Evaluating Research Information

Title Page: The Better Path for Women

Name: Sharon Ester

Instructor: Ashley Berger

Course: Eng 122

Date: 2/24/2009

Of The Two Major Political Parties In The United States, The Republican Party Offers The Better Path For Women To Achieve Parity To An Effective Power Base.

The effective power of women is convincingly obvious when we review the history of their careful accumulation of positive benefits within the Republican Party as juxtaposition with the erratic and disappointed efforts of women trying to access power within the Democrat Party.

Journalist Jane Grey Swisshelm, an abolitionist and advocate of women’s rights became known in Minnesota as the “mother of the Republican Party.” Her essays influenced the Pennsylvania State Legislature to grant married women the right to own property. She was allowed to attend the First National Convention of the Republican Party held in Philadelphia as early as 1856.

In 1862, the first term that the Republicans captured the White House, Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Land-Grant Act. This law established the land grant system of state universities and opened formal education to women. In 1868, many women were pulled into the Republican Party. This was especially true for black women in the South who saw political participation as an expression of freedom and autonomy. In 1872, the Republican Party was the first major political party to offer official recognition of women. During this same period, in a letter to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the very noted Susan B. Anthony proudly proclaimed that she had voted the straight Republican ticket.

In 1894, Republican Estelle Reel of Wyoming was the first women elected to a state office. Later, in 1896, the first equal rights of women plank carried by any major political party was contained in the Republican Party platform. Further, shortly after the 19th Amendment was passed, in 1920, the town of Winslow in Washington County [Arkansas] won national fame by...