, she won her seat again in 1940.
Alice Paul (1885–1977)
High School Biography | College Biography
Though she was born in the United States, Alice Paul’s education in England exposed her to British suffragettes’ bold, militant tactics. Returning to the U.S. with a newfound resolve, she focused on securing a federal amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Her most iconic effort, the Silent Sentinels, staged pickets at the White House for more than two years, challenging President Wilson to act. Paul’s dedication to equality continued beyond the suffrage movement, as she authored the ERA to secure civil rights for all, regardless of gender.
Inspire Future Trailblazers With Gale In Context
Sharing the lives and legacies of suffragists gives students perspective into how ordinary individuals can ignite extraordinary change.
The resources within Gale In Context allow educators to take these lessons further. With full access to the Gale In Context databases, students can engage with a curated collection of educator-vetted, authoritative materials, including videos, periodicals, primary documents, and more.