The Woman Suffrage Movement in America
A Reassessment

This book tells the story of woman suffrage as one involving the diverse politics of women across the country.

Corrine M. McConnaughy (Author)

9781107013667, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 October 2013

290 pages, 7 b/w illus. 1 map 30 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.6 kg

'McConnaughy's book adds a valuable insight into the complexities of the women's suffrage movement.' Shannon M. Risk, Political Science Quarterly

This book departs from familiar accounts of high-profile woman suffrage activists whose main concern was a federal constitutional amendment. It tells the story of woman suffrage as one involving the diverse politics of women across the country as well as the incentives of the men with the primary political authority to grant new voting rights - those in state legislatures. Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence, the book explains the success and failures of efforts for woman suffrage provisions in five states and in the US Congress as the result of successful and failed coalitional politics between the suffrage movement and important constituencies of existing male voters, including farmers' organizations, labor unions, and the Populist and Progressive parties.

1. Bringing politics back in: suffrage supply and demand
2. Political meaning for woman suffrage
3. Programmatic enfranchisement: coalitional strategies for voting rights
4. Strong leverage: third party support
5. Coalitional impossibilities: race, class, and failure
6. The national story
7. From the outside in.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Gender studies: women [JFSJ1]