women's rights movement — Bunk History

Women's rights activists Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis, Lucretia Mott, Harriot Kezia Hunt, and Harriet Martineau.

Why the 1850 Worcester Women's Rights Convention Is a Vital Part of History

Women’s rights activism has shaped America for the better throughout our history, so why should colleges be banned from teaching it?

by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on March 1, 2023

Cartoon that shows a man struggling to shake a woman's hand because of her wide skirt.

Lampooning Political Women

For as long as women have battled for equitable political representation in America, those battles have been defined by images.

by Allison K. Lange via Humanities New York on September 15, 2020

How Women Got the Vote Is a Far More Complex Story Than the History Textbooks Reveal

An immersive story about the bold women who helped secure the right to vote is on view at the National Portrait Gallery.

by Alicia Ault via Smithsonian on April 9, 2019

The Historic Women's Suffrage March on Washington

On March 3, 1913, thousands of women gathered in Washington D.C. for the Women's Suffrage Parade -- the first mass protest for a woman's right to vote.

by Michelle Mehrtens via TED on March 4, 2019

Women's liberation movement demonstrating in Washington D.C.

The Waves of Feminism, and Why People Keep Fighting Over Them, Explained

If you have no idea which wave of feminism we’re in right now, read this.

by Constance Grady via Vox on March 20, 2018

The Power Suit’s Subversive Legacy

Women have long borrowed from men’s dress to claim the authority associated with it. It hasn’t always worked.

by Angella D'avignon via The Atlantic on December 26, 2017

Women's Suffrage @100

We date the expansion of voting rights to women in 1920, but the real story is a lot more complex.

by Linda Gordon via Public Books on September 22, 2017

How Bicycles Boosted the Women's Rights Movement

Susan B. Anthony said that the bicycle did "more to emancipate women than anything else in the world."

via Vox on June 2, 2017

A group of female workers at a protest in Russia.

The Socialist Origins of International Women’s Day

From the beginning, International Women's Day has been an occasion to celebrate working women and fight capitalism.

by Cintia Frencia, Daniel Gaido via Jacobin on March 8, 2017

How Women Changed American Politics

How feminism and antifeminism created Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on June 27, 2016

Up Against the Centerfold

What it was like to report on feminism for Playboy in 1969

by Susan Braudy via Jezebel on March 18, 2016

The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman

The history of the comic-book superhero's creation seven decades ago has been hidden away — until now.

by Jill Lepore via Smithsonian on October 1, 2014

Activism in the US

The Civil Rights movement led the way, soon followed by anti-war protests and activism for women’s issues and gay rights.

via Digital Public Library of America on April 1, 2013

Shulamith Firestone, 1997.

When the Battle's Lost and Won

Shulamith Firestone and the burdens of prophecy.

by Audrey Wollen via Harper’s on March 28, 2025

A large crowd of women marching in New York City for the Women's Strike for Equality in 1970.

When the Personal Was Political

Second-wave feminists meant business—but they had a lot of fun at it, too.

by Jill Filipovic via Democracy Journal on December 17, 2024

Shirley Chisolm

Shirley Chisholm Was a Trailblazer for Change

Explore the groundbreaking career of the first Black woman to seek the U.S. presidency.

via Retro Report on November 21, 2024

Collage of Matilda Gage and good and bad witches from "The Wizard of Oz" and "Wicked."

The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz

The story of suffragist Matilda Gage, the woman behind the curtain whose life story captivated her son-in-law L. Frank Baum as he wrote his classic novel.

by Evan I. Schwartz via Smithsonian on November 18, 2024

A crowd of Feminist protestors marching in New York.

A New Look at the Feminist Earthquake

How women's liberation transformed America and why our understanding of 1963-1973 needs to include more voices.

by Sara Bhatia via Washington Monthly on August 25, 2024

Book cover of "The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920."

Expanding the Boundaries of Reconstruction: Abolitionist Democracy from 1865-1919

Sinha enlarges the temporal boundaries students are accustomed to by covering the end of the 19th century into the Progressive era with the 19th Amendment.

by Erik J. Chaput, Russell J. DeSimone via Commonplace on July 16, 2024

Cover of "Suffrage Song" on left, featuring three suffragists. On right, cartoonist Caitlin Cass.

This Cartoonist Wants to Tell the Complicated History of Women’s Voting Rights

A new graphic book unpacks the role that some White women played in suppressing voting rights for all — and the lessons today in the fight for universal ballot access.

by Barbara Rodriguez via The 19th on June 17, 2024

Women wearing early twentieth-century gym suits emblazoned with 1902, some women in baskets.

How Sports Clothes Became Fashion

The evolution of women's sportswear.

by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox via Nursing Clio on May 15, 2024

Women's suffrage march

When Feminism Was ‘Sexist’—and Anti-Suffrage

The women who opposed their own enfranchisement in the Victorian era have little in common with the “Repeal the 19th” fringe of today.

by Mary Harrington via The American Conservative on April 15, 2024

Statue of Sojourner Truth.

The Remarkable Untold Story of Sojourner Truth

Feminist. Preacher. Abolitionist. Civil rights pioneer. Now the full story of the American icon's life and faith is finally coming to light.

by Cynthia R. Greenlee via Smithsonian on February 12, 2024

Members of the National Woman's Party prepare to lobby their senators and congressmen to vote for the Equal Rights Amendment, ca. 1923.

Equal Rights Amendment Was Introduced 100 Years Ago — and Still Waits

America’s feminists felt confident when the Equal Rights Amendment was put before Congress 100 years ago this week. For a century, it’s failed to be enacted.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Retropolis on December 12, 2023

Betty Friedan circa 1975.

What Betty Friedan Knew

Judge the author of the “Feminine Mystique” not by the gains she made, but by her experience.

by Hermione Hoby via The New Republic on December 1, 2023

Ohio abortion rights activists.

The Problem With the Abortion-Rights Move That Worked in Ohio

History shows that activists can win statewide fights—but that the strategy might be unsustainable long-term.

by Felicia Kornbluh via Made By History on November 8, 2023

Ms. Magazine cover, 1972.

We Are Not Alone: 50 Years of Ms. Magazine

Gloria Steinem on the making of America's first feminist publication.

by Gloria Steinem via Literary Hub on September 20, 2023

Women at National Organization for Women demonstration

Betty Friedan and the Movement That Outgrew Her

Friedan was indispensable to second-wave feminism. And yet she was difficult to like.

by Moira Donegan via The New Yorker on September 11, 2023

Betty Friedan

The Abandonment of Betty Friedan

What does the academy have against the mother of second-wave feminism?

by Rachel Shteir via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 11, 2023

Historic marker for the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.

175 Years Ago, the Seneca Falls Convention Kicked Off the Fight for Women's Suffrage

An iconic moment deeply shaped by Quaker beliefs on gender and equality.

by Julie L. Holcomb via The Conversation on July 18, 2023

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