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Women--Suffrage--United States--History and Suffragists--United States--History

Honoring the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, this “indispensable” book (Ellen Chesler, Ms. magazine) 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 Sojurner Truth as she “meticulously and vibrantly chronicles” (Booklist) 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 to 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. “Ellen DuBois enables us to appreciate the drama of the long battle for women's suffrage and the heroism of many of its advocates” (Eric Foner, author of The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution). 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 a “comprehensive history that deftly tackles intricate political complexities and conflicts and still somehow read with nail-biting suspense,” (The Guardian) and is sure to become the authoritative account of one of the great episodes in the history of American democracy.

Women--Suffrage--Great Britain and Women--Political activity--Great Britain

The first women's suffrage society in Britain was formed in 1867, following the temporary Committee of the previous year. This book appears appropriately in the centenary year. That women should vote is now so generally accepted that few of the post-war generation can appreciate the long and intense struggle before women's right to political equality was recognized. John Stuart Mill presented his Women Suffrage Petition to the House of Commons in 1866. It took Parliament fifty-two years to enfranchise the first women. Dr. Rover, using much original research, discusses the interaction between the political parties and the two movements for women's suffrage, constitutional and militant. The analysis of the attitude of the party leaders towards women's enfranchisement illuminates the characters of the prime ministers of the period and emphasises the difficulties inherent in our parliamentary procedure.

Women--Suffrage--Wales--History--19th century and Women--Suffrage--Wales--History--20th century

Women's Suffrage In Wales allows its readers to take a glimpse at the lives of the many ordinary Welsh women who contributed in some way to the suffrage movement. Although suffragettes from across the rest of Britain, such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Wilding Davis, have become household names, little is ever mentioned about the women living in Wales who fought for equal opportunities and the right to vote.Women's Suffrage in Wales seeks to readdress this balance. Within her book, Lisa Tippings has chosen to focus on the lives of the mainly working class women who realised the movement gave them an opportunity to embrace change. Despite living in difficult conditions, the wives of colliery workers and everyday labourers overcame lives of poverty and squalor, to help fight for better lives for those women so often neglected and marginalized.The book also highlights the key role played by important female figures from Wales'past; names in jeopardy of falling into obscurity. Close attention is paid to Gertrude Jenner, Amy Dillwyn and Elizabeth Andrews amongst others, who in spite of their own difficult circumstances, dedicated themselves to making the lives of those around them more fulfilling. At the same time they ensured that future generations of Welsh women would enjoy a never before experienced sense of freedom and liberty.