In one or two paragraphs, explain why women struggled for so long to gain the right to vote in the United States. Make sure your answer includes a common social belief about women in the 1800s, an issue the women's rights movement had to overcome, and a legal barrier activists faced as they fought for voting rights.

Women struggled for so long to gain the right to vote in the United States because society expected women to take care of their family and not participate in politics, women's rights activists debated women's suffrage, and the fact that it was a crime to vote for women.   In the text it states that society had many expectations for women, such as running a household and not commenting on politics; yet, in reality, many women worked outside the home and got involved in communities.  Furthermore, since society believed women should do certain things, they were treated less than men when they broke those expectations.  The passage says that some women that were a part of the women’s rights movement did not want the right to vote because they thought it would ruin the support for other women’s rights.  This means that the public thought the idea of woman suffrage was ridiculous, making it hard for women to convince people to consider it.  The paragraph states that some women tried to vote in 1872 but were arrested and made a setback in the women’s rights movement because the ruling said that it was a crime for women to vote.  This explains that because it was a crime for women to vote, it was difficult for them to realize and achieve the goals they wanted, especially voting rights.

1. temperance, abolitionist, suffragist