A Struggle for Equality: Women, Citizenship, and Discrimination

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the rise of the suffragette movement, nativism, and xenophobia shaped a series of laws that deeply impacted women's immigration and citizenship rights. These laws reflected the era's gender biases and racial prejudices, leaving many women vulnerable and disenfranchised.

One such law was the Expatriation Act:Section 3 provided for loss of citizenship by American women who married aliens.The Act states that an American woman who marries an alien would lose her citizenship and take on her husband's nationality.

"This is My Own, My Native Land"

This is a article from the New York Tribune by sufragette and women's rights activist Mira Edson Kohler who lost her citizenship under the Expatriation Act. Written Febuary 9,1919./p>

Important Quotes from the Article

"This is my country by every possible right, and no one can say me nay. It is, both by nature and choice. But for me to enjoy citizenship, my country must recognize me."
"To-day, however, I find myself without a citizenship. Have I a country?
"Cannot a reconstructed America include its proper children, self-determining patriots, in its heretofore generous confines?"