Rather than women focusing on national concerns, issues tended to centre around rights specific to women.
Inter-war campaigns included:
- A struggle for independent citizenship.
- The right to own land.
- The right to run for public office.
- The right to register as voters in some states.
- The right to have access to all posts in the civil service.
- The right to serve on juries.
This absolute truck-load of rights women still did not possess, was actually gross.
Because there was considerable difference in practices between states on these issues, political activity became more fragmented.
The right to vote, instead also raised other issues.
- The right to vote depended on residence, which in turn depended on the power of the husband who had the right to decide where his family lived, and therefore voted.
- Some states, even by the 1960s would not allow married women to sign contracts independently or run their own businesses without special permission, or permission from their husband.
These inequalities remained in place even though the vote implied that women were equal citizens.
Thus, while gaining the vote led to some citizenship issues being raised, they were often let go and state based, so progress towards full and equal legal and civic rights was intermittent.
- Men continued to dominate public life:
- US society did not accept women’s social and economic equality to men, or that they should aspire to have the same political participation and opportunities for power.
