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Articles on Suffrage

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Why did she do all the work while Santa got all the glory? What would happen if she delivered the toys? Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How Mrs. Claus embodied 19th-century debates about women’s rights

Many early stories praise her work ethic and devotion. But with Mrs. Claus usually hitting the North Pole’s glass ceiling, some writers started to push back.
Women protested outside the White House in 1917, seeking the right to vote. Harris & Ewing via Library of Congress

Deaf women fought for the right to vote

Despite harsh, discriminatory conditions, low pay and lack of appreciation, deaf women have fought with brilliance and dedication for personal and professional recognition, including the right to vote.
Women portraying suffragettes walk with the Pasadena Celebrates 2020 float at the 131st Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker

19 facts about the 19th Amendment on its 100th anniversary

On the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, women’s historic struggles to vote continue to resonate as the country debates who should vote and how.
Mary E. Harper (left) and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (right), whose two photos in ‘Atlanta Offering’ are unusual. Unidentified Artist, 1895, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, Emory University

The hidden story of two African-American women looking out from the pages of a 19th-century book

A 19th-century volume contained a mystery for two historians who combined their knowledge to tell the story of the women and their contributions to American democracy.
Sophonisba Breckinridge and Edith Abbott. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-00008, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library/Bernard Hoffman, photographer

Same-sex couples have been in American politics way longer than the Buttigiegs have been married

Long before Chasten Buttigieg became a ‘not-so-secret weapon’ in his husband Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, another same-sex couple profoundly reshaped American social policy.
Kamala Harris wore white for a reason during her victory speech. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

How white became the color of suffrage

Being the media-savvy women that they were, suffragists realized they needed to come up with a meaningful, recognizable brand.
A woman in Saudi Arabia drives to work for the first time in Riyadh. AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty

Saudi women can drive, but are their voices being heard?

Saudi Arabia has arrested a number of feminists, while bringing in reforms for women. An expert argues why this goes to show that the kingdom remains adamant on not opening space for more voices.
Nellie McClung, a prominent Canadian suffragist in the early 1900s, is now being maligned for her racism and support of eugenics. Should the deep flaws of some suffragists from 100 years ago mean Canadian historians must pay them short shrift? (National Archives)

Canada’s curiously cautious commemoration of women suffragists

Canada is strangely muted in celebrating women’s suffrage. That’s because the politics of remembrance has become a contemporary minefield.

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