19th at 100: Commemorating the Suffrage Struggle and Its Legacies in Northeast Ohio

19th-century Suffrage Movements in Northeast Ohio

The threads of the suffrage struggle in northeastern Ohio are woven through the fabric of many other reform movements. Many women in the 19th century were not involved in politics or social reform. Yet as the second Great Awakening swept the northeast, a few courageous and thoughtful women sought to bring reform where they saw great need. Those who became politically active saw injustice that needed to be righted, but in the process they ran into barriers. Women rarely spoke in public, or wrote on political matters, or organized to change public opinion and policy. In that struggle, the need for women’s rights--for political and social equality--stood out starkly. The reformers’ call for equality resonated with women who were tired of being denied everything from property rights, control of their wages and custody rights, to higher education and suffrage. The women’s rights movements had many causes, and in the early 19th century it was by no means clear that suffrage would become their primary political focus.

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