The Struggle for Woman Suffrage in New Jersey
Central issue, problem, or question: How and when did New Jersey women
gain the right to vote?
Significance: This lesson examines the tactics and beliefs of woman suffrage
advocates and opponents during the Progressive Era in New Jersey.
Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies: Standard 6.4
(United States and New Jersey History). I-2 (Discuss the rise of the
Progressive Movement).
Objectives: After learning about the woman suffrage movement in New Jersey
and examining primary source documents, students will be able to:
• Identify significant people and events in the history of woman suffrage in
New Jersey and in the United States.
• Describe the roles New Jersey women played in the national suffrage
movement.
• Analyze pro- and anti-suffrage arguments.
Abstract: Middle school students will learn about Alice Paul and her tactics as
leader of the National Woman’s Party and will write an imaginary interview of or
conversation with Paul. High school students will analyze pro- and anti-suffrage
arguments and write an imaginary dialogue between a supporter and an
opponent of woman suffrage just before the 1915 New Jersey referendum.
Duration: One or two 45-minute class periods.
Sources
Secondary Sources
Delight Dodyk online lecture: “Suffragists and Progressives: The New Jersey
Connection,” July 2005; available in the “Woman Suffrage” section of the
New Jersey History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org.
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Sally Hunter Graham, “Woodrow Wilson, Alice Paul, and the Woman
Suffrage Movement,” Political Science Quarterly 98 (Winter 1983-1984):
665-79.
Neale McGoldrick and Margaret Crocco, Reclaiming Lost Ground: The
Struggle for Woman Suffrage in New Jersey (Trenton, 1993).
New Jersey Women's History website,
http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory/
Library of Congress, “Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of
the National Woman's Party,”
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/index.html
Library of Congress, “Votes for Women: Selections from the National
American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921,”
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawshome.html
The Progressive Banner, program 9, New Jersey Legacy television series,
co-produced by the New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey
Network, 2003, videocassette.
Primary Sources
Anne Herendeen, “What the Home Town Thinks of Alice Paul,”
Everybody’s Magazine, October 1919.
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc1.pdf
“Well, boys, we saved the home,” Trenton Times, 22 October 1915.
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc2.pdf
“Suffragists in Ballot Parade,” Newark Evening News, 28 October 1912.
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc3.pdf
Leaflets by the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage,
1915.
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc4.pdf
Materials: Teachers will need copies of the primary source documents listed
above.
Background: In 1776, female property holders (a limited group due to the
common law principle of coverture) were accorded the right of suffrage by New
Jersey’s first constitution, but this situation was short-lived. New Jersey women,
along with African American males, were disfranchised by legislative act in 1807.
It would take more than one hundred years and many decades of struggle for
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New Jersey women to gain the right of suffrage under the Nineteenth, or Susan
B. Anthony, Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Although the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association predated the Progressive
Era, it was during this period that the state’s suffrage movement gained
momentum, forming new societies and drawing new members from the women’s
club, temperance, and trade union movements. Local suffragists borrowed
tactics pioneered by the more radical English suffrage movement, organizing
open air rallies and suffrage parades in New Jersey.
In the 1890s, suffrage supporters focused their energies on amending New
Jersey’s constitution, promoting woman suffrage as a Progressive measure. In
1897, a proposed amendment that would have allowed women to vote in local
school elections was defeated. A referendum on full suffrage was likewise voted
down in 1915. Blaming liquor interests, voter fraud, the Catholic Church, and
machine politics for the defeat, New Jersey suffragists shifted their attention to
the national scene. They believed that the surest means to achieve woman
suffrage in New Jersey was through ratification of the Anthony Amendment.
New Jersey women participated in campaigns by both the National American
Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the more radical Congressional
Union, later the National Woman’s Party (NWP), led by New Jersey-native Alice
Paul. In 1917, the suffrage movement was split into two camps when the NWP
refused to adopt the NAWSA strategy of supporting Woodrow Wilson’s
presidency and volunteering to work for the war effort. Instead, NWP activists
from across the country began picketing the White House, silently carrying
banners that read: "Mr. President What Will You Do for Woman Suffrage?" and
"Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?” Hundreds of NWP
demonstrators were arrested for obstructing traffic, including several New Jersey
women, among them Alison Turnbull Hopkins of Morristown, whose husband J.
A. H. Hopkins had been a prominent Wilson supporter during the 1916
presidential election. Phoebe Scott of Montclair was jailed for seventeen days,
during which time she went on a hunger strike, like many of the other women. By
contrast, NJWSA members sought to convert others to the cause of woman
suffrage by engaging in a wide range of volunteer activities in support of the war.
New Jersey women were also active in the fight against woman suffrage. In
1912, they organized a state chapter of the National Association Opposed to
Woman Suffrage. The New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage
(NJAOWS) argued that the majority of women did not wish to vote and that
women would lose legal protections if granted political equality. In tactics, antisuffragists were very similar to suffrage supporters, printing and distributing
leaflets, sponsoring debates, and delivering lectures.
By focusing their efforts on the Anthony Amendment, suffrage supporters finally
achieved their goal. In 1919, New Jersey became the twenty-ninth state to ratify
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the amendment, and later that year, after the Tennessee legislature voted for
ratification, New Jersey women finally regained the right to vote.
Key Words:
Suffrage
Suffragist
Temperance
Ballot
Franchise
Disfranchise
Partial Suffrage
Constitutional Amendment
Ratification
Picket
National American Woman Suffrage Association
National Woman’s Party
Congressional Union
Middle School Procedures
The teacher should begin the lesson by showing the video segment on woman
suffrage from the New Jersey Legacy television series, available in the “Woman
Suffrage” section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website,
http://nj-history.org. After viewing the video, the teacher should ask students:
• What was the significance of the 1915 New Jersey referendum on woman
suffrage?
• What was Woodrow Wilson’s position (as governor of New Jersey and
later as president of the United States) on woman suffrage?
• Who was Alice Paul?
• How do you think her experiences in England shaped her attitudes toward
woman suffrage?
• Why did Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party adopt the tactic of
picketing the White House in 1917? Do you think this tactic was effective?
The teacher should explain that because of the militant tactics she promoted as
leader of the NWP, Alice Paul was a controversial figure, even among suffrage
supporters. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the NAWSA, publicly chastised
Paul and the NWP when the pickets continued even after the United States
declared war on Germany. The teacher should then hand out an article on Alice
Paul by Anne Herendeen.
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc1.pdf
The teacher should read through the document with the students, highlighting
relevant passages and explaining any difficult words. Afterwards, the teacher
should lead a discussion on the following questions:
• What is the tone of this article—admiring, disapproving, neutral?
• What was Mrs. L.’s attitude toward Alice Paul?
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•
•
•
•
•
Why did Mrs. L. disapprove of Paul’s tactics?
How did Mrs. L. think suffrage would be achieved?
How does Helen Paul explain local disapproval of her sister’s protest
activities?
What does this article tell us about Alice Paul?
Are there any questions you would have liked to ask Mrs. L., Alice Paul’s
mother, or Alice herself?
For homework, students should write an imaginary interview between Alice Paul
and Anne Herendeen. Alternately, they might imagine a conversation between
Alice and Mrs. L. The interview or dialogue should focus on the topic of Paul’s
beliefs, experiences, and tactics. On the following day, the teacher should invite
students to share their interviews and dialogues with the class before handing
them in.
High School Procedures
For homework the night before this lesson, students should read the section of
their textbook on the woman suffrage movement and the ratification of the
Nineteenth Amendment. The teacher should begin the class with a short lecture
(based on Delight Dodyk’s online lecture, available in the “Woman Suffrage”
section of the New Jersey History Partnership Project website,
http://nj-history.org) on the suffragists’ campaign to amend the state constitution
in 1915.
Afterwards, the teacher should hand out copies of the cartoon from the Trenton
Times about the proposed amendment’s defeat.
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc2.pdf
After students have had a chance to examine the cartoon, the teacher should ask
the following questions:
• What do you see in this cartoon?
• Describe the men pictured in this cartoon. What are they doing? Do they
look like upstanding citizens? Why or why not? (Note: The teacher should
call attention to the glasses of alcohol in their hands. Many suffragists were
also temperance supporters, and they blamed liquor interests along with
machine politics for the amendment’s defeat.)
• Explain the cartoon’s caption.
• What is the cartoon’s message?
• Who would agree with this message? Who would disagree?
The teacher should then assign students to cooperative groups of 3-4 to analyze
two primary source documents:
• “Suffragists in Ballot Parade.”
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc3.pdf
• Leaflets by the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
http://nj-history.org/proRef/womanSuff/pdf/womanSuffDoc4.pdf
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The first document describes a pro-suffrage parade in Newark; the second is a
leaflet designed to discourage voter support for the 1915 woman suffrage
amendment. As they read the documents, student groups should list arguments
for and against woman suffrage and analyze the assumptions and logic behind
these arguments. Once students have completed their analysis, the teacher
should select a representative from each group to share the group’s findings with
the class.
For homework, each student will write an imaginary dialogue between a
supporter and an opponent of woman suffrage (male or female) taking place just
before the 1915 New Jersey referendum. On the following day, the teacher
should invite students to share their dialogues with the class.
Connections: Teachers might use this lesson as part of a larger lesson on
woman suffrage or social protest in the United States.
Comments and Suggestions: Teachers might wish to take their students on
a fieldtrip to visit Paulsdale in Mt. Laurel, where Alice Paul was born and
raised.
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