For the Vote and More Stories of Women Changing America

For the Vote and More Stories of Women Changing America

Throughout the ages, American women have played substantial roles. Yet, it took them many decades to achieve the constitutional right to vote, an important milestone in the U.S. history. The fight required immense determination, unbelievable valor and personal sacrifices of countless individuals, such as early pioneer and frontier women, indigenous women, women of colour, immigrant women, abolitionists, temperance movement activists and other social reform movement representatives, the women’s suffrage movement leaders (e.g. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony or Lucy Stone), women on the American home front and battle fronts during World War I and World War II and countless significant contributors to the second and third wave of feminism to name but a few.
The aim of the 17th Professor Andrzej Bartnicki Forum for the Advanced Studies of the United States (thereafter 17th American Forum) organized by the Chair of Modern World History at the University of Bialystok, was to bring to light the efforts of the American women and their achievements in their struggle against barriers and obstacles. The present work is the outcome of the 17th American Forum; it is an expression of recognition of the unstinting effort of the generations of American women, reformers, suffragists and professionals. Their activities for the sake of women and their rights, attempts to overcome limitations and barriers opened the following generations the door to a better life and provided them with a chance to enjoy their civil rights.