adapted from The Modern Woman's Rights Movement
by Kaethe Schirmacher
The woman's rights movement is now more strongly organized and
was penetrated the society. There are many causes for this: women's
greater freedom of activity; more vigorous training in self-reliance and
esponsibility; more significant superiority in numbers of women in
Germanic countries, which has forced women to adopt business or
professional callings other than domestic. However, North America is
the cradle of the woman's rights movement. It was the War of
independence of the colonies against England (1774-1783) that
matured the woman's rights movement. In the name of "freedom," this
cause entered the history of the world.
In these troubled times, the American women had, by energetic
activities and unyielding suffering, entirely fulfilled their duty as citizens,
and at the Convention in Philadelphia, in 1787, they demanded as
citizens the right to vote. The Constitution of the United States was
being drawn up at that time, and by 1789 had been ratified by the
thirteen states then existing. In nine of these states, the right to vote in
municipal and state affairs had hitherto been exercised by all "free-born
citizens" or all "taxpayers" and "heads of families," the state
constitutions being based on the principle: no taxation without
representation.
Among these "free-born citizens," "taxpayers," and "heads of
families," there were naturally many women who were consequently
both voters and active citizens. So woman's right to vote in the above-
named states was practically established before 1783. Only the states
of Virginia and New York had restricted the suffrage to males in 1699
and 1777, Massachusetts and New Hampshire following their example
in 1780 and 1784.
In view of this retrograde movement, American women attempted at
the Convention in Philadelphia to secure a recognition of their civil
rights through the Constitution of the whole federation of states. But the
Convention refused this request; just as before, it left the conditions of
suffrage to be determined by the individual states. To be sure, in the
draft of the Constitution the Convention in no way opposed woman's
suffrage. But the nine states which formerly, as colonies, had
practically given women the right to vote, had in the meantime
abrogated this right through the insertion of the word "man" in their
election laws, and the first attempt of the American women to secure
an expressed constitutional recognition of their rights as citizens failed.
These proceedings gave to the woman's rights movement of the
United States a political character from the very beginning. Since then,
the American women have labored untiringly for their political
4
Select ALL the correct answers.
Which two words define the term federation as it is used in the fourth paragraph of the passage?
host
network
combination
union
alliance