Changes

While some women, such as Barbara Leigh Smith, focused on employment and education for women as key areas to focus on, others saw other goals as more of a key focus. Increasingly, more feminists began to see that obtaining voting rights was perhaps among the most important steps before other rights could be obtained. Throughout the 19th century, Biblical interpretation of women's role in the house and family prevented their ability to advance feminist ideals. To counteract the power of the church's or some religious interpretation of sex-based hierarchy, Stanton produced an influential work called <i>The Woman's Bible</i>, written in 1895. Although it was much maligned by Biblical scholars, Stanton tried to argue for equality using the Bible. This helped to provide some religious justification, at least for some, for emerging feminism in the period. Furthermore, the National Woman Suffrage Association, already established by 1869, became a prominent organizations advocating for woman suffrage, which took more radical approaches, such as rejecting the 15th Amendment unless it included woman suffrage. The other major movement was American Woman Suffrage Association, which advocated for state by stat campaigning to achieve suffrage. There was a wide split among feminists regarding the approach. However, in the late 19th century it became clear that having rival groups weakened the suffrage movement. In 1890, the two groups merged and formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).<ref>For more on emerging suffrage movements in the late 19th century, see: Tetrault, L. (2014). <i>The myth of Seneca Falls: memory and the women’s suffrage movement, 1848-1898</i>. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.</ref>

In 1869, John Allen Campbell, the first Governor of the Wyoming, granted women the right to vote, making Wyoming the first territory or state women had specific laws that expressed their rights to vote. The National Woman's Party emerged in 1916 as another suffrage organization, which broke from the NAWSA, which had focused only on states rather than any federal laws. They held high profile protests in front of the White House during World War I, as they saw targeting the federal government as the most expedient way to gain the right to vote. Although their protests were often ignored, arguably effort by women during the war, mostly in replacing men in factories, helped many to see that women did have equal skills to men. This helped to persuade, along with the feminist organisations, many in congress that women should have the right to vote. Congress passed the 19th Amendment in 1919 and enough states ratified the amendment by 1920, making the right for women to vote legal in the United States in 1920. While the process itself was contentious, often with hunger strikes and even mob violence, sometime by both sides in the argument, there continued to be problems in the 1920s. Some regions tried to argue the 19th Amendment was unconstitutional and tried to bar women from holding office or voting. Nevertheless, with the gradual acceptance of women as voters, what can be considered the First Wave of feminism had culminated in achieving a major success for women (Figure 2).<ref>For more on the late 19th century and early 20th century path for women in gaining the right to vote, see: Smith, K. M. (1994). <i>New paths to power: American women, 1890-1920</i> New York: Oxford University Press. </ref>