Women's Suffrage
As with most campus activist movements, there is a relationship with movements outside the college walls. In 1847, the Seneca Falls women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. One of its resolutions called for voting rights for women. This unofficially began the push for women's suffrage. In 1919 the Woman Suffrage Amendment (originally introduced into Congress in 1878) was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and was then sent to the states for ratification. After decades of advocacy by countless activists, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote.
Student activists at the College for Women took their new right seriously, forming their own chapter of the League of Women Voters shortly thereafter. The Cleveland League was formed in 1920, and the League of Women Voters chapter at the College for Women was organized in October 1921 by alumna Florence Allen.
Explore the links below for more details about the suffrage movement on Case Western Reserve University's campus.
