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Remember the Ladies: Celebrating Those Who Fought for Freedom at the Ballot Box
2017 begins the centennial celebrations of women first winning the right to vote, culminating in national suffrage three years later. This book documents the milestones in that hard won struggle and reflects on women's impact on politics since.
From the birth of our nation to the recent crushing defeat of the first female presidential candidate, this book highlights women's impact on United States politics and government. It documents the fight for women's right to vote, drawing on historic research, biographies of leaders, and such original sources as photos, line art, charts, graphs, documents, posters, ads, and buttons. It presents this often-forgotten struggle in an accessible, conversational, relevant manner for a wide audience. Here are the groundbreaking convention records, speeches, newspaper accounts, letters, photos, and drawings of those who fought for women's right to vote, all in their own words, arranged to convey the inherent historical drama. The accessible almanac style allows this entertaining history speak for itself. It is full of little-known facts. For instance: When the Constitutional Convention of the thirteen colonies convened to draft the Constitution, Abigail Adams admonished her husband John Adams to "remember the ladies" (write rights for women into the Constitution!). Important for today's discussions, REMEMBER THE LADIES does not extract women's suffrage from the inseparable concurrent historic endeavors for emancipation, immigration, and temperance. Its robust research documents the intersectionality of women's struggle for the vote in its true context with other progressive efforts.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published May 23, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 17, 2017
I requested this from NetGalley because I thought it sounded interesting - it's a history of the suffragette movement in America. I don't know if this is the right but from the book the American version seems to be a movement largely born and bred in America, with only a little bit of inspiration of Britain.
Considering that this is a movement that started in 1848 (the book starts by going back and forth in history so I'm not entirely sure) and involves many many people, the author did an admirable job of condensing it into one book. The chapters are also pretty short and simple, which makes it a good introduction for beginners like me. (Though I think people looking for a more in-depth exploration of the subject may not be satisfied)
Apart from the history, there are also "columns" that give brief biographies of key figures. I think this would work very well as a history textbook, but since I read it in three or four sittings, those biographies and mini-essays felt a bit disruptive to the flow of the book.
I did learn a few things though! One was why there was an overlap between the Temperance movement and the suffragist movement! The book puts it this way:
"Wives of drunkards were generally unable to provide for themselves or protect themselves and their children in their homes. Hence sobriety became a primary women's rights issue."
Another thing I've noticed is that identity politics is not new. The movement for voting rights for women and African Americans (although focused more on the men) occurred roughly at the same time and when African American men began making progress, one of the leading women of the suffrage movement "began using language in speeches and written commentaries that denigrated both black men and poor immigrants who had begun pouring into the country."
I found that to be very sad and self-defeating (especially when the African Americans 'fought back' by essentially saying that women's rights were not important because they weren't in danger). Not a historian but it feels like this quarreling only serves to help people who were against these movements because it's basically dividing and self-defeating.
And this, by the way, is the reason why I'm not a fan of identity politics and the recent trend in emphasising how one is somehow part of the most oppressed good - this may be soothing to your ego but I really don't feel it's effecting in getting you the allies you need to effect real change. We should be building everyone up, not just one particular community.
The ending too was a bit odd. It sort of jumps from when women get the vote to Hilary Clinton's presidential run (about which books can and probably are being written). There are intriguing facts mentioned - like how significant numbers of white women voted for Trump, but no exploration into the reason why. Personally, I would have preferred the book to stop at the vote, especially since the beginning did talk about current affairs.
Overall, I think this book is a good introduction to the history of women's voting rights in America. I'm not a fan of the awkward ending but that's just me - others may like that fact that she brought it back to the present day.
(And I'm very torn between 3 and 4 stars but I think I'll give 4 because of the subject matter)
Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
Considering that this is a movement that started in 1848 (the book starts by going back and forth in history so I'm not entirely sure) and involves many many people, the author did an admirable job of condensing it into one book. The chapters are also pretty short and simple, which makes it a good introduction for beginners like me. (Though I think people looking for a more in-depth exploration of the subject may not be satisfied)
Apart from the history, there are also "columns" that give brief biographies of key figures. I think this would work very well as a history textbook, but since I read it in three or four sittings, those biographies and mini-essays felt a bit disruptive to the flow of the book.
I did learn a few things though! One was why there was an overlap between the Temperance movement and the suffragist movement! The book puts it this way:
"Wives of drunkards were generally unable to provide for themselves or protect themselves and their children in their homes. Hence sobriety became a primary women's rights issue."
Another thing I've noticed is that identity politics is not new. The movement for voting rights for women and African Americans (although focused more on the men) occurred roughly at the same time and when African American men began making progress, one of the leading women of the suffrage movement "began using language in speeches and written commentaries that denigrated both black men and poor immigrants who had begun pouring into the country."
I found that to be very sad and self-defeating (especially when the African Americans 'fought back' by essentially saying that women's rights were not important because they weren't in danger). Not a historian but it feels like this quarreling only serves to help people who were against these movements because it's basically dividing and self-defeating.
And this, by the way, is the reason why I'm not a fan of identity politics and the recent trend in emphasising how one is somehow part of the most oppressed good - this may be soothing to your ego but I really don't feel it's effecting in getting you the allies you need to effect real change. We should be building everyone up, not just one particular community.
The ending too was a bit odd. It sort of jumps from when women get the vote to Hilary Clinton's presidential run (about which books can and probably are being written). There are intriguing facts mentioned - like how significant numbers of white women voted for Trump, but no exploration into the reason why. Personally, I would have preferred the book to stop at the vote, especially since the beginning did talk about current affairs.
Overall, I think this book is a good introduction to the history of women's voting rights in America. I'm not a fan of the awkward ending but that's just me - others may like that fact that she brought it back to the present day.
(And I'm very torn between 3 and 4 stars but I think I'll give 4 because of the subject matter)
Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
February 4, 2020
This eye opening book should be required reading. Even though I knew how long it took women to get the vote, I did not realize the effort required. I especially enjoyed reading about all the women and men who sacrificed so much.
April 2, 2020
Fantastic book, even for people like me who didn’t know anything about the suffrage movement in America. Easy to read and follow.
March 7, 2018
**1.5 Stars**
I really wanted to love this book, but sadly, it lacked in execution.
Unfortunately, this book reads like a poorly written--and overly long-- term paper. And the numerous inserts, either repeat what you've just read, or will reveal something that you will read later (almost like they've been cut & pasted from other parts of the book?). So frustrating. Granted, my point of view is from someone who has read Eleanor Flexner's CENTURY OF STRUGGLE, so perhaps I was just expecting more, but after day one, I regretted ever picking up this book. (Thank goodness it was simply a library book.)
I really wanted to love this book, but sadly, it lacked in execution.
Unfortunately, this book reads like a poorly written--and overly long-- term paper. And the numerous inserts, either repeat what you've just read, or will reveal something that you will read later (almost like they've been cut & pasted from other parts of the book?). So frustrating. Granted, my point of view is from someone who has read Eleanor Flexner's CENTURY OF STRUGGLE, so perhaps I was just expecting more, but after day one, I regretted ever picking up this book. (Thank goodness it was simply a library book.)
September 29, 2017
This is a comprehensive history of women getting the vote. It was very repetitive and in some places plain boring. It did have some interesting facts that I enjoyed learning.
The author seemed to believe that any woman should and would vote for any other woman regardless of her political stands. I think that is a shallow view point.
I seem to be the only person on Goodreads who didn't care for it. I read it for book club. It should be an interesting meeting.
The author seemed to believe that any woman should and would vote for any other woman regardless of her political stands. I think that is a shallow view point.
I seem to be the only person on Goodreads who didn't care for it. I read it for book club. It should be an interesting meeting.
December 3, 2020
I can't believe I keep deleting reviews! What am I doing!
Anyway I remember this was a strong, comprehensive history of the women's rights movement. I guess I'll need to reread it now for a full review
Anyway I remember this was a strong, comprehensive history of the women's rights movement. I guess I'll need to reread it now for a full review
June 15, 2017
Most histories of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States go back to the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 but ‘Remember the Ladies’ takes its title from a letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, John, whilst he was attending the Second Continental Congress, imploring him and his colleagues "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors" when devising "the new Code of Laws". This plea was, of course, not heeded and this book tells the uplifting story of the struggle to gain the right to vote for women in federal elections which culminated in the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
One of the book’s many attractive features is its inclusion of beautiful black and white photographs of many of this movement’s key figures. All the ‘usual suspects’ are there, including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Ida B Wells-Barnett, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns.
It is a tribute to Angela P. Dodson’s breadth of vision that her photo gallery and text also has room for much less familiar individuals, including Amelia Bloomer (who popularized the bloomer), Victoria Woodhull (who helped found the Equal Rights Party) and Belva Lockwood (who ran for President in 1884 and 1888), as well as some of the key men who championed sexual equality, such as Frederick Douglass (who spoke at Seneca Falls), Henry Ward Beecher (the first President of the American Woman Suffrage Association) and Aaron Augustus Sargent (who in 1878 introduced an amendment in Congress that would have given women the vote).
Dodson writes that when she “embarked on the project to write this book, I was inspired by the upcoming centennial anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment”. She is a Hillary Clinton supporter and clearly hoped that publication would also coincide with the smashing of the ultimate political glass ceiling.
It was not to be and ‘Remember the Ladies’ ultimately revolves around two questions: why was Wilson converted to support for votes for women, when in 1912 he expressed himself “definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman suffrage” and why did Clinton fail to win the 2016 presidential race?
Dodson considers all the possible reasons for Wilson’s conversion: a calculation that women would be more likely to support the Democratic party than the Republicans; the embarrassment caused by Alice Paul’s hunger strike tactics; the desire to reward women for their war work; even the extent to which he was nagged by his pro-suffrage daughter, Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre. Ultimately, however, Dodson ducks any attempt to place these factors in order of importance, just as she fails to provide a detailed explanation for Hillary’s ‘failure’, observing that according to CNN exit polls, 53% of white women voted for Trump without really explaining why that was the case.
In retrospect it would have been better for Dodson to cut her losses and end the book in 1920, rather than extend the story to 2016. Notwithstanding this sense of anti-climax, this is a very enjoyable book which will illuminate the story of women’s suffrage for the general reader as well as providing many thought-provoking vignettes for those already familiar with the basic story.
One of the book’s many attractive features is its inclusion of beautiful black and white photographs of many of this movement’s key figures. All the ‘usual suspects’ are there, including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Ida B Wells-Barnett, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, and Lucy Burns.
It is a tribute to Angela P. Dodson’s breadth of vision that her photo gallery and text also has room for much less familiar individuals, including Amelia Bloomer (who popularized the bloomer), Victoria Woodhull (who helped found the Equal Rights Party) and Belva Lockwood (who ran for President in 1884 and 1888), as well as some of the key men who championed sexual equality, such as Frederick Douglass (who spoke at Seneca Falls), Henry Ward Beecher (the first President of the American Woman Suffrage Association) and Aaron Augustus Sargent (who in 1878 introduced an amendment in Congress that would have given women the vote).
Dodson writes that when she “embarked on the project to write this book, I was inspired by the upcoming centennial anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment”. She is a Hillary Clinton supporter and clearly hoped that publication would also coincide with the smashing of the ultimate political glass ceiling.
It was not to be and ‘Remember the Ladies’ ultimately revolves around two questions: why was Wilson converted to support for votes for women, when in 1912 he expressed himself “definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman suffrage” and why did Clinton fail to win the 2016 presidential race?
Dodson considers all the possible reasons for Wilson’s conversion: a calculation that women would be more likely to support the Democratic party than the Republicans; the embarrassment caused by Alice Paul’s hunger strike tactics; the desire to reward women for their war work; even the extent to which he was nagged by his pro-suffrage daughter, Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre. Ultimately, however, Dodson ducks any attempt to place these factors in order of importance, just as she fails to provide a detailed explanation for Hillary’s ‘failure’, observing that according to CNN exit polls, 53% of white women voted for Trump without really explaining why that was the case.
In retrospect it would have been better for Dodson to cut her losses and end the book in 1920, rather than extend the story to 2016. Notwithstanding this sense of anti-climax, this is a very enjoyable book which will illuminate the story of women’s suffrage for the general reader as well as providing many thought-provoking vignettes for those already familiar with the basic story.
July 3, 2017
This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.
As a young American woman in the 21st century, I take my right to vote for granted. My ability to participate in politics, whether through voting or campaigning or running for office, is such an obvious right that I struggle to imagine a time when I wouldn't have been able to even speak in public before men.
I suppose that's a sign of how far we've come, right? I don't usually like to think about that, though, because it makes me strangely uncomfortable to think that I would have been considered a second-class citizen even a hundred years ago. My great-grandmother was twenty years old when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed giving her the right to vote. Twenty! That's just inconceivable to me.
The entire focus of Remember the Ladies is on detailing the fight for woman's rights. It includes descriptions of the small attempts made in the country's early years, focuses mainly on the 70+ year battle for enfranchisement/legal rights, and then discusses the roles modern women play in politics. It's the historical details that I find so fascinating, and which are so crucial for me to learn about. I don't really agree with Dodson that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election because she's a woman–I'd guess it has more to do with how wildly unlikeable she is and how strictly conservative a lot of Americans are–but that is literally my only complaint about Dodson's viewpoint. In the rest of the book, she does a very good job describing all the different suffragists and their organizations, conflicts, splits, allies, and conflicting causes (as issues like temperance and abolitionism alternately aided and undermined the fight for suffrage).
I mean, the suffrage movement lasted over seventy years. As Dodson herself points out, that is a very long time for a single movement. It progressed in clunky fits and starts at first, but it made it to victory despite the chaotic (and pressing!) distractors of the Civil War, Reconstruction, anti-immigration sentiment, and World War I. It's amazing to read about all the strands of activism that wove themselves through the background of U.S. history until the suffragist movement finally achieved its main goal. And I think it's important for me to read a book like Remember the Ladies once in a while so I can appreciate all the people in the past who fought for rights that I take for granted today.
Actually, I think everyone should read a book like Remember the Ladies once in a while, be they male or female. It's good for all of us to get a reality check now and again, to gain an appreciation for how far gender equality has progressed in just the last 100 years.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
As a young American woman in the 21st century, I take my right to vote for granted. My ability to participate in politics, whether through voting or campaigning or running for office, is such an obvious right that I struggle to imagine a time when I wouldn't have been able to even speak in public before men.
I suppose that's a sign of how far we've come, right? I don't usually like to think about that, though, because it makes me strangely uncomfortable to think that I would have been considered a second-class citizen even a hundred years ago. My great-grandmother was twenty years old when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed giving her the right to vote. Twenty! That's just inconceivable to me.
The entire focus of Remember the Ladies is on detailing the fight for woman's rights. It includes descriptions of the small attempts made in the country's early years, focuses mainly on the 70+ year battle for enfranchisement/legal rights, and then discusses the roles modern women play in politics. It's the historical details that I find so fascinating, and which are so crucial for me to learn about. I don't really agree with Dodson that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election because she's a woman–I'd guess it has more to do with how wildly unlikeable she is and how strictly conservative a lot of Americans are–but that is literally my only complaint about Dodson's viewpoint. In the rest of the book, she does a very good job describing all the different suffragists and their organizations, conflicts, splits, allies, and conflicting causes (as issues like temperance and abolitionism alternately aided and undermined the fight for suffrage).
I mean, the suffrage movement lasted over seventy years. As Dodson herself points out, that is a very long time for a single movement. It progressed in clunky fits and starts at first, but it made it to victory despite the chaotic (and pressing!) distractors of the Civil War, Reconstruction, anti-immigration sentiment, and World War I. It's amazing to read about all the strands of activism that wove themselves through the background of U.S. history until the suffragist movement finally achieved its main goal. And I think it's important for me to read a book like Remember the Ladies once in a while so I can appreciate all the people in the past who fought for rights that I take for granted today.
Actually, I think everyone should read a book like Remember the Ladies once in a while, be they male or female. It's good for all of us to get a reality check now and again, to gain an appreciation for how far gender equality has progressed in just the last 100 years.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
February 9, 2018
This was a very well written book overall. It was informative and interesting as it discusses the history of the American Woman's fight for the vote, as well as the many warriors in that fight. There is one historical error within the book, however, that I hope will be corrected in later editions. On page 72, the author states that Ben Franklin founded the colony of Pennsylvania. This is impossible as Ben Franklin was not even born when the colony of Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by William Penn.
The rest of the book was very accurate and I loved finding out more about the Suffrage movement within the United States. Unknown to many is the close ties the suffrage movement had to the abolition movement, and to the temperance movement. It was not merely a movement for getting women the vote, but for creating equal opportunity for everyone.
Another thing I found interesting is the fact that the liquor industry and factory industry lobbied against the Suffrage movement because they were afraid women would vote to change liquor laws and child labor laws.
There was a chapter on comparing the US suffrage movement against the British one. To me it was very interesting to see how, while many American women went to jail over parades, attempting to vote, etc, there was NO violence committed by American women. Against them at times, but not by them, whereas the British suffrage movement utilized riots, arson and personal violence.
As we celebrate the 100 year anniversary of women's right to vote.....it is important to understand where the "fight" started....see the paths traveled...acknowledge mistakes and successes and never never never take for granted the privilege of voting.
The rest of the book was very accurate and I loved finding out more about the Suffrage movement within the United States. Unknown to many is the close ties the suffrage movement had to the abolition movement, and to the temperance movement. It was not merely a movement for getting women the vote, but for creating equal opportunity for everyone.
Another thing I found interesting is the fact that the liquor industry and factory industry lobbied against the Suffrage movement because they were afraid women would vote to change liquor laws and child labor laws.
There was a chapter on comparing the US suffrage movement against the British one. To me it was very interesting to see how, while many American women went to jail over parades, attempting to vote, etc, there was NO violence committed by American women. Against them at times, but not by them, whereas the British suffrage movement utilized riots, arson and personal violence.
As we celebrate the 100 year anniversary of women's right to vote.....it is important to understand where the "fight" started....see the paths traveled...acknowledge mistakes and successes and never never never take for granted the privilege of voting.
September 15, 2017
This is a pretty comprehensive account of the suffragist movement and its intersection with the abolitionist movement. However, the format does not lend itself to audio! The author has structured the book so that the reader hears about the same events over and over again, in separate chapters about each of the leaders of the movement. Quite repetitive. Probably good as a textbook.
December 16, 2017
Before reading this book, I had only a sketchy idea of the long battle to allow women to vote, and the implications of not having the vote. The curious tangle around freeing the slaves and giving them the vote, was information I had never encountered before. An excellent eye-opener, and very readable.
February 16, 2020
I wanted books to recommend to a group who are joining me on a pilgrimage to Seneca Falls and Rochester. The pilgrims are from different generations with different time constraints and this book will be great for those of us who can only read one book! Includes a ton of facts and is an easy read.
May 29, 2017
Full review to come after it appears in Historical Novels Review.
August 12, 2017
I enjoyed this book in its entirety. I was impressed with the fact that it wasn't just about white women, and it was super in-depth, which I appreciated.
August 21, 2020
Great book for an overall history of the American Suffrage Movement. The style of the writing is almost like an encyclopedia which made it very easy to read.
October 24, 2020
A bit repetitive and I wonder if it was thoroughly fact checked, but still a worthwhile read.
February 16, 2026
REMEMBER THE LADIES tells the history of women's suffrage as well as other concurrent historic events happening: temperance, immigration, etc.
March 21, 2021
I might be impartial for I’m a woman in the 21st century who has experienced a multitude of privileges and opportunities that women in earlier times wouldn’t have had. Yet I cannot deny the glorious history that is well documented and praised in this book. The privileges I’m having today aren’t by nature but are fought for by endless generations of great women. I’m forever grateful for the relentless efforts and sacrifice these respectable women have contributed to the history of women suffrage.
March 9, 2018
could not finish
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