LibGuides: Women's History @ SWIC Library: Women VOTE

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Women Will Vote: winning suffrage in New York State by Susan Goodier; Karen Pastorello Women Will Vote celebrates the 2017 centenary of women's right to full suffrage in New York State. Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello highlight the activism of rural, urban, African American, Jewish, immigrant, and European American women, as well as male suffragists, both upstate and downstate, that led to the positive outcome of the 1917 referendum. Goodier and Pastorello argue that the popular nature of the women's suffrage movement in New York State and the resounding success of the referendum at the polls relaunched suffrage as a national issue. If women had failed to gain the vote in New York, Goodier and Pastorello claim, there is good reason to believe that the passage and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment would have been delayed. Women Will Vote makes clear how actions of New York's patchwork of suffrage advocates heralded a gigantic political, social, and legal shift in the United States. Readers will discover that although these groups did not always collaborate, by working in their own ways toward the goal of enfranchising women they essentially formed a coalition. Together, they created a diverse social and political movement that did not rely solely on the motivating force of white elites and a leadership based in New York City. Goodier and Pastorello convincingly argue that the agitation and organization that led to New York women's victory in 1917 changed the course of American history.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1911 .N7 G67 2017
ISBN: 9781501705557
Publication Date: 2017-09-15
The Suffragents: how women used men to get the vote by Brooke Kroeger The story of how and why a group of prominent and influential men in New York City and beyond came together to help women gain the right to vote.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1896 .K57 2017
ISBN: 9781438466309
Publication Date: 2017-09-01
Why They Marched: untold stories of the women who fought for the right to vote by Susan Ware Looking beyond the national leadership of the suffrage movement, an acclaimed historian gives voice to the thousands of women from different backgrounds, races, and religions whose local passion and protest resounded throughout the land. For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. But Susan Ware uncovered a much broader and more diverse story waiting to be told. Why They Marched is a tribute to the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship. Ware tells her story through the lives of nineteen activists, most of whom have long been overlooked. We meet Mary Church Terrell, a multilingual African American woman; Rose Schneiderman, a labor activist building coalitions on New York's Lower East Side; Claiborne Catlin, who toured the Massachusetts countryside on horseback to drum up support for the cause; Mary Johnston, an aristocratic novelist bucking the Southern ruling elite; Emmeline W. Wells, a Mormon woman in a polygamous marriage determined to make her voice heard; and others who helped harness a groundswell of popular support. We also see the many places where the suffrage movement unfolded?in church parlors, meeting rooms, and the halls of Congress, but also on college campuses and even at the top of Mount Rainier. Few corners of the United States were untouched by suffrage activism. Ware's deeply moving stories provide a fresh account of one of the most significant moments of political mobilization in American history. The dramatic, often joyous experiences of these women resonate powerfully today, as a new generation of young women demands to be heard.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1896 .W37 2019
ISBN: 9780674986688
Publication Date: 2019-05-06
The Woman's Hour: the great fight to win the vote by Elaine Weiss "Both a page-turning drama and an inspiration for every reader" -- Hillary Rodham Clinton Soon to be a major television event, the nail-biting climax of one of the greatest political battles in American history: the ratification of the constitutional amendment that granted women the right to vote. Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have approved the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote; one last state--Tennessee--is needed for women's voting rights to be the law of the land. The suffragists face vicious opposition from politicians, clergy, corporations, and racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis"--women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the nation's moral collapse. And in one hot summer, they all converge for a confrontation, replete with booze and blackmail, betrayal and courage. Following a handful of remarkable women who led their respective forces into battle, The Woman's Hour is the gripping story of how America's women won their own freedom, and the opening campaign in the great twentieth-century battles for civil rights.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1911 .T2 W45 2019
ISBN: 9780143128991
Publication Date: 2019-03-05
Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the fight for the right to vote by Tina Cassidy In this "heroic narrative" (The Wall Street Journal), discover the inspiring and timely account of the complex relationship between leading suffragist Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson in her fight for women's equality. Woodrow Wilson lands in Washington, DC, in March of 1913, a day before he is set to take the presidential oath of office. He is surprised by the modest turnout. The crowds and reporters are blocks away from Union Station, watching a parade of eight thousand suffragists on Pennsylvania Avenue in a first-of-its-kind protest organized by a twenty-five-year-old activist named Alice Paul. The next day, The New York Times calls the procession "one of the most impressively beautiful spectacles ever staged in this country." Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? weaves together two storylines: the trajectories of Alice Paul and Woodrow Wilson, two apparent opposites. Paul's procession of suffragists resulted in her being granted a face-to-face meeting with President Wilson, one that would lead to many meetings and much discussion, but little progress for women. With no equality in sight and patience wearing thin, Paul organized the first group to ever picket in front of the White House lawn--night and day, through sweltering summer mornings and frigid fall nights. From solitary confinement, hunger strikes, and the psychiatric ward to ever more determined activism, Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? reveals the courageous, near-death journey it took, spearheaded in no small part by Alice Paul's leadership, to grant women the right to vote in America. "A remarkable tale" (Kirkus Reviews) and a rousing portrait of a little-known feminist heroine, this is an eye-opening exploration of a crucial moment in American history one century before the Women's March.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1899 .P38 C37 2019
ISBN: 9781501177774
Publication Date: 2020-03-03
Suffrage: women's long battle for the vote by Ellen Carol DuBois Honoring the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, this exciting history 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 Sojourner Truth as she explores 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 into 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. 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. Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote is sure to become the authoritative account of one of the great episodes in the history of American democracy.
Call Number: Belleville Popular Interests ; JK 1896 .D77 2020
ISBN: 9781501165160
Publication Date: 2020-02-25
Jailed for Freedom: American women win the vote by Doris Stevens; Carol O'Hare (Editor); Edith Mayo (Introduction by) A firsthand account of the National Woman's Party, which organized and fought a fierce battle for passage of the 19th Amendment. The suffragists endured hunger strikes, forced feedings, and jail terms. First written in 1920 by Doris Stevens, this version was edited by Carol O'Hare. Includes an introduction by Smithsonian curator Edith Mayo, along with appendices, an index, historic photos, and illustrations.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1901 .S85 1995
ISBN: 0939165252
Publication Date: 1995-03-21
Not for Ourselves Alone: the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony : an illustrated history by Geoffrey C. Ward; Ken Burns Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were two heroic women who vastly bettered the lives of a majority of American citizens. For more than fifty years they led the public battle to secure for women the most basic civil rights and helped establish a movement that would revolutionize American society. Yet despite the importance of their work and they impact they made on our history, a century and a half later, they have been almost forgotten. Stanton and Anthony were close friends, partners, and allies, but judging from their backgrounds they would seem an unlikely pair. Stanton was born into the prominent Livingston clan in New York, grew up wealthy, educated, and sociable, married and had a large family of her own. Anthony, raised in a devout Quaker environment, worked to support herself her whole life, elected to remain single, and devoted herself to progressive causes, initially Temperance, then Abolition. They were nearly total opposites in their personalities and attributes, yet complemented each other's strengths perfectly. Stanton was a gifted writer and radical thinker, full of fervor and radical ideas but pinned down by her reponsibilities as wife and mother, while Anthony, a tireless and single-minded tactician, was eager for action, undaunted by the terrible difficulties she faced. As Stanton put it, "I forged the thunderbolts, she fired them." The relationship between these two extraordinary women and its effect on the development of the suffrage movement are richly depicted by Ward and Burns, and in the accompanying essays by Ellen Carol Dubois, Ann D. Gordon, and Martha Saxton. We also see Stanton and Anthony's interactions with major figures of the time, from Frederick Douglass and John Brown to Lucretia Mott and Victoria Woodhull. Enhanced by a wonderful array of black-and-white and color illustrations, Not For Ourselves Alone is a vivid and inspiring portrait of two of the most fascinating, and important, characters in American history.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1412 .W36 1999
ISBN: 0375405607
Publication Date: 1999-10-19
One Woman, One Vote: rediscovering the woman suffrage movement by Marjorie Spruill Wheeler (Editor) Companion book to the PBS American Experience documentary by the same name, this anthology is the most comprehensive collection of writings -- contemporary and historical -- on the woman suffrage movement in America. It includes essays by the most prominent contemporary historians, many who challenge widely accepted theories and illustrate the diversity and complexity of the fight for the 19th Amendment.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1896 .O54 1995
ISBN: 9780939165261
Publication Date: 1995-08-15
Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in her own words by Lynn Sherr Juxtaposed with contemporary reports and biographical essays, the words of this legendary suffragist reveal Susan B. Anthony as a loyal, caring friend, and an eloquent, humorous crusader. "More than a collection of well-arranged quotations, the work informs, inspires, and gives historical perspective."--The Houston Post. 33 photos & illustrations.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1413 .A55 S48 1995
ISBN: 9780812927184
Publication Date: 1995
The Rise of the New Woman: the women's movement in America, 1875-1930 by Jean V. Matthews This book chronicles the changing fortunes and transformations of the organized suffrage movement, from its dismal period of declining numbers and campaign failures to its final victory.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1419 .M38 2003
ISBN: 1566635004
Publication Date: 2003-03-03
A History of the American Suffragist Movement by Doris L. Weatherford Chronicles the women's suffrage movement from its official inception at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention throuth the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1896 .W43 1998
ISBN: 1576070654
Publication Date: 1998-06-01
Feminism and Suffrage: the emergence of an independent women's movement in America, 1848-1869 by Ellen Carol DuBois In the two decades since Feminism and Suffrage was first published, the increased presence of women in politics and the gender gap in voting patterns have focused renewed attention on an issue generally perceived as nineteenth-century. For this new edition, Ellen Carol DuBois addresses the changing context for the history of woman suffrage at the millennium.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1423 .D8 1978
ISBN: 9780801486418
Publication Date: 1978
Women's Suffrage by Jeff Hill Provides users with a detailed and authoritative overview of this event, as well as the principal figures involved in this pivotal episode in U.S. history.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1896 .H54 2006
ISBN: 0780807766
Publication Date: 2005-10-07
Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Lois W. Banner Focusing on Stanton's role as a reformer in the women's rights and suffrage movements, Banner also examines Stanton's relationships with her husband, with Susan B. Anthony, and with other leading feminists of the nineteenth century.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1413 .S67 B35 1980
ISBN: 9780673393197
Publication Date: 1980
Susan B. Anthony: a biography of a singular feminist by Kathleen L. Barry Susan B. Anthony had not started out with a dream. Rather, her Quaker beginnings were humble. She spent days doing household chores and preparing for her future role as a wife. But by her late twenties she had chosen striving for social justice over marriage as a vocation. She left her secure teaching position to become a politician and a charismatic leader of woman's rights. Here, in this brilliant biography, is the portrait of this singular woman - who was she was, what she felt, and how she thought.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1413 .A55 B36 1988
ISBN: 9781587210099
Publication Date: 1988
Two Paths to Equality: temperance, suffrage, and the origins of modern feminism by Janet Zollinger Giele Social Movements Past and Present offers thorough analyses of the ideas and actions that have changed the way Americans think and live. Each volume is written by a specialist drawing on the insights and methodologies of history, sociology and political science.
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1410 .G54 1995
ISBN: 9780805745238
Publication Date: 1995-02-01
The Transformation of the Woman Suffrage Movement: the case of Illinois, 1850-1920 by Steven M. Buechler
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1911 .I3 B84 1986
ISBN: 0813511313
Publication Date: 1986-01-01
From Parlor to Prison: five American suffragists talk about their lives by Sherna B. Gluck (Editor); Kathryn K. Sklar (Foreword by)
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection JK 1896 .F76 1976
ISBN: 0394716426
Publication Date: 1976-04-01
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a Radical for Woman's Rights by Lois W. Banner
Call Number: Belleville General Book Collection HQ 1413 .S67 B35 1980
ISBN: 9780316080309
Publication Date: 1980-01-01

Celebrating Women's Equality

Roughly 100 years ago, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution became official. In the very last step of a very, very long process, then Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified that the 19th Amendment had been ratified. At last, at least on paper, every American woman had the right to vote.

In practice, of course, many women had to fight decades longer for the right to vote, "particularly African-American women in the Jim Crow south," as a New York Times editor noted earlier this year. And for women of all races and backgrounds, across-the-board equality remains elusive—still a pie in the sky nearly 100 years after women's biggest watershed moment.

In short, the 19th Amendment was neither the beginning nor the end of women's struggle for equality. Another notable event in this still-unfolding drama took place fifty years ago today, on August 26, 1970. Women across the nation rallied in The Women's Strike for Equality, organized by NOW (the National Organization for Women) to highlight inequalities in pay and education and the need for more childcare centers.

In New York City, 50,000 people took to the streets to protest what event leaders called "the unfinished business of equality." They paraded down Fifth Avenue carrying banners with slogans like "Don't Iron While the Strike is Hot," ending with a rally in Bryant Park, right behind the Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

It was this event that inspired New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug to introduce a bill to establish Women's Equality Day on August 26, which passed in 1973:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.

Women's Equality Day was created in recognition of the need for ongoing feminist engagement: to inspire new activism, as well as commemorate the achievements of women past. Next August, to mark the 100th anniversary of women winning the vote, the Library will host an exhibition exploring women's activism, past and future tense. Anyone who thinks women's history is boring (and everyone who knows better), please attend!

Here are a few women's history page-turners to help you keep the spirit of this day: