During the late nineteenth century women throughout the world struggled for gender equality, suffrage rights and political representation. Women were pegged as inferior beings, second-class citizens, and struggled tremendously with self-identification due to the many restrictions placed on their societal role. The jobs they could have were very limited: nurse, seamstress, grade-school teacher, maid, etc.; they could not vote, sue, testify in court, had difficulty in claiming custody of children and were prohibited from higher educational institutions and most of the time their financial success was based more on who they married and what they inherited. During this period of time women couldn't help but to feel as if they were enslaved, stripped of their natural rights. In the nineteenth century into the twentieth the feminist movement began making progress towards women's political and social equality as well as women's sexual and reproductive rights.  Literary and Arts as well as political figures such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Millicent Fawcett, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Nina Allender expressed their frustrations through their works and created a huge impact on the progression towards women's rights. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her 1892 short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," addresses the role of women in the nineteenth century, specifically within the institutions of marriage. Prescribed the "rest cure," restricting her from any intellectual activity, the narrator's condition gradually worsens. The "rest cure" was a thought to be means of treatment, or as many believe a reinforcement of gender roles during the nineteenth century and an attempt to allow women to remain as second-class citizens, prescribed to women usually by male physicians, which caused more harm than healing. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the husband refers to the narrator as his "blessed little goose," (126) a somewhat childish nickname and condescending to the status of women. Women were usually kept in a childish, ignorant state in order to prevent their full developmental growth, which as stated before, enforced their second-class citizen status. Henry Ibsen, although a man, addresses the same issue of this virtual enslavement of women, in his 1879 play, "A Doll's House," where main character and protagonists, Nora, felt that she had been living in a "doll's house," treated as a child and conformed to the life and concerns of her husband rather than her own, a common feeling of women during the nineteenth century. 

The Arts, although not as accredited, played a major role in the fight for women's rights. Nina Allender, American artist, became very involved in the suffrage movement. She served as the president of the DC branch of the National American Women's Suffrage Association, later named Chairman of the DC branch Congressional Union, and Official Cartoonist for the organization. Her illustrations appeared in "The Suffragist," challenging the traditional image of the suffragist which at the time was perceived by male cartoonists as "unattractive, scolding and rowdy." Allender portrayed suffragists as more attractive, intelligent, modern women ready to take a stand in defending her social and political rights. This new portrayal ultimately sparked a reaction and garnered support for women's rights. 

In 1869, Wyoming became the first state to allow women the right to vote and western states: Colorado, Utah and Idaho followed shortly after the NAWSA was founded. Although the movement was making progress, many women became impatient with the rate of change. In 1905 the media began to lose interest in the struggle for women's rights, so the WPSU, militant group founded in 1903, decided to use a different method to get what they wanted. Feminists, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney attended a meeting where Sir Edward Grey, British government minister, was speaking. While Grey was speaking the two women shouted "Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?" And when they refused to stop they were escorted out and arrested with an assault charge for allegedly kicking and spitting at the policeman, exemplifying the words of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, "well-behaved women seldom make history." (Ulrich) After the Women's group intensified their lobbying efforts, additional states allowed women the right to vote in 1910-1914. Alice Paul, a young activist formed the rival Congressional Union in 1913, adopting more militant tactics. The organization's confrontational style attracted a younger generation of women and resurrected the effort for a federal equal rights amendment. 

In 1897 The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was founded by English feminist, political and union leader and writer Millicent Fawcett. The Organization campaigned for the rights of women peacefully through books, pamphlets and meetings to express their ideas and goals. Due to frustration at the lack of success the NUSS was making, many members split. Despite the split, the NUWSS continued to grow and make progress. Fawcett in her 1911 speech said their movement was "like a glacier; slow moving, but unstoppable." (Fawcett) In 1920 she wrote a book about the struggles for the vote, "The Women's Victory," were she discusses the lengthy campaign for women's suffrage and the achievements made in 1918. 

On August 26, 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified, providing national voting rights for women and groups such as The Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor collected information about women in the workforce and assured good working conditions. In 1966 the National Organization for Women was created and fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, approved by Congress in March 1972, and set to be ratified in 1979 which states, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." (Alice Paul). Groups such as the John Birch Society and STOP ERA, who opposed ERA began to claim that women whose lose right to child support, that ERA would lead to unisex public toilet facilities and saw the amendment as a way to abolish criminal laws concerning homosexual acts. After the date of ratification being postponed thirty months, five states withdrew their support and for ratification and the amendment died. Although ERA was not completely ratified then some state included an equal rights amendment in their constitutions.  Although the women's rights movement had seem to have ended, many women continued to pursue democratic reforms within political, social and cultural context and sustained the movement during the Progressive Era. 

