Suffrage
Here is a brief history of suffrage found at the Susan B. Anthony Center for Woman's Leadership site. Please read and then proceed to the links following the photographs of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
History of Women's Suffrage
In 1995, the passage of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote, celebrated its 75th anniversary. The resolution calling for woman suffrage had passed, after much debate, at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, convened by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. In The Declaration of Sentiments, a document based upon the Declaration of Independence, the numerous demands of these early activists were elucidated.
The 1848 convention had challenged America to social revolution that would touch every aspect of life. Early women's rights leaders believed suffrage to be the most effective means to change an unjust system. By the late 1800s, nearly fifty years of progress afforded women advancement in property rights, employment and educational opportunities, divorce and child custody laws, and increased social freedoms. The early 1900s saw a successful push for the vote through a coalition of suffragists, temperance groups, reform-minded politicians, and women's social welfare organizations.
Although Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton devoted 50 years to the woman's suffrage movement, neither lived to see women gain the right to vote. But their work and that of many other suffragists contributed to the ultimate passage of the 19th amendment in 1920.
Take a look at the following links; read of the fascinating lives and times of the women who changed the world. You may be able to use some of it in your own flash fiction.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawstime.html Time line One Hundred Years Toward Suffrage: An Overview Compiled by E. Susan Barber
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/cattbio.html Carrie Chapman Catt bio and photo
http://www.picturehistory.com/find/c/179/p/6/mcms.html Suffrage Photographs
And here are a couple of links to add interesting, everyday life details for your flash fiction.
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1890/index.html At Home: At Home with Art and Industry 1890-1920
http://www.costumegallery.com/Hairstyles/1881.htm For Hairstyles of the day.
http://www.costumegallery.com/1882/Petersons/ For Clothes of the day.
Optional links
http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/ Not For Ourselves Alone a Ken Burns movie
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