Introduction +thesis Women's rights were one of the major social changes that began to gain attention in the media and reach a peak of active activity during the twentieth century. Women's rights had been in the making since the eighteenth century. Some of the first documented words in favor of women's rights appeared in a letter to John Adams written by his wife Abigail Adams. During the drafting of the United States Constitution (18th to 19th centuries), she wrote to her husband asking him to “remember the ladies.” The first state to allow women to vote in the United States (before the Nineteenth Amendment was drafted) was New Jersey. However, there were restrictions on who had the right to vote. Some of these restrictions included being widowed, being wealthy (owning property), and having to be over thirty. In complete contrast to these early beginnings of women's rights in the United States, it would take Britain about another two centuries for women to begin to acquire some legal rights. Before the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there had been slow progress towards the emancipation of women. Some of these rights arose for very different reasons. Most of them had to do with the way women were treated in the home and the management of domestic matters during the Victorian age (1837-1901). Women were not allowed to seek legal divorce from their husbands on any basis. However, when husbands decide to divorce, they would lose their children, family wealth, and any property they owned. In many cases, husband and wife often separated instead of divorcing because it was considered scandalous in the eyes of society to divorce one's spouse. W...... middle of paper...... Ragette movement in Edwardian Britain: some reflections." Women's History Review 22 (2013): 576-590. Soomo Publishing, “Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage” Youtube . Online video clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQhRCs9IHM (accessed February 20, 2014). Soomo Publishing, “Behind-the-scenes of 'Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage'” Online video clip on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuPCfIM3NWo (accessed February 22, 2014). Sullivan, Margaret The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible yet Elegant Guide to Her World Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2007. “The Red Cross in the First World War." British Red Cross. http://www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/History-and-origin/First-World-War (accessed 23 February 2014 )."Women's Suffrage: In Great Britain." infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/woman-suffrage-in-great-britain.html (accessed March). 6, 2014).