Filter by:

Filter by published date

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.
A drawing of an angry, long-haired cat holding a sign that reads "Vote for Shes."

A Purrrrfect Political Storm

Crazy cat ladies have come to dominate this election season. It’s hardly the first time.
Alice Morgan Wright with unknown friend, sitting on a tree stump.

Reconstructing the Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

Rouse reveals the hidden queer histories of suffragists like Alice Morgan Wright, who balanced activism with private, erased relationships.
Black and white photograph of suffragists standing in front of a car with a banner reading: we demand an amendment to the United States constitution enfranchising women.

The Jewel City: Suffrage at the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition

Suffragists coalesced in San Francisco to push for nationwide women' suffrage and send a petition to Congress for the vote.
Artistic depiction of Suffragettes demonstrating for women's right to vote. At bottom left, a woman with a cap holds an old fashioned megaphone in her hands. At right, three women (in black and white) can be seen talking with one another. One is holding a piece of paper in her hands.

A “Hamilton” for the Suffrage Movement

Shaina Taub’s new musical follows Alice Paul’s tireless quest to win American women the vote.
Program for the National American Woman Suffrage Association procession in Washington, DC, 1913, featuring a woman on a horse heralding votes for women and leading marchers toward the capitol.

The Thorny Road to the 19th Amendment

A new book chronicles the twists and turns of the 75-year-path to securing the vote for women.
Parade of women suffragists, holding signs, dressed in white.

When Lesbians Led the Women's Suffrage Movement

In 1911, lesbians led the nation’s largest feminist organization. They promoted a diverse and inclusive women’s rights movement.
The candidates for Miss America 2020 walk in dresses and heels.
partner

Why We Should Say Goodbye to the Miss America Pageant

The event originally borrowed sashes and pageantry from suffragists — whose vision for women we should honor instead.

How Midwestern Suffragists Used Anti-Immigrant Fervor to Help Gain the Vote

Women fighting for the ballot saw German men as backward, ignorant, and less worthy of citizenship than themselves.

How Restaurants Helped American Women Get the Vote

The history of suffragist dining spaces in the U.S.
Lucy Branham addresses an audience.

The Raiment of Resistance

If women were going to be judged by their appearance, then the suffragists wanted to shape their own image.
Inez Milholland with her dog.

Let Us Mate

Proposal advice from Inez Milholland, originally published in the Chicago Day Book, 1916.
Left: Anthony Comstock. Right: Victoria Claflin Woodhull.
partner

The Comstock Act's Threat to Abortion Rights If Harris Loses

Anthony Comstock, Victoria Woodhull, and what a battle from the 1870s means for 2024 and reproductive rights.
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.
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.
Three women standing in front of a 1915 automobile with a suffragist banner hanging on the side.

How Women Used Cars To Fuel Female Empowerment

From a 1915 suffragist road trip to the “First Lady of Drag Racing.”
Colorful abstract painting

The New Declaration of Sentiments

Four important court cases that have defined the landscape of women’s rights in the United States.
Mabel Ping‑Hua Lee holding flowers.

The Revolutionary Chinese Suffragette Who Challenged America’s Politics

The story of Mabel Ping‑Hua Lee.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony with backdrop of abortion protest posters

What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?

Contrary to contemporary claims, Susan B. Anthony and her peers rarely discussed abortion, which only emerged as a key political issue in the 1960s.
Photograph of Mrs. Frank Leslie

‘Mrs. Frank Leslie’ Ran a Media Empire and Bankrolled the Suffragist Movement

A new book tells the scandalous secrets of a forgotten 19th-century tycoon, Miriam Follin Peacock Squier Leslie Wilde, also known as Mrs. Frank Leslie.
Yumi Doi, an activist with Group of Fighting Women, at a protest against sexual discrimination, Tokyo, June 1972

A Work in Progress

Two new books on the history of feminism emphasize global grassroots efforts and the influence of American women labor leaders on international agreements.
Picketers from National Women's Party

She Asked President Woodrow Wilson For 22 Suffrage "Favors." She Got 21.

Wilson became a great supporter of the 19th Amendment, but only because he worked alongside a woman who spoke his language.
A women with her hands on the car horn
partner

Her Crazy Driving is a Key Element of Cruella de Vil’s Evil. Here’s Why.

The history of the Crazy Woman Driver trope.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.

The 16-Year-Old Chinese Immigrant Who Helped Lead a 1912 US Suffrage March

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee fought for the rights of women on two sides of the world.
Profile portrait of Zitkala-Sa, a Native American woman, with long hair and beaded necklaces

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Ša): Advocate for the "Indian Vote"

The story of Indigenous women’s participation in the struggle for women’s suffrage is highly complex, and Zitkala-Ša’s story provides an illuminating example.
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.
Mother with a laptop, surrounded by noisy children.
partner

Suffrage Movement Convinced Women They Could ‘Have it All’

More than a century later, they’re still paying the price.
Women around a table of papers and forms, with a League of Women Voters banner on the wall.

What the First Women Voters Experienced When Registering for the 1920 Election

The process varied by state, with some making accommodations for the new voting bloc and others creating additional obstacles.

Protest Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

The amendment didn't “give” women the right to vote. It wasn’t a gift; it was a hard-won victory achieved after more than seventy years of suffragist agitation.

The US Suffragette Movement Tried to Leave Out Black Women. They Showed Up Anyway

Racism and sexism were bound together in the fight to vote – and Black women made it clear they would never cede the question of their voting rights to others.

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person