‘My how I have walked and worked to get those names’: Petitioning and the Women's Suffrage Movement in the United States, 1908–1920.

Abstract

This article analyses the evolution of mass petitioning within the woman suffrage movement in the United States, with a focus on the decade leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment (1920). Its central argument is that suffrage activists skilfully and imaginatively refashioned what was a venerable form of mobilization. In their hands, the petition served a range of purposes beyond enacting legislative change. It was a fulcrum for public parades and pilgrimages that grabbed public and press attention. In the form of the initiative petition, it was a tool to put the question of woman suffrage directly before voters. When aimed at individual lawmakers, and even in the face of a deadly pandemic, petition campaigns served to swing crucial votes. Focussing on the petition helps us to rethink certain aspects of the suffrage movement. It draws our attention to the role of rank-and-file activists on the ground. Furthermore, while reinforcing the importance of racial division, it challenges the notion of a movement split into radical and conservative wings. Whatever their differences, both sides understood the value of petitioning in an era of mass democracy.