“In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country.”
—From the Declaration of Sentiments, 1848
When women starting agitating for their rights, they were starting from zero. Everything in their lives—church, state, parents, peers—told them their role in life was to be silent, to serve, and to submit. So how to awaken in women and girls a sense of injustice? How to to nurture the idea that she could change the world? How to get the world to take women seriously?!
In light of recent wonderful events—VP Kamala Harris running for President and the outpouring of organic organizing and fundraising for her—I’m thinking about how the Suffs fought for and won the 19th amendment. This is how they did it then, but there may be some lessons for us, too.
They looked at the Indigenous cultures
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the woman’s rights movement kicked off in New York state, where they lived alongside matrilineal Indigenous groups like the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who demonstrated a radically different vision of men and women’s roles in society. In the Haudenosaunee, a woman had custody of her children, her own personal property, she took part in the communal work, and she had a voice in making decisions for the tribe. Overall, there was much more equality between men and women.
The early Suffs saw this—and that the sky was not falling and world was not ending—and they started asking questions and talking. Thanks to the Indigenous tribes nearby, they had a vision of what was possible.
Read more here.
They talked—even if people thought they were crazy
A few brave, radical women stood up in front of a crowd (it wasn’t easy). Lucy Stone. Abby Kelley. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. They braved ridicule and rotten eggs.
They got the idea out.
They took the heat.
They gave an example for other brave women to follow and they normalized women speaking in public about women’s rights. In the 1870s and onwards, some women were able join the lecture circuit and make a living by giving speeches. It was a win-win: the cause got advocates, women got money, people got enlightening entertainment. But it started with a few brave women who dared to speak up about the scandalous idea of women’s rights.
They talked some more—woman to woman—bolstering their confidence and building a network of support
Yes, more talking. Susan B. Anthony would go from town to town, awakening and organizing small groups of local women. Now she could be connected with them via letter—for convention calls, for petition drives—and they had each other for support to help endure mockery and ridicule.
When Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others would lecture to mixed audiences for money, they would often hold smaller gatherings just for women—especially married women. I imagine this was where the real talk happened.
The point is this: when women got together in safe spaces with like-minded women, it was a chance to strengthen their conviction so they could stand up to those who would ridicule them.
They petitioned
“Friends became wearied out with the toilsome process of year by year collecting signatures, which when presented were silently and indifferently dropped into the bag under the table of the House of Commons. But during the early days of the movement these petitions, signed by all classes of men and women, were invaluable in arousing interest in our movement.”
—The Complete History of Women’s Suffrage
When women didn’t have any money, or a vote, or much of a public platform, they did have the petition.
Women would be tasked with going out in their community to get signatures, which would then be compiled by an organizer (usually Susan at first) and then presented to legislators to show them what their constituents wanted.
During the Civil War, Susan and Elizabeth petitioned for the abolition of slavery, getting a few hundred thousand signatures. In the later years, when politicians (and some women) would insist that not all women or not enough women wanted the vote, petitions were a handy data point to say otherwise. Especially when they were presented to congress via large scrolls that were personally delivered by suffragists arriving in a loud, attention-getting automobile parade.
But the way I think petitioning really works is this: it provides an opportunity for a one on one conversation and possibly converting someone to your cause.
They fought back in the press
In the early days, Elizabeth Cady Staton would attend different church services to hear what misogynist nonsense the preacher was preaching and then she would go home to write rebuttals and send them to the newspaper. She wasn’t the only one who would write back to stupid stuff they read in the papers. This helped them hone their arguments and get their idea of women’s rights out there—if only because editors and readers liked the drama.
Eventually, the Suffs would have their own publications—The Revolution, The Lily, the Woman’s Era, the Woman’s Journal, the Suffragist among others—but they were always niche publications that were incredibly hard and expensive to produce. But it was necessary because they usually had the the hardest time getting their POV represented in traditional media. Having their own papers was a way to get their news out, build community and open minds.
Relatedly, there were always pamphlets and declarations to be printed up and passed around. Susan B. Anthony was forever hauling trunks of it around the country to distribute.
Later in the movement, the Suffs had full press operation funded by Alva Belmont and Mrs. Frank Leslie which enabled them to be proactive in getting their arguments and talking points out to the mainstream press, when it was finally not afraid to publish it. This was a serious operation that helped change public opinion.
They held conventions
With the exception of the Civil War years, when the Suffs paused their activities to support abolition and the war, they held national conventions every year until they got the vote in 1920. And if you have 800 free hours, you can read the details of these conventions in The Complete History of Woman’s Suffrage. The conventions are a lot of speeches, resolutions and debates. But the purpose the conventions serve is to build a sense of community so that a woman (or a man!) didn’t feel so alone in their radical idea of woman’s rights. They also rallied their supporters around common goals.
The attendees weren’t just the famous names we know—they were open to all. Sometimes mobs disrupted, but any interested person could attend, and learn, and get involved.
I cannot help but compare these to the old Romance Writers of America national conferences. We got together in a safe space to revel in our joy, to share ideas, to unify. We went back home informed, inspired and “fired up and ready to go.” I know for me, those conferences kept me connected and inspired. I imagine the Suffs felt the same way.
They involved their daughters
When Matilda Joslyn Gage went to her first woman’s rights convention, she didn’t go alone—she brought her seven year-old daughter. When she stood up to speak, she was so nervous that she was trembling, and she held her daughter’s hand the whole time. The movement is full of mothers and daughters. Elizabeth Cady Stanton didn’t live to see the 19th amendment, but her daughter did and fought for it in the final years. Lucy Stone didn’t make it, but her daughter was leader until the end. Daughters raised with the mission don’t have to be converted, they are raised to be ready to take their turn to lead.
They embraced club culture
Couldn’t make it to the National conference? That’s okay—you could always organize or attend your local suffrage society and fight like-minded folks actively working in their community, but also connected to the larger organization. In the late 1800s there was an explosion of women’s clubs for every issue of the day. Sometimes these clubs united together—like with the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association, or the National Association of Colored Women.
Again, it’s like the old Romance Writers of America model—a national organization with local chapters. It allows an organization to be everywhere all at once while powered by people.
They debated each other
Should divorce reform be a part of the women’s rights platform? Should they support the Fifteenth Amendment (the right for Black men to vote) or hold out for one that gave universal suffrage? What about prohibition? Equal pay? Lynching? Dress reform? Should the states decide or should there be a federal amendment?
The debates were fierce. There were major disagreements on what to fight for and how to fight for it. There were personal feuds that lasted for decades. For most of the fight, there were two separate and competing organizations.
But they had one shared vision: the vote for women. They believed that if they could get the vote, they could make all the changes they wanted to see in the world.
They worked independently toward it, in their own ways. They didn’t stop working trying to get everyone agree on everything. Sometimes we don’t all need to be perfectly aligned all the time.
They created stunts and spectacles to make the world notice
In the last ten years of the fight, the Suffs had gotten fed up with petitions and lobbying and conventions. These were the years when Suffs would stand on cars and deliver speeches to folks passing by. They embraced swag and merch and department store window displays and suffrage cafés. These were the years of the dramatic parades, when thousands of women (and men) marched in a display of solidarity and determination. These were the years of the Silent Sentinels when women picketed the White House—and were sent to jail for it. It all made for great press—especially with the popularization of photography—and it got the message out in a new and radical way.
They got really savvy about lobbying
Alice Paul had an office in Washington. And in that office she had a filing cabinet. And in that filing cabinet were cards on every congressman detailing his stance on suffrage and other issues, his family, affiliations, financial supporters, and what newspapers he read. It was called the Deadly Political Index. No joke.
They used all this intel in their lobbying efforts. They had rules about doing it: go in twos, “Be courteous, no matter what provocation” and “Don’t do anything to close the door to the next advocate of suffrage.” They called themselves the Front Door lobby, as a nod to their respectability.
This knowledge helped them tailor their efforts. They changed minds where they could and they “changed the man” when they couldn’t change his mind.
I want to note that these women weren’t paid lobbyists. There were plenty of paid lobbyists with deep pockets (I’m looking at you, Liquor Industry afraid of Prohibition) who bought off legislators—just like today. But women stepped up and stepped out and that made all the difference.
Read more here.
They measured their progress in failures
In 1915, the National Suffrage organization went all out on a campaign to win women’s suffrage in New York State. Parades, press, door to door—everything. It was seen as a crucial state to win or order to get the coveted federal amendment. And they lost.
They all gathered at a huge meeting after—sobs, anger, shock, all the feels. And Carrie Chapman Catt had to get up and rally everyone. She did. That night they passed the hat and raised money to fund a new campaign. It would start the next day and two years later it would be successful.
Early on, Lucy Stone presented at a convention saying “no one laughs at us anymore!” Progress. Years would go by where they fought to get female suffrage on the ballot. Finally they got it, but they lost by 10,000 votes. Progress! Next time, the they might lose by only 5,000 votes! Progress.
Eventually, those losses started turning into wins as all that talking, all that petitioning, all that organizing changed the perception society held of women as people and as voters. Eventually this impossibility became an inevitability.
I am humbled when I think of the courage it took to be an early Suff—to knock on a stranger’s door with a shocking proposal, to brave ridicule and attacks (they endured the equivalent of “childless cat ladies” and worse even then). But thanks to persistent efforts of a few brave women, more and more people got on board with the cause and now it’s unimaginable that we will go back (at least not without a fight).
One of Susan B. Anthony’s most famous quotes is this: “failure is impossible.” But I think the full context and quote is compelling. It was her last public address. She was in her eighties and tiring. The hall was packed with thousands of women—a far cry from the early days when Susan went door to door only to have women slam it in her face saying they had all the rights they needed. She said: When women come together, failure is impossible.
What an amazing list, mind-boggling. They seem like Weebles. Remember, "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down!" Neither did the Suffs, clearly. The photo of the women trolling the White House in 1917 hit me particularly hard this morning. The sign reads: "Mr. President, How long must women wait for liberty?" With a pang, I have to say: We still are. Maya, thank you for this beautiful, moving essay.