Early in this trimester, we continued examining one of the central questions of this class: How do people with little political power gain political power? The women’s suffrage movement in the United States is a fascinating lens through which to explore this question. Many historians note that the 19th Amendment – which prohibits the government from denying the right to vote based on sex – wasn’t passed until 1920. This was 72 years after the first women’s rights convention in the United States, which took place at Seneca Falls in 1848. Others note that as early as March of 1776, when the Constitutional Convention was underway, women like Abigail Adams urged their husbands to give women more political power while they built a democracy that touted freedom for all.

Women had very few personal or political rights in the 19th and early 20th centuries. So how did they finally gain the right to vote? What strategies did they use? What forces continued to oppose them up until the very end?

To answer these questions, each virtual exhibit below focuses on one of the following themes:

Petitions and Lobbying
Pageants and Parades
Picketing, Imprisonments, and Hunger Strikes
Opposition to Suffrage

In each exhibit, students first selected primary sources that reflected their chosen them. Then, they wrote analytical descriptions to explain the historical significance of each source, along with its meaning within the suffrage movement. Students then combined their sources into one virtual exhibit that tells the story of their theme.

Of course, there were also power dynamics within the suffrage movement itself, and those dynamics often centered around race and class. Those dynamics are still reflected today, as most of us learn about white suffragists while women of color who also led the movement are frequently erased from popular history. In our attempt to diversify that history, we also invite you to check out the students’ suffrage monuments.