The rise of the women’s suffrage in America and Spain

United States

At the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century, American feminists began an active campaign for the achievement of suffrage.

They were led by Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and framed since 1890 in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. They directed their efforts to get out the vote in various states and forced a change in the US constitution.

Susan B. Anthony, Elisabeth C. Stanton and other American suffragists.

The women's vote was being approved by referenda in various states: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona, Kansas, Nevada and Montana.

In 1916, the first woman was elected to the US Congress in Montana, Jeanette Rankin.Finally, in 1919, President Wilson, from the Democratic Party, personally announced his support for women's suffrage.

In 1920, it was approved the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution granting the right to vote to women.

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." - president Wilson. 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, known as Woodrow Wilson was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921.

Wilson worked as a professor and scholar at various institutions before being chosen as President of Princeton University. In the election of 1910, he was the gubernatorial candidate of New Jersey's Democratic Party, and was elected the 34th Governor of New Jersey, serving from 1911 to 1913. He was the first Southerner elected as president since 1848,and Wilson was a leading force in the Progressive Movement, bolstered by his Democratic Party's winning control of both the White House and Congress in 1912.

Spain

In 1931, many people of Parliament feared that women, who were accused of lack of critical thinking, endangered the Republic. But, on October 1, it was approved one Article of the Constitution that established the female right to vote for the first time in Spanish History.

In these courts, there were only three women and, two of them, Clara Campoamor and Victoria Kent, were responsible for the conflicting positions.

Clara Campoamor was a politician in the Spanish Republic who fought for the rights and equality of women. She was one of the main proponents of women's suffrage in Spain, which was achieved in 1931, just 84 years ago.

Victoria Kent Siano was a Spanish lawyer and Republican politics. She was the first woman to join the Madrid Bar Association in 1925, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the first woman in the world who practiced law before a military tribunal.

Suffragist proposal was achieved with 161 votes in favor and 121 votes against after hearing the debate between Victoria Kent and Clara Campoamor, in which the winner was Clara. As a result, women could vote in the next elections in 1933.

However, just three years later, after the elections of 1936, the Franco’s dictatorship in 1939, the democratic illusions were completed not only for women but for all Spaniards. with the fall of the dictatorial regime illusion of women's suffrage was again a reality in the democratic elections of 1977.

As we can see behind the women's suffrage there have been many women who have fought very hard to get it.

A curiosity: table of countries with women's suffrage