WOMEN WIN THE VOTE!

A brief history highlighting 19 pioneering women who repeatedly overcame obstacles and persisted in leading the women’s suffragist movement, earning women the right to vote.

Commemorating 100 years since women have had the right to vote, Kennedy selects founders, leaders, organizers, and advocates—many from different backgrounds, classes, and traditions—that were essential in fighting for gender equality. Lesser- and well-known names alike, such as Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, and Adelina Otero-Warren, weave in and out of one another’s abbreviated stories. Despite its limited overview, readers still acquire glimpses of the setbacks and struggles they endured, ranging from public (physical or verbal) attacks to horrendous jail conditions. They also learn how, contradicting their revolutionary mission, white suffragists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, and Alice Stokes Paul often fell into racial tensions with African Americans who were fighting for similar rights. Ida B. Wells joins Truth and Cary as the only women of color profiled (Otero-Warren was of European descent). Mustard, coral, and teal pages provide a backdrop for Dockrill’s mostly black-and-white sketches, and the minibiographies serve as succinct and interesting catalysts for readers to learn more about these and other women. The backmatter includes a handful of briefer bios of other important figures.

This quick read will prepare readers nicely for longer, scholarly chronicles.