逍遥学能 2013-08-08 11:34
女权运动第一次浪潮的胜利标志：美国宪法第19条修正案赋予妇女选举权
Women’s suffrage，which was motivated by a belief that it would have a stabilizing and purifying effect on public life，may also be seen as reflecting an antiparty impulse. Party bosses long opposed women’s suffrage, in part because it was associated with the general cause of political reform but also because of uncertainty as to the effects of suddenly doubling the size of the electorate.
妇女选举权问题，受到一种信念的驱动，即它对公众生活有稳定和净化的作用；这个问题也可视为一种反党派的冲动。政党大老们长期以来反对赋予妇女选举权，部分原因是它与政治改革的总体目标有关，也因选举人人数突然翻番的影响所带来的不确定性。
Principally, the women’s suffrage movement was an extension of the drive to improve the legal and general social status of women in the second half of the nineteenth century. Colorado in 1897 was the first state to enfranchise women, and by 1914 twelve states, all of them western, had adopted the reform. Instead of continuing their efforts at the state level, women’s suffrage strategists now pressed for a national constitutional amendment. Sensing the inevitability of the reform, national party leaders began to change their minds about it, and Republican Party endorsed the enfranchisement of women in the presidential campaign of 1916.
最主要的，妇女选举权运动是19世纪后半期改善妇女法律地位和总体社会地位的趋势的延伸。1897年，科罗拉多州成为第一个赋予妇女选举权的州，到1914年，全部属于西部的12个州，也实行了改革。争取妇女选举权的战略家们不再在州的层次上进行努力，而是迫切要求完成全国性的宪法修正案。意识到改革的不可避免性，国家层面的政党领袖开始改变对这个问题的看法，共和党在1916年的总统选举中支持赋予妇女选举权。
The main obstacle to women’s suffrage in Congress was the South. Fearing that any increase in federal power over voting would threaten their recent disfranchisement of the Negro，Southern members of Congress, all Democrats, consistently opposed a women’s suffrage movement. With increasing numbers of women engaged in business and industry during World War I, however, the reform became irresistible. At last in 1919, under Republican leadership, Congress approved the women’s suffrage amendment for submission to the states. The Nineteenth Amendment became part of the Constitution in August 1920.
在国会里，赋予妇女选举权的主要障碍来自南方。 担心联邦政府对投票权控制力度的任何强化,都将威胁南方新近对黑人选举权的剥夺，国会中的全体南方议员，他们是清一色的民主党人，一贯反对赋予妇女选举权。但是，随着第一次世界大战期间从事商业和工业的妇女人数的增长，改革不可抗拒。最后到1919年，在共和党的领导下，国会批准将妇女选举权修正案提交到各州。1920年8月，第19条修正案成为美国宪法的一部分。
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历史理解要点：
主要由于国会内部南方政客的阻挠，经过长期艰苦的斗争,在美国宪法颁布后的130多年后, 美国妇女才获得选举权, 取得了政治平等。但是要彻底铲除性别歧视，使妇女获得真正的社会平等,还有相当长的路要走。