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Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote
Honoring the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, this “indispensable” book (Ellen Chesler, Ms. magazine) explores the full scope of the movement to win the vote for women through portraits of its bold leaders and devoted activists.
Distinguished historian Ellen Carol DuBois begins in the pre-Civil War years with foremothers Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojurner Truth as she “meticulously and vibrantly chronicles” ( Booklist ) the links of the woman suffrage movement to the abolition of slavery. After the Civil War, Congress granted freed African American men the right to vote but not white and African American women, a crushing disappointment. DuBois shows how suffrage leaders persevered through the Jim Crow years into the reform era of Progressivism. She introduces new champions Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul, who brought the fight to the 20th century, and she shows how African American women, led by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, demanded voting rights even as white suffragists ignored them.
DuBois explains how suffragists built a determined coalition of moderate lobbyists and radical demonstrators in forging a strategy of winning voting rights in crucial states to set the stage for securing suffrage for all American women in the Constitution. In vivid prose, DuBois describes suffragists’ final victories in Congress and state legislatures, culminating in the last, most difficult ratification, in Tennessee.
“Ellen DuBois enables us to appreciate the drama of the long battle for women’s suffrage and the heroism of many of its advocates” (Eric Foner, author of The Second How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution ). DuBois follows women’s efforts to use their voting rights to win political office, increase their voting strength, and pass laws banning child labor, ensuring maternal health, and securing greater equality for women.
Women’s Long Battle for the Vote is a “comprehensive history that deftly tackles intricate political complexities and conflicts and still somehow read with nail-biting suspense,” ( The Guardian ) and is sure to become the authoritative account of one of the great episodes in the history of American democracy.
Distinguished historian Ellen Carol DuBois begins in the pre-Civil War years with foremothers Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojurner Truth as she “meticulously and vibrantly chronicles” ( Booklist ) the links of the woman suffrage movement to the abolition of slavery. After the Civil War, Congress granted freed African American men the right to vote but not white and African American women, a crushing disappointment. DuBois shows how suffrage leaders persevered through the Jim Crow years into the reform era of Progressivism. She introduces new champions Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul, who brought the fight to the 20th century, and she shows how African American women, led by Ida B. Wells-Barnett, demanded voting rights even as white suffragists ignored them.
DuBois explains how suffragists built a determined coalition of moderate lobbyists and radical demonstrators in forging a strategy of winning voting rights in crucial states to set the stage for securing suffrage for all American women in the Constitution. In vivid prose, DuBois describes suffragists’ final victories in Congress and state legislatures, culminating in the last, most difficult ratification, in Tennessee.
“Ellen DuBois enables us to appreciate the drama of the long battle for women’s suffrage and the heroism of many of its advocates” (Eric Foner, author of The Second How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution ). DuBois follows women’s efforts to use their voting rights to win political office, increase their voting strength, and pass laws banning child labor, ensuring maternal health, and securing greater equality for women.
Women’s Long Battle for the Vote is a “comprehensive history that deftly tackles intricate political complexities and conflicts and still somehow read with nail-biting suspense,” ( The Guardian ) and is sure to become the authoritative account of one of the great episodes in the history of American democracy.
400 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2020
82 people are currently reading
1244 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Carol DuBois
94 books16 followersEllen Carol Dubois is a distinguished professor of history and gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her bachelor's degree at Wellesley in 1968 and her Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1975.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
May 5, 2020
This book is a comprehensive look at the American suffrage movement from pre-civil war to 1920 and beyond. Within its 300+ pages, Ellen Carol DuBois gives an overall look at the women who championed the effort for equal voting rights for women and also for African-American men, while also looking at the dissenters and obstacles both faced throughout the decades. Dubois also spends quite a bit of time discussing the struggles for African-American women who were oftentimes not included in the mainstream movement, having to forge their own way to gain equal voting rights.
There are a plethora of books on the suffrage movement; however, this is one that is more encompassing of the whole movement in a concise overview, without getting bogged down in too many details. It's the perfect review to be published during the 100th anniversary of the passage of the nineteenth amendment.
There are a plethora of books on the suffrage movement; however, this is one that is more encompassing of the whole movement in a concise overview, without getting bogged down in too many details. It's the perfect review to be published during the 100th anniversary of the passage of the nineteenth amendment.
May 26, 2020
I’m in between a 4 and 5 rating for this book. It is written in a way that shows pride in the women who fought for the right to vote, but also acknowledges the struggles that they had within and outside of their own groups. It sometimes gets bogged down in names of people and organizations that slow down the chapter, which is the only reason I wouldn’t go white to a 5. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning about the nuances, struggles, and victories that the suffrage movement went through. The importance and effects of this fight are continuously changing; to quote the final sentence, “Our understanding of what the women suffrage movement really means for American history continues to provoke and challenge us.” I couldn’t agree more!
March 22, 2020
On the one hand, I learned a lot from this book. On the other hand, I urge anyone seeking to read a book on the history of women's suffrage to find something else. I don't even have another recommendation, but there HAS to be something better.
The book probably suffers first and foremost from trying to be a compact and comprehensive history--interesting and dynamic fights are frequently summed up in a couple of glossed over paragraphs. It should easily be twice as long for the amount of material contained (and honestly, there are many things that could have been axed entirely, IMO, not the least of which is probably the editorial final chapter, though I understand the desire to say something about what has transpired 100 years hence).
This book also suffers from the worst type of history writing/focus, that of the praise of individuals. As a result, even while this book is ostensibly about a movement, it is written with a focus solely one what individual people did, rather than the whys or much in the way of specific power dynamics/political realities. It is exactly the type of writing that turned me off from history in high school.
The biggest and worst impact of the author's tendency to highlight individuals is the kid gloves used around Cady Elizabeth Stanton and, more generally, the discussion of universal v. women suffrage. Because she focuses on glorifying individual effort instead of recognizing political power, she blames politicians for exaggerating and exacerbating the divide for political gain (which no doubt they did) without really coming to terms with Stanton's own statements on the issue.
These types of issues get even worse later, when the women's suffrage movement leans into "Negrophobia" as a political tactic. While it's acknowledged in the book, its discussion until the last couple years before suffrage amounts to some serious both-sides-ism, ignoring any moral or political issues around this fact. In general, there just doesn't seem to be a desire to engage in the evaluation of anything about the movement, which is just frustrating to no end because it misses a chance to discuss about the relative successes or failures of movement building in different time periods, or a deeper look at the counter-movement, or how this fit in with Reconstruction or Jim Crow, both of which are acknowledged but only barely. I mean, reading this you wouldn't even know a Civil War happened, it's so glossed over.
Because the book seems to adhere to DuBois' academic work, it is broken up into time periods and events (this then this then this...), without a greater sense of specific dynamics. Even the splintering of the suffrage movement into multiple factions isn't really given a lot of weight--it's still woven as a NAWSA did this, and then NWP did that, and then NAWSA .... That is just not a remotely interesting way of framing history. While some of this was able to get at the way in which the movement eventually evolved to include more blue collar women, the refusal to examine the faults of the originators of the movement meant a missed opportunity to tell this evolutionary narrative. And it is truly the universal suffrage chapter which suffers the most from this unwillingness to give a critical eye.
For only being 300 pages, I learned a lot of facts. But for only being 300 pages, this book was far too tedious to read, and I recommend something, anything else to read on suffrage in its place if you, like me, are interested in brushing up on a movement 100 years after ratification of the 19th amendment.
The book probably suffers first and foremost from trying to be a compact and comprehensive history--interesting and dynamic fights are frequently summed up in a couple of glossed over paragraphs. It should easily be twice as long for the amount of material contained (and honestly, there are many things that could have been axed entirely, IMO, not the least of which is probably the editorial final chapter, though I understand the desire to say something about what has transpired 100 years hence).
This book also suffers from the worst type of history writing/focus, that of the praise of individuals. As a result, even while this book is ostensibly about a movement, it is written with a focus solely one what individual people did, rather than the whys or much in the way of specific power dynamics/political realities. It is exactly the type of writing that turned me off from history in high school.
The biggest and worst impact of the author's tendency to highlight individuals is the kid gloves used around Cady Elizabeth Stanton and, more generally, the discussion of universal v. women suffrage. Because she focuses on glorifying individual effort instead of recognizing political power, she blames politicians for exaggerating and exacerbating the divide for political gain (which no doubt they did) without really coming to terms with Stanton's own statements on the issue.
These types of issues get even worse later, when the women's suffrage movement leans into "Negrophobia" as a political tactic. While it's acknowledged in the book, its discussion until the last couple years before suffrage amounts to some serious both-sides-ism, ignoring any moral or political issues around this fact. In general, there just doesn't seem to be a desire to engage in the evaluation of anything about the movement, which is just frustrating to no end because it misses a chance to discuss about the relative successes or failures of movement building in different time periods, or a deeper look at the counter-movement, or how this fit in with Reconstruction or Jim Crow, both of which are acknowledged but only barely. I mean, reading this you wouldn't even know a Civil War happened, it's so glossed over.
Because the book seems to adhere to DuBois' academic work, it is broken up into time periods and events (this then this then this...), without a greater sense of specific dynamics. Even the splintering of the suffrage movement into multiple factions isn't really given a lot of weight--it's still woven as a NAWSA did this, and then NWP did that, and then NAWSA .... That is just not a remotely interesting way of framing history. While some of this was able to get at the way in which the movement eventually evolved to include more blue collar women, the refusal to examine the faults of the originators of the movement meant a missed opportunity to tell this evolutionary narrative. And it is truly the universal suffrage chapter which suffers the most from this unwillingness to give a critical eye.
For only being 300 pages, I learned a lot of facts. But for only being 300 pages, this book was far too tedious to read, and I recommend something, anything else to read on suffrage in its place if you, like me, are interested in brushing up on a movement 100 years after ratification of the 19th amendment.
April 26, 2020
Suffrage. Women's Long Battle for the Vote. Ellen Carol Dubois. Simon and Schuster, 2020.
This is an excellent overall history of the whole history of women's suffrage. It traces the history including the earliest generation of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton down to Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, and everything in between and on either side. It covers pretty much everything, but is readable and doesn't drag on forever. I like nonfiction books where you are left at the end with a vague complaint that the book wasn't long enough. "Leave them wanting more" is the way to write.
One minor omission: Anthony's famous quote in her final speech, "failure is impossible," is never mentioned. This leaves me with a question, what is the history of this quotation? Was it famous in the period from 1906 to 1920, used as a battle cry in the final push for a constitutional amendment? Or perhaps the author doesn't mention it because even though Anthony's words were duly recorded, that particular quote didn't become well-known until after the period the author covers, perhaps not until the 1970's?
It did leave me with some questions about the whole history of the period and a curiosity to know more about the period and the movement. First of all, it is somewhat amazing to me that women's suffrage was ever in doubt after the Civil War. The book leaves me with the urge to go back in history and, uh, thoroughly chastise the judge in Anthony's trial. The book has the "dirt" on the suffrage movement as well as the heroic stuff; the failure of the suffragists and the African-American leaders to come to terms is just as puzzling as the inability of society to enfranchise women a lot earlier. To really answer this would require psychology and sociology and would perhaps help us to understand what's still driving sexism and racism today.
Second, suffrage seemed to change so little. The author, discussing the aftermath of suffrage, outlines the problem well. What happened, exactly? Everyone was "afraid" that votes for women would mean prohibition, because of the connection of suffrage with the temperance movement. But the prohibition amendment passed without suffrage, and after suffrage, prohibition was repealed. On top of that, while you did see women getting into politics (mostly local at first), it's really rather slow. To really answer the prohibition questions you'd have to look at male and female self-perceptions of their relationship to alcohol, and alcohol's relationship to society, as a "fun" but dangerous activity. Evidently if you let women drink in public as well as vote, temperance isn't as big of an issue.
To answer the questions about why suffrage seemed to change so little, policy-wise, you'd have to look at the structure of society in relationship to the political process. It's the same problem with blacks; after slavery is "repealed," the same relationships continue, but the window-dressing has changed a bit. The Civil War delayed the end of slavery for most blacks. Same thing with women's suffrage; men were somewhat listening to women before suffrage, just because they associated with their female family members and others they met socially. But the underlying relationships were slower to change, and giving women a formal role didn't really change the underlying assumptions that both sexes had. Now blacks have the vote and we STILL have racism and at times, like now, it seems to be getting worse. Ditto with sexism. Women have the vote, yet here we are with two candidates (Trump and Biden) who both have problematic relationships to women.
It's as if there is an informal network of personal relationships in which we form ideas and opinions about politics. Smoothing out the relationship between the informal working-out of opinions, and their formal expression in the political decision-making process, is only part of the problem. If the informal network is still sexist or racist, the end result will still be sexism and racism. Suffrage dealt with the relationship between this informal network and the political process. It's part of the problem, but not the whole problem.
This is an excellent overall history of the whole history of women's suffrage. It traces the history including the earliest generation of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton down to Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, and everything in between and on either side. It covers pretty much everything, but is readable and doesn't drag on forever. I like nonfiction books where you are left at the end with a vague complaint that the book wasn't long enough. "Leave them wanting more" is the way to write.
One minor omission: Anthony's famous quote in her final speech, "failure is impossible," is never mentioned. This leaves me with a question, what is the history of this quotation? Was it famous in the period from 1906 to 1920, used as a battle cry in the final push for a constitutional amendment? Or perhaps the author doesn't mention it because even though Anthony's words were duly recorded, that particular quote didn't become well-known until after the period the author covers, perhaps not until the 1970's?
It did leave me with some questions about the whole history of the period and a curiosity to know more about the period and the movement. First of all, it is somewhat amazing to me that women's suffrage was ever in doubt after the Civil War. The book leaves me with the urge to go back in history and, uh, thoroughly chastise the judge in Anthony's trial. The book has the "dirt" on the suffrage movement as well as the heroic stuff; the failure of the suffragists and the African-American leaders to come to terms is just as puzzling as the inability of society to enfranchise women a lot earlier. To really answer this would require psychology and sociology and would perhaps help us to understand what's still driving sexism and racism today.
Second, suffrage seemed to change so little. The author, discussing the aftermath of suffrage, outlines the problem well. What happened, exactly? Everyone was "afraid" that votes for women would mean prohibition, because of the connection of suffrage with the temperance movement. But the prohibition amendment passed without suffrage, and after suffrage, prohibition was repealed. On top of that, while you did see women getting into politics (mostly local at first), it's really rather slow. To really answer the prohibition questions you'd have to look at male and female self-perceptions of their relationship to alcohol, and alcohol's relationship to society, as a "fun" but dangerous activity. Evidently if you let women drink in public as well as vote, temperance isn't as big of an issue.
To answer the questions about why suffrage seemed to change so little, policy-wise, you'd have to look at the structure of society in relationship to the political process. It's the same problem with blacks; after slavery is "repealed," the same relationships continue, but the window-dressing has changed a bit. The Civil War delayed the end of slavery for most blacks. Same thing with women's suffrage; men were somewhat listening to women before suffrage, just because they associated with their female family members and others they met socially. But the underlying relationships were slower to change, and giving women a formal role didn't really change the underlying assumptions that both sexes had. Now blacks have the vote and we STILL have racism and at times, like now, it seems to be getting worse. Ditto with sexism. Women have the vote, yet here we are with two candidates (Trump and Biden) who both have problematic relationships to women.
It's as if there is an informal network of personal relationships in which we form ideas and opinions about politics. Smoothing out the relationship between the informal working-out of opinions, and their formal expression in the political decision-making process, is only part of the problem. If the informal network is still sexist or racist, the end result will still be sexism and racism. Suffrage dealt with the relationship between this informal network and the political process. It's part of the problem, but not the whole problem.
March 5, 2020
“Suffrage” by Ellen Carol Dubois, published by Simon & Schuster.
Category – History Publication Date – February 25, 2020.
This is probably the most comprehensive work on Women’s Suffrage. It spans the time from 1848 to the present, although most of the book is concerned about 1848 to 1920.
The book not only concerns itself with the trails and tribulations in getting the women’s vote but it goes into great detail about the women and men who championed the cause of women. The detail is not only the people involved but the effort that was made by these individuals.
History skirts over this subject and little information is given to the reader until Ellen Carol Dubois takes it step by step from beginning to end. It is hard to image that it took this many years to complete the process and even then it was unsure of what exactly happened, and if suffrage would hold.
This book was written with the student of history in mind and one who is obsessed with the plight of women’s suffrage. It goes way beyond a short history but is full of names, places, and all the frustration and maneuvering that it took for these courageous women to obtain voting rights. The modern woman owes these women a monumental “Thank You” for their efforts.
Category – History Publication Date – February 25, 2020.
This is probably the most comprehensive work on Women’s Suffrage. It spans the time from 1848 to the present, although most of the book is concerned about 1848 to 1920.
The book not only concerns itself with the trails and tribulations in getting the women’s vote but it goes into great detail about the women and men who championed the cause of women. The detail is not only the people involved but the effort that was made by these individuals.
History skirts over this subject and little information is given to the reader until Ellen Carol Dubois takes it step by step from beginning to end. It is hard to image that it took this many years to complete the process and even then it was unsure of what exactly happened, and if suffrage would hold.
This book was written with the student of history in mind and one who is obsessed with the plight of women’s suffrage. It goes way beyond a short history but is full of names, places, and all the frustration and maneuvering that it took for these courageous women to obtain voting rights. The modern woman owes these women a monumental “Thank You” for their efforts.
June 17, 2021
Comprehensive (well into modern history) and well researched history of US women's suffrage (with some mention of the UK). Once AGAIN I am made aware of the sad abandonment from intersectionality that the suffrage movement made at its onset and from which it's never fully recovered. Overall an interesting, enjoyable and reasonably fast read.
April 11, 2020
To celebrate the 100th anniversary in 2020 of the 19th amendment, I've read several books about the women's suffrage movement, but this new one is easily the best! Its one-volume objective coverage of the entire movement is just right for the average reader. Such a variety of interesting people and stories, but it keeps one's interest because it is not weighted down with too much detail. Published just as COVID-19 was closing bookstores and libraries, I hope it is not overlooked.
April 4, 2020
Great introduction on the issue of women's suffrage in America. Introduced the key figures and how they interacted. Discussed the battles in different states and between white/black suffrage movements.
Definitely worth the effort.
Definitely worth the effort.
August 3, 2020
Review here.
January 23, 2021
The best book I’ve read in awhile, and one that reminded me that non-fiction books can still be page-turners. The road to women suffrage is FASCINATING, full of great stories and heroic women!
September 23, 2020
So well written and documented - with some real nuggets of women's history to discover! Highly recommend.
June 14, 2020
What an interesting book to be reading right in the midst of (yet another) movement happening in the world around systemic racism. Learning about the history of the long fought and complicated factions of the suffrage movement that bore modern day feminism was fascinating and infuriating. I loved that the author didn't sugar coat the work and the women as one big happy family who linked arms and marched their way unemcumbered to the ballot box. Rather, she told the truth--that the movement was comprised of imperfect people with at times competing agendas and tactics that resulted in a one step forward two step back reality. She didn't shy away from pointing out the horrible hypocrisy and racists approaches several prominent suffragists held fast to. I particularly enjoyed learning about the women of color in the movement and am ashamed that their stories have not been more celebrated.
I liked how this book didn’t paint women with a broad brush—but rather as unique individuals with their own minds—even though some of those unique individuals and their opinions perplexed me. I have read other books about the suffrage movement and up until this point, I really didn’t understand what the key argument was of the anti-suffragists. But this book posits that anti-suffragists were mostly motivated by racist white power preservation agenda. And I can see that. It still makes me sad that so many women fought just as hard to KEEP women from winning the vote as those who fought to win it. It reminds me of the fight over the ratification of the ERA and the “Stop ERA” movement—which I think also boils down to preserving (white) power structures. And on the one hand, I just want to scream when women don’t support one another, but I also like that not all women think alike. We are each unique with our own ideas, agendas and values and I like that we can’t be painted with a broad brush. However, when it comes to fundamental human dignity—I think Women’s Rights are Human Rights and I would hope that all women could agree to that.
Highly recommend this book—especially as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment!
I liked how this book didn’t paint women with a broad brush—but rather as unique individuals with their own minds—even though some of those unique individuals and their opinions perplexed me. I have read other books about the suffrage movement and up until this point, I really didn’t understand what the key argument was of the anti-suffragists. But this book posits that anti-suffragists were mostly motivated by racist white power preservation agenda. And I can see that. It still makes me sad that so many women fought just as hard to KEEP women from winning the vote as those who fought to win it. It reminds me of the fight over the ratification of the ERA and the “Stop ERA” movement—which I think also boils down to preserving (white) power structures. And on the one hand, I just want to scream when women don’t support one another, but I also like that not all women think alike. We are each unique with our own ideas, agendas and values and I like that we can’t be painted with a broad brush. However, when it comes to fundamental human dignity—I think Women’s Rights are Human Rights and I would hope that all women could agree to that.
Highly recommend this book—especially as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment!
May 24, 2022
The movement for suffrage spearheaded by America’s women from the nineteenth century’s second half onward was made possible by strong personalities and unwavering dedication. The ability to detail this struggle in a readable format is a tremendous credit to historian Ellen Carol Dubois, author of Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle For the Vote.
Dubois begins the story with the 1848 Seneca Falls meeting that served to kick start American women’s push for equality. The subsequent Declaration of Sentiments this produced laid the groundwork for seventy years of ups and downs on the way to the Nineteenth Amendment’s passage. This 1848 declaration laid out the lodestar these suffragists would live by: “All laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.”
Two of the early leaders examined by Dubois are Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, both staunch abolitionists but the latter reformer driven by Quaker religious convictions more so than Stanton. Susan B. Anthony quickly joins forces with the movement, yet another of a string of abolitionist movement veterans who also take up the cause of women’s liberty.
The importance of the state of New York in the early stages of this push for equality is impossible to miss. Although the Empire State continued to produce feminist leaders for decades after Seneca Falls, the real forward momentum was out West. Wyoming’s legislature voted to make it the first state to allow women’s suffrage, while Colorado became the first state to legalize it by way of a popular (i.e. males only) referendum. Although the Utah territory was quite progressive in letting its women vote at an early date, this became wrapped up in squabbles over polygamy and was eventually rolled back prior to Utah’s statehood in 1896.
A major strength of Suffrage is its willingness to discuss the various local character of what, for years, was a state by state fight for voting rights. Reading about how this struggle varied by region makes the book all the more unpredictable (and enjoyable).
The difficulty inherent in getting a federal amendment passed necessitated a state by state effort, and the willingness of the less socially sclerotic western states to go for women’s suffrage rapidly became apparent. California in 1911, Oregon and Arizona in 1912, Montana and Nevada in 1914…nearly all of the states west of the Mississippi River had legalized women’s suffrage before a single state east of it did. The intransigence of many former Confederate states toward women’s suffrage--as might be inferred even by their present day hostility toward female autonomy--was apparent enough for Dubois to only obliquely remark upon.
Events only tangentially related, but simultaneous to and impactful on the women’s suffrage movement, are woven into the storyline. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 is a major example of this; its savage reminder of women’s vulnerability at the hands of the patriarchy was a spur toward further Progressive Era Reform. The temperance movement was a force at first unaffiliated with the suffrage push. The shift of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (led by Frances Willard) from an anti-alcoholic group to an ally of women’s voting rights organizations is succinctly explained by the author.
The section on war reporter Inez Milholand Bossevain’s death while in the midst of campaigning for voting rights in Los Angeles was an anecdote which underscored erstwhile dedication to the cause. This brave and physically attractive face of the suffrage movement allegedly collapsed onstage after pleading “Mr. President, how long must women go on fighting for liberty?” before dying a month later at the age of thirty.
One unexpected twist in the book are the clashes between fights for African-American and women's suffrage. During the push for the Fifteenth Amendment’s granting of the right to vote to freed African-Americans, the amendment’s authors specifically limited this to ‘men.’ The verbiage limiting the right to vote to males only in the Fifteenth Amendment was the first time this specifically had been done, angering many women suffragists even though it was a step forward for voting rights in general.
Despite Frederick Douglass backing their cause, much division was caused between women who applauded this step forward in enfranchisement (albeit for African-American freedmen only) and those angry that women (of all races) were overlooked during the course of such a monumental voting overhaul.
Over half a century later, during the lead up to the 1919 vote for the Nineteenth amendment, anti-suffragists used successful race-baiting arguments to prevent state level passage of voting expansion. They used racist arguments playing on fears that, while black women might turn out in large numbers to exercise the franchise, their supposedly more cultivated white counterparts would not turn out in as much concentration. Arguments against federalization of voting laws (which were by and large left to the state level to determine by the Fifteenth Amendment) were tied to concerns that various elements of Jim Crow repression might then be overturned as a byproduct of women using this lever to gain their own voting rights.
The brilliance of Suffrage is the almost effortless ability of the story to flow from the mid-nineteenth century through the culminating act of the Nineteenth Amendment’s Passage in 1919 and ratification by the required (then) thirty-eight states a year later.
From Mott, Stanton, and Anthony to the New Women of the 1890s/early 1900s and the more aggressive tactics they employed, Dubois skillfully tells this crucial tale of determination and belief in America’s ultimate goodness. Refraining from commentary throughout most of the book, she cannot help but mention early on the importance of learning about this topic in an era when the rights fought so hard for by former generations of women are being undone in almost gleefully malicious manner.
The more restrained methods of early suffragists contrasted with those utilized by the Alice Pauls and Carrie Chapmann Catts of the world. From their March 3rd, 1913 pre-inauguration march to the year and a half long picket of Woodrow Wilson’s White House, the growing militancy of the movement offered offsetting benefits and drawbacks. The onset of World War One, at first thought sure to distract from if not materially set back the suffrage movement, allowed women to step forward in such an admirable way on the home front that it set the stage for the Nineteenth Amendment’s passage barely a year after Armistice Day.
Suffrage is an excellent example of telling an important historical story in a vibrant, attention-holding manner. It brings to life its historical characters and lays out the relevant events in a format designed to maintain reader interest. More nonfiction books of this caliber would be all but certain to create new converts to and expand interest in this genre.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
Dubois begins the story with the 1848 Seneca Falls meeting that served to kick start American women’s push for equality. The subsequent Declaration of Sentiments this produced laid the groundwork for seventy years of ups and downs on the way to the Nineteenth Amendment’s passage. This 1848 declaration laid out the lodestar these suffragists would live by: “All laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.”
Two of the early leaders examined by Dubois are Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, both staunch abolitionists but the latter reformer driven by Quaker religious convictions more so than Stanton. Susan B. Anthony quickly joins forces with the movement, yet another of a string of abolitionist movement veterans who also take up the cause of women’s liberty.
The importance of the state of New York in the early stages of this push for equality is impossible to miss. Although the Empire State continued to produce feminist leaders for decades after Seneca Falls, the real forward momentum was out West. Wyoming’s legislature voted to make it the first state to allow women’s suffrage, while Colorado became the first state to legalize it by way of a popular (i.e. males only) referendum. Although the Utah territory was quite progressive in letting its women vote at an early date, this became wrapped up in squabbles over polygamy and was eventually rolled back prior to Utah’s statehood in 1896.
A major strength of Suffrage is its willingness to discuss the various local character of what, for years, was a state by state fight for voting rights. Reading about how this struggle varied by region makes the book all the more unpredictable (and enjoyable).
The difficulty inherent in getting a federal amendment passed necessitated a state by state effort, and the willingness of the less socially sclerotic western states to go for women’s suffrage rapidly became apparent. California in 1911, Oregon and Arizona in 1912, Montana and Nevada in 1914…nearly all of the states west of the Mississippi River had legalized women’s suffrage before a single state east of it did. The intransigence of many former Confederate states toward women’s suffrage--as might be inferred even by their present day hostility toward female autonomy--was apparent enough for Dubois to only obliquely remark upon.
Events only tangentially related, but simultaneous to and impactful on the women’s suffrage movement, are woven into the storyline. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 is a major example of this; its savage reminder of women’s vulnerability at the hands of the patriarchy was a spur toward further Progressive Era Reform. The temperance movement was a force at first unaffiliated with the suffrage push. The shift of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (led by Frances Willard) from an anti-alcoholic group to an ally of women’s voting rights organizations is succinctly explained by the author.
The section on war reporter Inez Milholand Bossevain’s death while in the midst of campaigning for voting rights in Los Angeles was an anecdote which underscored erstwhile dedication to the cause. This brave and physically attractive face of the suffrage movement allegedly collapsed onstage after pleading “Mr. President, how long must women go on fighting for liberty?” before dying a month later at the age of thirty.
One unexpected twist in the book are the clashes between fights for African-American and women's suffrage. During the push for the Fifteenth Amendment’s granting of the right to vote to freed African-Americans, the amendment’s authors specifically limited this to ‘men.’ The verbiage limiting the right to vote to males only in the Fifteenth Amendment was the first time this specifically had been done, angering many women suffragists even though it was a step forward for voting rights in general.
Despite Frederick Douglass backing their cause, much division was caused between women who applauded this step forward in enfranchisement (albeit for African-American freedmen only) and those angry that women (of all races) were overlooked during the course of such a monumental voting overhaul.
Over half a century later, during the lead up to the 1919 vote for the Nineteenth amendment, anti-suffragists used successful race-baiting arguments to prevent state level passage of voting expansion. They used racist arguments playing on fears that, while black women might turn out in large numbers to exercise the franchise, their supposedly more cultivated white counterparts would not turn out in as much concentration. Arguments against federalization of voting laws (which were by and large left to the state level to determine by the Fifteenth Amendment) were tied to concerns that various elements of Jim Crow repression might then be overturned as a byproduct of women using this lever to gain their own voting rights.
The brilliance of Suffrage is the almost effortless ability of the story to flow from the mid-nineteenth century through the culminating act of the Nineteenth Amendment’s Passage in 1919 and ratification by the required (then) thirty-eight states a year later.
From Mott, Stanton, and Anthony to the New Women of the 1890s/early 1900s and the more aggressive tactics they employed, Dubois skillfully tells this crucial tale of determination and belief in America’s ultimate goodness. Refraining from commentary throughout most of the book, she cannot help but mention early on the importance of learning about this topic in an era when the rights fought so hard for by former generations of women are being undone in almost gleefully malicious manner.
The more restrained methods of early suffragists contrasted with those utilized by the Alice Pauls and Carrie Chapmann Catts of the world. From their March 3rd, 1913 pre-inauguration march to the year and a half long picket of Woodrow Wilson’s White House, the growing militancy of the movement offered offsetting benefits and drawbacks. The onset of World War One, at first thought sure to distract from if not materially set back the suffrage movement, allowed women to step forward in such an admirable way on the home front that it set the stage for the Nineteenth Amendment’s passage barely a year after Armistice Day.
Suffrage is an excellent example of telling an important historical story in a vibrant, attention-holding manner. It brings to life its historical characters and lays out the relevant events in a format designed to maintain reader interest. More nonfiction books of this caliber would be all but certain to create new converts to and expand interest in this genre.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
December 24, 2019
Received as an ARC from the publisher. Started 12-13-19. Finished 12-21-19. Well-researched history of the suffrage movement in the US. I had no idea that the rallies, parades, petitions, and speeches went on for so many years. I also did not know about the in-fighting among rival women's organizations, how many men participated in attending their rallies, but how few Congressmen supported them, and how resistant several presidents were to their demands for full citizen rights. The relationship between voting rights and racial rights was also revealing. Should be required reading in every Poli Sci class.
Want to read
March 31, 2021Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
December 22, 2020
I would have enjoyed this book more if the author had left out her obvious political opinion and bias out of the book and just stuck to the facts.
August 10, 2021
DuBois is clearly a story teller. She works hard to make the story fun, rather than dryly factual. It is extremely well-researched and footnoted, so on the rare occasions I had questions about her sources, she provided. She also wants this to be a heroic tale of triumph, but never shies away from showing the mistakes of her heroines, some of which are hard to stomach.
She begins with (to no one's surprise) Elizabeth Cady Stanton, telling her whole life story and how she came to the cause of women's rights, which she pushed to focus directly on suffrage because she felt that the inability to vote was at the root of the other issues women faced. Then she introduces Susan B. Anthony and the partnership that grew from them. Cady Stanton was the writer and orator (although the latter skill took some time to develop), while Anthony was the organizer. She also discusses Lucy Stone, who was active earlier but worked with the other two inconsistently. The crucial moments for the movement under these women was the 14th and 15th Amendments. In both cases, they lobbied to specifically include language protecting women's suffrage, but failed. In the case of the 14th, it specifically mentioned "male" voting several times, but neither of them included a prohibition on denying the vote based on sex. The movement split hard on the 15th because Anthony and Cady Stanton felt that black suffrage would close the matter and women's suffrage would be set back by decades. They were correct in that, but it put them in the awkward position of opposing voting rights for newly freed slaves, and in put them in opposition to Stone. Cady Stanton became so frustrated that she took time off from politics and became a professional lecturer, which provided her with the most comfortable income of her life, along with significantly less stress.
One of the most entertaining episodes in the book is when Anthony gets arrested for voting. Anthony was doing her best to bring up the big issues, but was shut down by a conservative judge, who also happened to be SCOTUS Chief Justice. He convicted her without jury deliberation but set aside her fine so she wouldn't be sent to jail, which infuriated Anthony.
Then Dubois moves on to the WCTU and Frances Willard. Anthony helped the younger woman, despite their differences in style, but Willard is responsible for broadening the base of suffrage. Her main issue was temperance, but she realized that the only way to make significant progress in that was for women to have the vote. She rose in the organization, soon becoming nation president, and made it an official plank in the WCTU platform. This ended up being a double-edged sword because Suffrage became inextricably linked to Prohibition, which put the alcohol industry against them, as well as many European immigrants.
The problem that the suffrage movement faced was that it could attract women, but they couldn't vote. They needed to attract men to the cause. Dubois is clear and direct that the movement took a racist turn at the point, advocating women's suffrage with a literacy requirement, which matched with laws then being enacted in the south to deter African-American voting. It didn't work, as southern men were almost as sexist as they were racist. The movement gained more traction when it actively recruited working class women because they vote for labor laws that supported the workers, which would bring more working class men on board.
The tipping point came from a few factors. Many new western states had enfranchised women while more and more women were earning college degrees and showing their own independence. WWI was initially a problem for suffrage because only men were able to fight for the country, but eventually women's contributions on the homefront were portrayed as earning them the vote and the idea of fighting for democracy would also suggest including women. Finally, they slowly converted Woodrow Wilson to support it over the course of his presidency.
The ratification process was difficult, but eventually came down to Tennessee. There were a lot of good stories in this, finishing with the famous one of the legislator who changed his mind because of a note from his mother. Two other states followed shortly thereafter, so it is likely that if Tennessee had not ratified it, it would have only been a short-term defeat.
This is a great read and very informative. I am tempted to assign it to students who are interested in political activity. It has some interesting lessons. The early suffragists were breaking norms just by speaking in public, but those norms changed over time, partly because of those suffragists actions. Those suffragists also never go to see substantial concrete progress but did lay the groundwork for future work. They changed their tactics to suit the times and their situation, eventually coming on some that were successful. And, perhaps most interestingly, the success of suffrage was not an ending, but a beginning of the fight for equality, just as Elizabeth Cady Stanton suggested when drawing up the Seneca Falls Declaration.
She begins with (to no one's surprise) Elizabeth Cady Stanton, telling her whole life story and how she came to the cause of women's rights, which she pushed to focus directly on suffrage because she felt that the inability to vote was at the root of the other issues women faced. Then she introduces Susan B. Anthony and the partnership that grew from them. Cady Stanton was the writer and orator (although the latter skill took some time to develop), while Anthony was the organizer. She also discusses Lucy Stone, who was active earlier but worked with the other two inconsistently. The crucial moments for the movement under these women was the 14th and 15th Amendments. In both cases, they lobbied to specifically include language protecting women's suffrage, but failed. In the case of the 14th, it specifically mentioned "male" voting several times, but neither of them included a prohibition on denying the vote based on sex. The movement split hard on the 15th because Anthony and Cady Stanton felt that black suffrage would close the matter and women's suffrage would be set back by decades. They were correct in that, but it put them in the awkward position of opposing voting rights for newly freed slaves, and in put them in opposition to Stone. Cady Stanton became so frustrated that she took time off from politics and became a professional lecturer, which provided her with the most comfortable income of her life, along with significantly less stress.
One of the most entertaining episodes in the book is when Anthony gets arrested for voting. Anthony was doing her best to bring up the big issues, but was shut down by a conservative judge, who also happened to be SCOTUS Chief Justice. He convicted her without jury deliberation but set aside her fine so she wouldn't be sent to jail, which infuriated Anthony.
Then Dubois moves on to the WCTU and Frances Willard. Anthony helped the younger woman, despite their differences in style, but Willard is responsible for broadening the base of suffrage. Her main issue was temperance, but she realized that the only way to make significant progress in that was for women to have the vote. She rose in the organization, soon becoming nation president, and made it an official plank in the WCTU platform. This ended up being a double-edged sword because Suffrage became inextricably linked to Prohibition, which put the alcohol industry against them, as well as many European immigrants.
The problem that the suffrage movement faced was that it could attract women, but they couldn't vote. They needed to attract men to the cause. Dubois is clear and direct that the movement took a racist turn at the point, advocating women's suffrage with a literacy requirement, which matched with laws then being enacted in the south to deter African-American voting. It didn't work, as southern men were almost as sexist as they were racist. The movement gained more traction when it actively recruited working class women because they vote for labor laws that supported the workers, which would bring more working class men on board.
The tipping point came from a few factors. Many new western states had enfranchised women while more and more women were earning college degrees and showing their own independence. WWI was initially a problem for suffrage because only men were able to fight for the country, but eventually women's contributions on the homefront were portrayed as earning them the vote and the idea of fighting for democracy would also suggest including women. Finally, they slowly converted Woodrow Wilson to support it over the course of his presidency.
The ratification process was difficult, but eventually came down to Tennessee. There were a lot of good stories in this, finishing with the famous one of the legislator who changed his mind because of a note from his mother. Two other states followed shortly thereafter, so it is likely that if Tennessee had not ratified it, it would have only been a short-term defeat.
This is a great read and very informative. I am tempted to assign it to students who are interested in political activity. It has some interesting lessons. The early suffragists were breaking norms just by speaking in public, but those norms changed over time, partly because of those suffragists actions. Those suffragists also never go to see substantial concrete progress but did lay the groundwork for future work. They changed their tactics to suit the times and their situation, eventually coming on some that were successful. And, perhaps most interestingly, the success of suffrage was not an ending, but a beginning of the fight for equality, just as Elizabeth Cady Stanton suggested when drawing up the Seneca Falls Declaration.
April 12, 2020
This is a very good book that covers the entire suffragette movement from the 1848 Seneca Falls conference to the amendment passage in 1920 - and even goes a little beyond.
It's interesting seeing how the movement transformed multiple times over the course of its existence. It began with some educated white women in the north who'd been active in causes like abolition. That gave the first wave of the movement an association with political radicalism. The movement had a falling out with the cause of black rights during Reconstruction. Instead of one cause to promote rights, the causes fell into two, with some suffragettes feeling abandoned as the 15th Amendment only covered blacks. (They tried to push for an intepretation of the amendment that would let women vote, but that failed).
That also set the stage for the first shift toward broader respectability - at least in the North. Frances Willard, the WCTU head, came out in favor of suffrage in order to help spread temperance. This served to bring more conservative women aboard, and even gave the movement its first support in the South.
The movement continued to shift in the late 19th century. The main thing by this time was that a new, post-Civil War generation was coming of age and joining the movement. They never new the pre-war radicalism of it, and so the movement was more respectable and professional than ever before. Also, there were more professional women in the industrialized society, and these women tended to support the movement.
Now that they'd failed in federal courts, they focused on trying to win the right to vote at the state level. When they suffered losses, they blamed immigrants for it. The movement was increasingly conservative as it tried to advance. That said, I don't want to make all suffragettes sound the same and exclusionary. Ida B. Wells tied female suffrage to her anti-lynching campaign. That said, the NAWSA engaged in some explicitly racist campaigns to win support from southern states. But this proved to be not only bad in the eyes of history, but utterly futile. They didn't get any souther states to change, and so shifted directions away from racism. You also had Jane Addams and Hull House activism from a more left-wing direction. There was also (eventually) more outreach to Jewish and Catholic women by the early 20th century. It feels like the movement had to get more acceptance from mainstream society before it could make an outreach to minority groups.
In the 20th century, the rise of progressivism helped the movement, as it was in keeping with the tenure of the times. They started winning over some worker support, even. California became the 6th state to give women the vote in 1911, joining Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington. It's victory was after several failures and so all the sweeter. The movement began pushing for change in eastern states more successfully. Alice Paul came to the fore, inspired by radical British suffragettes.
The move for a national amendment was underway. Catt and Paul helped lead it. Some picketed the White House and were thrown in jail, where people like Paul began hunger strikes, leading to forced feedings. Paul, unlike earlier ones, was less concerned with appearing ladylike and mostly concerned with making her mark. WWI caused feminists to go different directions, but the movement gained strength during the war. Finally, it passed.
There is a brief epilogue which traces the movement after 1920. By 1924, people called suffrage a failure because women didn't vote as a block and didn't vote as often as men. They tended to vote GOP, but that began to change in 1928 and more fully in 1932, as it was with men. By 1952, women were closing the gap on men, 55% for women voted vs 63% of men. The chapter goes up to the 1960s/70s feminist movement and then .... stops.
I found the end very weird. In the 21st century we're living through a new feminist movement, we're seeing a larger gender gap in voting than ever before, and we're seeing more women get into politics. If you're going to write this book and take it past 1920 - maybe ya don't stop 40 years ago?
Aside from that, the only problem I have is that I thought the later chapters got bogged down in the process of passing the amendment. It's understandable, but the pace shifts considerably. The first 200 pages covers 65 years, and then it takes 100 more pages to go the final 5 years. Still, an effective book.
It's interesting seeing how the movement transformed multiple times over the course of its existence. It began with some educated white women in the north who'd been active in causes like abolition. That gave the first wave of the movement an association with political radicalism. The movement had a falling out with the cause of black rights during Reconstruction. Instead of one cause to promote rights, the causes fell into two, with some suffragettes feeling abandoned as the 15th Amendment only covered blacks. (They tried to push for an intepretation of the amendment that would let women vote, but that failed).
That also set the stage for the first shift toward broader respectability - at least in the North. Frances Willard, the WCTU head, came out in favor of suffrage in order to help spread temperance. This served to bring more conservative women aboard, and even gave the movement its first support in the South.
The movement continued to shift in the late 19th century. The main thing by this time was that a new, post-Civil War generation was coming of age and joining the movement. They never new the pre-war radicalism of it, and so the movement was more respectable and professional than ever before. Also, there were more professional women in the industrialized society, and these women tended to support the movement.
Now that they'd failed in federal courts, they focused on trying to win the right to vote at the state level. When they suffered losses, they blamed immigrants for it. The movement was increasingly conservative as it tried to advance. That said, I don't want to make all suffragettes sound the same and exclusionary. Ida B. Wells tied female suffrage to her anti-lynching campaign. That said, the NAWSA engaged in some explicitly racist campaigns to win support from southern states. But this proved to be not only bad in the eyes of history, but utterly futile. They didn't get any souther states to change, and so shifted directions away from racism. You also had Jane Addams and Hull House activism from a more left-wing direction. There was also (eventually) more outreach to Jewish and Catholic women by the early 20th century. It feels like the movement had to get more acceptance from mainstream society before it could make an outreach to minority groups.
In the 20th century, the rise of progressivism helped the movement, as it was in keeping with the tenure of the times. They started winning over some worker support, even. California became the 6th state to give women the vote in 1911, joining Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington. It's victory was after several failures and so all the sweeter. The movement began pushing for change in eastern states more successfully. Alice Paul came to the fore, inspired by radical British suffragettes.
The move for a national amendment was underway. Catt and Paul helped lead it. Some picketed the White House and were thrown in jail, where people like Paul began hunger strikes, leading to forced feedings. Paul, unlike earlier ones, was less concerned with appearing ladylike and mostly concerned with making her mark. WWI caused feminists to go different directions, but the movement gained strength during the war. Finally, it passed.
There is a brief epilogue which traces the movement after 1920. By 1924, people called suffrage a failure because women didn't vote as a block and didn't vote as often as men. They tended to vote GOP, but that began to change in 1928 and more fully in 1932, as it was with men. By 1952, women were closing the gap on men, 55% for women voted vs 63% of men. The chapter goes up to the 1960s/70s feminist movement and then .... stops.
I found the end very weird. In the 21st century we're living through a new feminist movement, we're seeing a larger gender gap in voting than ever before, and we're seeing more women get into politics. If you're going to write this book and take it past 1920 - maybe ya don't stop 40 years ago?
Aside from that, the only problem I have is that I thought the later chapters got bogged down in the process of passing the amendment. It's understandable, but the pace shifts considerably. The first 200 pages covers 65 years, and then it takes 100 more pages to go the final 5 years. Still, an effective book.
May 7, 2025
American women’s suffrage is an interesting topic because it is a transformative, non-violent movement that took eighty years to reach fruition. After reading about Reconstruction and the tremendous political and military cost paid to pass the 15th amendment, which gave Black men the right to vote, I became fascinated with the question of how women got the right to vote without bloodshed. Spoiler alert, there was bloodshed, but not in the way you would think.
The crucible of war has an interesting effect of expanding the definition of who qualifies to be a citizen when victory is won or at least not lost. The Civil War gave African American men suffrage when they effectively won the war for the Union. World War II veterans came back and started the Civil Rights movement, 18-year-olds were given the right to vote for their service in the Vietnam War, and World War One gave critical momentum to the suffragists. How did war benefit the suffrage movement when women were not allowed to fight? The answer is total war.
Total war is the idea that the whole nation is involved in war, not just segments of the population. For much of history, wars were fought by peasant conscripts and mercenaries led by the warring caste (aristocrats). This ended with Napoleon’s conquest of Europe. No longer were citizens idle bystanders or mere victims in war. They were active participants in running a war economy that created bullets, bandages, and beans that were essential for their nation’s victory. So when America stood victorious after World War One, American women shared the spoils of glory. Industrialization also gets credit for more women participating in the economy because capitalists simplified the production of crafts that artisans used to make. By taking the means of production from the artisans, it removed gatekeepers from these professions. Capitalists’ subsequent exploitation of cheap labor to fill these new jobs embedded women into the workforce on an industrial scale.
This is not to say that the mere exploitation of women gave them suffrage. Children and slaves were also exploited by capitalism. The difference here is in political potential, organization, and mobilization. Suffragists created a very sophisticated and powerful political engine to seize the opportunity of suffrage when it presented itself. The Suffrage movement pioneered the political protest, hunger strikes, and political marches to further their cause. When the 19th amendment was finally passed by Congress, suffragists were ready in all the states to get the bill ratified by at least 75% of them.
The book, Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote, itself is a straightforward read. It’s quite short for the topic (300 pages) so I felt that the book left out a lot of interesting details that would have enriched the reader’s understanding of the subject. For example, the book only briefly touches upon the anti-suffrage movement and more anecdotes of what was expected of common women would have been great to evidence the need for suffrage. Instead, the book mostly focuses on the suffragists who were by and large the 1% elites of society. This warps the reader's understanding of the time period by putting them in a very privileged perspective.
When women did get the right to vote, only one third of them used the right which disappointed many suffragists. This book ends by foreshadowing the importance of second wave feminism in activating the demographic to be more politically engaged. One question I have gotten from reading this book is, “How did second wave feminism shape the modern electorate?” I look forward to reading about it! Happy reading!
The crucible of war has an interesting effect of expanding the definition of who qualifies to be a citizen when victory is won or at least not lost. The Civil War gave African American men suffrage when they effectively won the war for the Union. World War II veterans came back and started the Civil Rights movement, 18-year-olds were given the right to vote for their service in the Vietnam War, and World War One gave critical momentum to the suffragists. How did war benefit the suffrage movement when women were not allowed to fight? The answer is total war.
Total war is the idea that the whole nation is involved in war, not just segments of the population. For much of history, wars were fought by peasant conscripts and mercenaries led by the warring caste (aristocrats). This ended with Napoleon’s conquest of Europe. No longer were citizens idle bystanders or mere victims in war. They were active participants in running a war economy that created bullets, bandages, and beans that were essential for their nation’s victory. So when America stood victorious after World War One, American women shared the spoils of glory. Industrialization also gets credit for more women participating in the economy because capitalists simplified the production of crafts that artisans used to make. By taking the means of production from the artisans, it removed gatekeepers from these professions. Capitalists’ subsequent exploitation of cheap labor to fill these new jobs embedded women into the workforce on an industrial scale.
This is not to say that the mere exploitation of women gave them suffrage. Children and slaves were also exploited by capitalism. The difference here is in political potential, organization, and mobilization. Suffragists created a very sophisticated and powerful political engine to seize the opportunity of suffrage when it presented itself. The Suffrage movement pioneered the political protest, hunger strikes, and political marches to further their cause. When the 19th amendment was finally passed by Congress, suffragists were ready in all the states to get the bill ratified by at least 75% of them.
The book, Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote, itself is a straightforward read. It’s quite short for the topic (300 pages) so I felt that the book left out a lot of interesting details that would have enriched the reader’s understanding of the subject. For example, the book only briefly touches upon the anti-suffrage movement and more anecdotes of what was expected of common women would have been great to evidence the need for suffrage. Instead, the book mostly focuses on the suffragists who were by and large the 1% elites of society. This warps the reader's understanding of the time period by putting them in a very privileged perspective.
When women did get the right to vote, only one third of them used the right which disappointed many suffragists. This book ends by foreshadowing the importance of second wave feminism in activating the demographic to be more politically engaged. One question I have gotten from reading this book is, “How did second wave feminism shape the modern electorate?” I look forward to reading about it! Happy reading!
August 23, 2020
This is an interesting, detailed history of the Suffrage movement in the US that is pretty honest about the racist opportunism--especially, the "Southern strategy"--that drove the movement to marginalize Black women. However, it fails to credit the role of Native American women in the inspiration for the movement (Native societies were matriarchal, and women and girls had political and social freedom unknown to European settler colonist women.) It only mentions in passing that at one point Native women were not allowed to vote when some Western states were passing laws giving white women the vote.
It was a little annoying to read the author's complaint in the Introduction that white women Suffragists are singled out for their racism, while other movements were practicing it, too. Geez. Just eat it, okay? Perhaps a deeper flaw in the book is the author's view of the world: the notion that women are making progress---why just look, a woman ran for President. How about a class analysis? Hillary Clinton represented corporate interests and was scarcely concerned about the poor, working women in the nations the US has bombed. And what about the Indigenous women in Honduras, where the US engineered a coup under Clinton's watch? Yes, voting is important in "civil" society, but it's also a luxury that disappears when corporate profits are threatened.
Of interest: Cathleen D. Cahill's forthcoming book “Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement.” Cahill is a co-contributor to an article in the NYTimes: "in 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote. Here’s What’s Next." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/st...
It was a little annoying to read the author's complaint in the Introduction that white women Suffragists are singled out for their racism, while other movements were practicing it, too. Geez. Just eat it, okay? Perhaps a deeper flaw in the book is the author's view of the world: the notion that women are making progress---why just look, a woman ran for President. How about a class analysis? Hillary Clinton represented corporate interests and was scarcely concerned about the poor, working women in the nations the US has bombed. And what about the Indigenous women in Honduras, where the US engineered a coup under Clinton's watch? Yes, voting is important in "civil" society, but it's also a luxury that disappears when corporate profits are threatened.
Of interest: Cathleen D. Cahill's forthcoming book “Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement.” Cahill is a co-contributor to an article in the NYTimes: "in 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote. Here’s What’s Next." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/st...
September 20, 2020
A quick and readable history of the women's suffrage movement in the United States, and how its many strands also impacted such issues as African-American voting rights, prohibition, and other aspects of women's rights issues. The author is obviously passionate about this issue.
Yet this book felt incomplete...we might think today of suffrage as being inevitable, but the author never really spoke of WHY this was such a contentious issue; diving deeper into why it took so many years to reach their goal, one wonders why anti-suffragists believed as they did: was it religious? What social forces shaped the patriarchical institutions the women were trying to overturn? Beyond just the standard sense that advocates for suffrage were mocked or ignored, what was the content of that position? Maybe had the author tried less to name-drop every suffrage advocate of the 19th century and focused more on the rationales given as to why suffrage was such a bad idea, it would have been a better book.
Still, a book like this cannot be read outside the context of a renewed emphasis on voting rights in 2020. When some are seeking to reduce voting (e.g. felons in Florida having to pay all fines before their voting rights are restored, challenges to mail-in voting during a pandemic, reducing the amount of polling stations in minority and urban settings), a book like this helps us to realize that voting is not always a right that is granted. There will always be some (looking at you, GOP) who seek to deny the vote to certain groups of people. Today it may be a different group of people, but democracy-loving Americans need to always defend and press this right.
Yet this book felt incomplete...we might think today of suffrage as being inevitable, but the author never really spoke of WHY this was such a contentious issue; diving deeper into why it took so many years to reach their goal, one wonders why anti-suffragists believed as they did: was it religious? What social forces shaped the patriarchical institutions the women were trying to overturn? Beyond just the standard sense that advocates for suffrage were mocked or ignored, what was the content of that position? Maybe had the author tried less to name-drop every suffrage advocate of the 19th century and focused more on the rationales given as to why suffrage was such a bad idea, it would have been a better book.
Still, a book like this cannot be read outside the context of a renewed emphasis on voting rights in 2020. When some are seeking to reduce voting (e.g. felons in Florida having to pay all fines before their voting rights are restored, challenges to mail-in voting during a pandemic, reducing the amount of polling stations in minority and urban settings), a book like this helps us to realize that voting is not always a right that is granted. There will always be some (looking at you, GOP) who seek to deny the vote to certain groups of people. Today it may be a different group of people, but democracy-loving Americans need to always defend and press this right.
April 30, 2021
My feelings on this book can be summed up in two words: /Fucking/ men.
I wasn't feeling this book until the last third when the politics heated up and then I was ENTHRALLED (and also so incredibly horrified. I learned to much about Tennessee politicking). I knew of the early suffrage movement and players in broad terms, but this provides an overarching, comprehensive view of the efforts it took to get women the vote.
And let me tell you - it was exhausting, demoralizing, and thankless work. Every woman owes more than they can ever comprehend to the tireless efforts of these pioneers, and I don't think I'll ever look at a ballot box the same way again. To hear how this political issue was set back time and time again, and how activists had to *literally* track down male politicians in hiding and physically drag them to vote gives you one tiny example of some of the barriers faced. It's also so important to remember how slow (how painfully, painfully slow) progress actually is, and how much sacrifice, noise, and viciousness is lost to mainstream history for things we take for granted. It just made me want to scream.
Another important part of this book were the contextualization of the race politics and dynamics that divided the movement. I would have loved to see more of it, but since Dubois tried to encompass as much as they could, I will just have to find another book focused on Black suffrage.
4 stars mainly because the first two thirds (while interesting and important) sometimes read like a Wikipedia entry and wasn't the most engrossing read. But if you keep with it, I promise it will get better.
I wasn't feeling this book until the last third when the politics heated up and then I was ENTHRALLED (and also so incredibly horrified. I learned to much about Tennessee politicking). I knew of the early suffrage movement and players in broad terms, but this provides an overarching, comprehensive view of the efforts it took to get women the vote.
And let me tell you - it was exhausting, demoralizing, and thankless work. Every woman owes more than they can ever comprehend to the tireless efforts of these pioneers, and I don't think I'll ever look at a ballot box the same way again. To hear how this political issue was set back time and time again, and how activists had to *literally* track down male politicians in hiding and physically drag them to vote gives you one tiny example of some of the barriers faced. It's also so important to remember how slow (how painfully, painfully slow) progress actually is, and how much sacrifice, noise, and viciousness is lost to mainstream history for things we take for granted. It just made me want to scream.
Another important part of this book were the contextualization of the race politics and dynamics that divided the movement. I would have loved to see more of it, but since Dubois tried to encompass as much as they could, I will just have to find another book focused on Black suffrage.
4 stars mainly because the first two thirds (while interesting and important) sometimes read like a Wikipedia entry and wasn't the most engrossing read. But if you keep with it, I promise it will get better.
October 9, 2024
Don't get me wrong, this book does provide a fairly accurate history of the us suffrage movement from the 1800s to 1919. However, her purpose for writing this book is stated in the introduction. She wants to discredit two premises: that suffrage was narrow, single-issue focus, and two, that it was a primarily white women's movement that's use of racism was its 'fatal flaw'. I don't think she succeeds in her thesis, and I think that there are much better books on the women's movements that are truly inclusive of everyone. She focuses really heavily on Susan b Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton along with other prominent white women, and while those women WERE important to the movement, she then adds in women of color in small pockets. Using these small anecdotal stories to bring in black women actually makes the whole narrative feel just as white centric as the arguments she's trying to deny. Also, she ends at the passing of the 19th amendment, which originally only provided voting rights for white women in the US. By ending there she fails to prove that she is truly including the whole narrative including women of color, especially black women. Also, her handling of racism in the suffrage movement is pretty 'both sides' about it which left a bad taste in my mouth. She displays suffragists in that time saying that the fight wasn't over, that this was just the beginning, but she ends there despite being self-aware. She is still trying to work in the white feminist structure that she is claiming to deny. While it is functionally informative, I would highly recommend finding other histories if you want a more in-depth analysis of the suffrage movement.
September 26, 2025
A (might just be me) lengthy read. The women's battle for suffrage indeed was a lengthy journey that, until now, we still face challenges in undermining the very right. I think for the most part, this book reminded me how important activism is in our current society, as we owe most, if not all, of our rights to their courage to stand up to the status quo during those challenging times.
In the Philippine society (might be just for me or my circle), I think books like this should be read more by the current generations to remind us of the struggles that women have to overcome to get the basic right to vote. Reminding us how important it is to choose the right leader for our very community.
PS. As I believe that Women's journey to suffrage rights is a feminist battle, my general knowledge for the longest time is that it has always been the colored women who started most women's rights movements in the US. However, this book challenged that perspective; for the most part, the book has white women leading the suffrage movement. This may be because during this time, slavery was at its peak, hence the efforts made by colored women are often unseen, giving the spotlight to white suffragists. I do know that this book is about women's fight for suffrage, and I'm not pitting them against each other.
In the Philippine society (might be just for me or my circle), I think books like this should be read more by the current generations to remind us of the struggles that women have to overcome to get the basic right to vote. Reminding us how important it is to choose the right leader for our very community.
PS. As I believe that Women's journey to suffrage rights is a feminist battle, my general knowledge for the longest time is that it has always been the colored women who started most women's rights movements in the US. However, this book challenged that perspective; for the most part, the book has white women leading the suffrage movement. This may be because during this time, slavery was at its peak, hence the efforts made by colored women are often unseen, giving the spotlight to white suffragists. I do know that this book is about women's fight for suffrage, and I'm not pitting them against each other.
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December 11, 2025She's just so defensive after all that criticism she received from her original book, Jesus. Look, I get it, but like,,, no one's discounting the lengths and the hardships that white women went through to advocate for the vote. Other historians are just saying that it's time to look at other women in different situations and see how they contributed to the vote. I don't know- I have nothing against DuBois, I think she's a great writer and historian, but yeah, I just- this book wasn't needed. It didn't really offer anything that other historians haven't. It felt very broad to the point where not much was really said. Yeah, a bit disappointing. And still, even after she tried to give examples of women of color who were suffragists, Anthony and Stanton were STILL haunting the fucking narrative the entire time! I have nothing personally against either women but like, we know about them dude! We know so much about them! It's time to give other women a platform, you know?
also fun little sidenote that I don't know where else to share! do you remember those old toys ZuZu pets? They were little hamsters that had wheels and ran around? Well my brother and I had a matching set and we named our hamsters Susan B. Anthony- mine was Susan B., my brother's was Anthony. Anyway, yeah. Just a fun little anecdote.
also fun little sidenote that I don't know where else to share! do you remember those old toys ZuZu pets? They were little hamsters that had wheels and ran around? Well my brother and I had a matching set and we named our hamsters Susan B. Anthony- mine was Susan B., my brother's was Anthony. Anyway, yeah. Just a fun little anecdote.
October 7, 2020
A grand sweep of the suffrage movement in the United States from the Seneca Falls conference (1848) to the passage of the 19th Amendment (1920). Dubois shows the connections and breaks between suffragism and the other social movements of the time: Its original intertwining with abolitionism and the development to a one-issue movement after the Civil War (including its flirts with white supremacy in the South), its reinvigoration by opening up to the labor movement, its constant alignment with temperance, and finally its connections with pacifism during World War I. These were more fascinating to me than the portraits of all the protagonists of the long struggle - sure, there are some remarkable personalities (Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton come to mind), but especially the later suffrage leaders only spent a short time in the leadership of their movement and then sink again into oblivion.
My biggest issue with the book, however, is the writing. It is not elegant, and in many instances outright awkward - Dubois sentences often seem to be going a different direction in the beginning than where they end up, and every few pages there is a particularly awkward metaphor or phrasing.
My biggest issue with the book, however, is the writing. It is not elegant, and in many instances outright awkward - Dubois sentences often seem to be going a different direction in the beginning than where they end up, and every few pages there is a particularly awkward metaphor or phrasing.
November 8, 2022
“All laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.”
DuBois describes the near century of work it took to assume women's suffrage. Peeling back the layers of time, history, women, and racism, this well-researched book is the perfect addition to any library remotely interested in women's rights. This is a dense book, and one that was written with much care. That being said, while it may be easier to digest this for research rather than pleasure, it was still an enjoyable read.
Detailing plenty of meetings, the abolition movement, and temperance, DuBois creates a master jigsaw puzzle of all the ways in which suffrage intersected with other movements. While disappointing to learn that most leaders of the suffragette movement did not live to see their dreams become a reality, DuBois reignites hope by endowing us with the knowledge that we are still seeing the very real, positive effects of women in political power--all thanks to us fighting for and gaining the right to vote.
DuBois describes the near century of work it took to assume women's suffrage. Peeling back the layers of time, history, women, and racism, this well-researched book is the perfect addition to any library remotely interested in women's rights. This is a dense book, and one that was written with much care. That being said, while it may be easier to digest this for research rather than pleasure, it was still an enjoyable read.
Detailing plenty of meetings, the abolition movement, and temperance, DuBois creates a master jigsaw puzzle of all the ways in which suffrage intersected with other movements. While disappointing to learn that most leaders of the suffragette movement did not live to see their dreams become a reality, DuBois reignites hope by endowing us with the knowledge that we are still seeing the very real, positive effects of women in political power--all thanks to us fighting for and gaining the right to vote.
August 27, 2024
I particularly liked the cover of my LP version, since I myself had found my way around the Classics department since the turn of the millennia.
This is about the time of history that I had found most interesting since high school, or slightly before it. This seems to describe something from the mid-19th century.
I didn't know what "elective franchise" meant before. I will refer to the dictionary.
elective
adjective [ not gradable ]
US /ɪˈlek·tɪv/
chosen or decided by voting:
franchise noun (VOTE)
the franchise [ S ]
the right to vote in an election, especially in order to elect a parliament or similar law-making organization:
The dictionary website I consulted says that many women vote Democrat, but I've seen some female Republicans on TV.
Have a nice day! This is what I've been up to, as of late.
This is about the time of history that I had found most interesting since high school, or slightly before it. This seems to describe something from the mid-19th century.
I didn't know what "elective franchise" meant before. I will refer to the dictionary.
elective
adjective [ not gradable ]
US /ɪˈlek·tɪv/
chosen or decided by voting:
franchise noun (VOTE)
the franchise [ S ]
the right to vote in an election, especially in order to elect a parliament or similar law-making organization:
The dictionary website I consulted says that many women vote Democrat, but I've seen some female Republicans on TV.
Have a nice day! This is what I've been up to, as of late.
November 8, 2024
Don't miss this book! It should be on everyone's reading list including schools and libraries. The book begins in the middle of the 1800's pre-Civil War and ends on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Constitutional Amendment. It explains the movement that started the abolition of slavery and how Congress granted recently freed African American men the right to vote, but not the women. The book honestly holds accountable some white women supporting suffrage but only for white women. It take the reader to Jim Crow times and on the the beginning of the word feminism in the 1970's. So many important names and lots of very important history in this comprehensive nonfiction that this reader couldn't stop reading until the early morning. I suggest staring this book early enough in the evening because you will not want to put it down!
August 17, 2025
📚 Book Review: Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote by Ellen Carol DuBois
💜💜💜💜
Straightforward, deeply researched, and packed with historical detail, this book traces the entire arc of the American women’s suffrage movement—from Seneca Falls to the 19th Amendment. DuBois doesn’t shy away from the hard truths: how racism and class privilege shaped the fight for the vote, and how Black women were sidelined in favor of political expedience. It’s heavy on history, light on storytelling, and makes a powerful case for why the Equal Rights Amendment still matters.
If you’re into pure history and want to understand the roots of feminism, power dynamics among women, and how far we’ve come (or haven’t), this belongs on your shelf.
🗳️ Bonus: Check out the Broadway show Suffs—it pairs well with this read.
#purplesquirrelreads
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