The Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States began in 1848 when a women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, NY. By 1869, two organizations had been started, the National Woman Suffrage Association lead by Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the American Woman Suffrage Association led by Lucy Stone. Women realized that they needed to have the right to vote in order to achieve the reforms they wanted.
It took the combined efforts of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, lead by Carrie Chapman Catt and the National Woman’s Party lead by Alice Paul to completely convince President Wilson and Congress to pass a women’s suffrage amendment. Finally, on August 18, 1920 the 19th Amendment was ratified and gave women the right to vote. This was the most significant achievement for women during the Progressive Era (1890-1920.)
Purple, white and gold were the colors of the Women’s National Party. Women suffragettes generally wore white dresses and a sash with the slogan, Votes for Women, in purple, gold and white. White was used to symbolized purity, the quality of their purpose; purple to symbolize loyalty, constancy to purpose, and unswerving steadfastness to a cause; and gold, to symbolize the color of light and life, as is the torch that guides our purpose.
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