Ellen Carol Dubois: “The Surprising Movement for Woman Suffrage”

This lecture will provide a fresh reexamination of the long and determined battle for women’s right to vote. Beginning with the early, explosive connection to black suffrage, this lecture will also pay special attention to the role of western states in laying the groundwork for the federal constitutional amendment and consider the movement’s acceleration during the exciting years of early-twentieth-century Progressivism. Who was responsible for the length of the battle for the vote? Who were the different groups of women who fought for the vote? Who claimed the ultimate victory? And what did women win once they achieved the franchise? All of these important questions will be addressed during this dramatic overview of one of America’s greatest reform movements.