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A review by cactuswren
The Women's Suffrage Movement by Sally Roesch Wagner
5.0
Absolutely fantastic, incredibly informative. This should be required reading for any feminist or anyone interested in the women’s suffrage movement. Sally Roesch Wagner has compiled a huge selection of primary documents written by people in the movement, and she has edited it to give us context.
My favorite thing about this book is that Wagner is not afraid to show us the good, the bad, and the ugly. The women’s suffrage movement was seemingly endless, extremely challenging, and often full of disagreements and infighting. Wagner helped me to appreciate the struggle even more, but she also shines a light on inequalities even within the movement itself. Be prepared to read some awful, racist words from women you may consider to be your heroes.
The amount of work and dedication women had to the suffrage cause is awe-inspiring. They worked relentlessly, many of them for their entire lives, often with little or no reward. People mocked and shunned them, but still they fought. Wagner reminds us that women were not “given” the right to vote, they fought tooth and nail for about 70 years for every tiny little victory that led to the 19th amendment. And for many women (especially in the South where Jim Crow laws prevented black men and women from voting), that fight continued until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act helped to curb voter suppression (unfortunately the VRA was gutted in 2013, so we are beginning to see another rise in voter suppression tactics).
Wagner’s afterword is beautifully written and gives me inspiration for the fights that continue today: “History is shaped by those who swim with the tide as well as those who swim against it, stemming the tide of injustice. To choose not to act is the worst possible action. There are no innocent bystanders to history. Inaction ensures that injustice will continue in your name.”
My favorite thing about this book is that Wagner is not afraid to show us the good, the bad, and the ugly. The women’s suffrage movement was seemingly endless, extremely challenging, and often full of disagreements and infighting. Wagner helped me to appreciate the struggle even more, but she also shines a light on inequalities even within the movement itself. Be prepared to read some awful, racist words from women you may consider to be your heroes.
The amount of work and dedication women had to the suffrage cause is awe-inspiring. They worked relentlessly, many of them for their entire lives, often with little or no reward. People mocked and shunned them, but still they fought. Wagner reminds us that women were not “given” the right to vote, they fought tooth and nail for about 70 years for every tiny little victory that led to the 19th amendment. And for many women (especially in the South where Jim Crow laws prevented black men and women from voting), that fight continued until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act helped to curb voter suppression (unfortunately the VRA was gutted in 2013, so we are beginning to see another rise in voter suppression tactics).
Wagner’s afterword is beautifully written and gives me inspiration for the fights that continue today: “History is shaped by those who swim with the tide as well as those who swim against it, stemming the tide of injustice. To choose not to act is the worst possible action. There are no innocent bystanders to history. Inaction ensures that injustice will continue in your name.”