Women’s Suffrage in the 20th Century

A Century of Combat: Women’s History in the United States

A century of combat is a seminal book talking about women’s history in the United States. This e-book was published in 1959 covering events from the nineteenth century up to the adoption of the new constitution in 1920, which allowed women to vote. It falls among the first histories marketing campaign for women rights. This book is organized chronologically, as the writer describes her story using hundreds of women from the nineteenth century mentioning their efforts and struggles and finally their achievements. Despite the author’s brief description of the Colonial periods, the tale begins early in the nineteenth century with an urge to provide education for women.

The Early Struggles for Education

Emma Hart Willard’s Troy was the first seminary for the women to begin in New York that is in 1821. It was then followed by Oberlin College which provided education equally to both men and women. Later on, in 1837, Mount Holyoke College was started to provide training to the women. When the civil war was over, many Colleges began to adopt and support women education.

The Antislavery Movement

There was an antislavery movement which drew many women together, both black and white thereby enhancing unity. The action was campaigning on various issues one of them is to set free African Americans from enslavement. A large number of women viewed their dignity to be the same as those for the slaves. Sarah Grimke, a character in the book considers herself to be revolutionary and argues that she cannot ask for favors and repay with sex. Another character is Lucy Stone who finds it very hard to detach dissolution from women’s rights. She gets married to Henry Blackwell, and during this occasion, they both object publicly to a fair and constitutional system which secures a woman’s secondary status.

A Tale of Struggle for Women’s Rights

This book was written to describe a tale of one of the critical social movements in the history of America. The campaign was about the struggle for women to be considered as voters, which was successful. The authors of this book were as objective as it is seen that after the publication of this writing, few other studies that described women challenges were published. Through this book, tales about women and their struggle to fight for their rights are evident and not left out like in other publications. This book is essential as it becomes the standard text in various courses pertaining women’s history. It also provides a guide and educates the young generation about the women who struggled and fought for their rights in the past.

The Movements and Roles of Women

In this book, the author locates the movement regarding the roles and duties of women, both black and white. In this paper two things may collide, that is writing of women’s history and re-writing of the left history. This book is essential because of two main reasons: first because of the period when the book was written, the 1950s, this fact the book looks like an absolute precursor in women’s history; the second was because of Flexner’s state, her background information and emotions about the book. The book does not address the women’s movement alone but also has an in-depth talk about the history of women’s struggle during the thirties and forties of the centuries. The author’s story is one that captures and escapes history.

Exploring Different Roles and the Fight Against Slavery

Other important aspects of the book are that it shows the different roles women are supposed to play in society and their fight against slavery. The author is also seen educating the young by comparing the suffering of women in leadership in their fight for suffrage facing persecution from the working-class leaders today. The author also views the struggle for the working class, communist women, and the black women to be the same in some ways. Flexner’s experience as an activist was vital as it helped her understand and interpret the actions of the suffragettes, thereby enhancing objectivity. She is seen identifying and describing her struggles to be the same as for the other women. This experience helped her to understand the problem of women suffering as radical although it might be considered standard.

A Personal Journey of Understanding and Activism

This book was written so well as the author does not put herself in the shoes of the working class despite the struggles she has gone through in her life. Due to her perseverance and appreciating the nature of women like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, she was able to develop critical thinking and a sense of awareness of the struggles which women go through. Through her open and social nature, she was able to learn and find out the kind of neglect and suffering the black women are facing. With the writing of Century struggle, the authors have also been able to find their activism, thereby satisfying their personal need for paper and commitment to activism. There was another approach that included the roles played by both black and working-class women in an enterprise thus convincing the reader about the true nature of the struggle for women’s rights.

Work cited

Flexner, Eleanor. Century Of Struggle. Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 1975,.

Flexner, Eleanor, and Ellen F Fitzpatrick. Century Of Struggle. Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 1996,.