What's Next for Woman Suffrage? An Overview of the State of the Field

Abstract

This state of the field article considers trends in the scholarship on US woman suffrage activism from the past to the present. It outlines key themes and debates that scholars have weighed in on as well as major works published in the field. For example, was it something internal or external to the women's movement that led to the Nineteenth Amendment's passage in 1920? Was the movement liberal or conservative? How did arguments and tactics change over time? What was the legacy of the campaign? The article argues ultimately that future work will continue with efforts to recast the movement as a more expansive campaign that included those beyond elite White women and explore how the movement was successful over time because it was able to make woman suffrage a mainstream political issue considered by many Americans in the twentieth century.