Call for Change

What Did It Take for Women to Be Considered “Equal” to Men in New York 
Download entire inquiry here.
Supporting Question 1- Who had voting rights in New York State when the United States was founded?
     Source A: Second Continental Congress, preamble to the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
  • We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
      
     Source B: Convention of the Representatives of This State of New York, Section VII, New York State Constitution, April 20, 1777
  • That every male inhabitant of full age, who shall have personally resided within one of the counties of the State, for six months immediately preceding the day of election, shall at such election, be entitled to vote for representatives of the said county in assembly; if during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a Freeholder, possessing a Freehold of the value of twenty pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State: Provided always, that every person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or who was made a freeman of the city of New York.
     
    Public domain. The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ny01.asp.

Supporting Question 2- What were the social roles of women in New York before the 20th century?
  (Images are available when you download the inquiry)  
     
     Source A: Image bank: Social roles of women
     Source B:  US Congress, Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified July 9, 1868, and Fifteenth     Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified February 3, 1870
  • Fourteenth Amendment
    SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
     NOTE:  The full text of the amendment is available at:  http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution/the-amendments/amendment-14-citizenship-rights.
     Used with permission of the National Constitution Center.

    Fifteenth Amendment
    SECTION.1.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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
     NOTE:  The full text of the amendment is available at: http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution/the-amendments/amendment-15-race-no-bar-to-vote.
     Used with permission of the National Constitution Center.
     
Supporting Question 3- How did women move from the home to the political stage in New York?
     (Images are available when you download the inquiry) 

     Source A: Image bank: Social Roles of women
     Source B: US Congress, Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified August 18, 1920