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Women's Equality Day / 19th Amendment: Digital Resources

Learn about Women's Equality Day on August 26, 2020, and how this date marks the 100th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Digital Collection

Check out some of the library's e-books on the women's suffrage movement and the 19th amendment - available through the digital collection.

book cover image - African American Women and the Vote

African American Women and the Vote, 1837-1965

Written by leading scholars of African American and women's history, the essays in this volume seek to reconceptualize the political history of black women in the United States by placing them "at the center of our thinking." The book explores how slavery, racial discrimination, and gender shaped the goals that African American women set for themselves, their families, and their race and looks at the political tools at their disposal.

book cover image with portraits of 4 women of color

Before They Could Vote

The life narratives in this collection are by ethnically diverse women of energy and ambition--some well known, some forgotten over generations--who confronted barriers of gender, class, race, and sexual difference as they pursued or adapted to adventurous new lives in a rapidly changing America.

book cover image - Benevolence, Moral Reform, Equality

Benevolence, Moral Reform, Equality

David Hanzlick traces the rise and evolution of women's activism in a rapidly growing, Midwestern border city, one deeply scarred by the Civil War and struggling to determine its meaning.

book cover image - Feminism and Politics

Feminism and Politics

The essays in this latest volume in the Oxford Readings in Feminism series answer questions about gender and feminism in politics, demonstrating how feminism challenges both the theory and practice of politics and opens up new ways of thinking about political change.

book cover image with cartoon drawing of a woman's face

Forging the Franchise

The important political motivations behind why women finally won the right to vote. Through a careful examination of the tumultuous path to women's political inclusion in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, Forging the Franchise demonstrates that the formation of a broad movement across social divides, and strategic alliances with political parties in competitive electoral conditions, provided the leverage that ultimately transformed women into voters.

book cover image - Mainstreaming Gender, Democratizing the State

Mainstreaming Gender, Democratizing the State?

Published in association with the UN, this book builds on the existing body of literature on gender and democratization by looking at the relevance of national machineries for the advancement of women.

book cover image with a woman's face in profile

The No-Nonsense Guide to Women's Rights

Has the battle for women's rights been won? Not when women still make up 70 percent of the world's poor. This guide examines the advances that have been made and looks beneath the surface to find out what the reality is for women all around the world.

book cover image with black and white photo of women marchers in New York

No Votes for Women

No Votes for Women explores the complicated history of the suffrage movement in New York State by delving into the stories of women who opposed the expansion of voting rights to women. Susan Goodier details the victories and defeats on both sides of the movement from its start in the 1890s to its end in the 1930s, acknowledging the powerful activism of this often overlooked and misunderstood political force in the history of women's equality.

book cover image with woman standing and holding a piece of paper

Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement

In a quiet town of Seneca Falls, New York, over the course of two days in July, 1848, a small group of women and men, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, held a convention that would launch the woman's rights movement and change the course of history. The implications of that remarkable convention would be felt around the world and indeed are still being felt today.

book cover image  - cartoon drawing of a woman with a large hat with feathers

Suffrage: the Epic Struggle for Women's Right to Vote

Four generations of women fought for the right to vote. This book shows how their grand reform effort overcame resistance from traditionalists fearing social decay, religious leaders citing scriptural prohibitions, and a stodgy political establishment reluctant to share power.

book cover image with a group of men marching in New York

The Suffragents

The story of how and why a group of prominent and influential men in New York City and beyond came together to help women gain the right to vote.

book cover image - women marching circa 1965

The Untold Story of Women of Color in the League of Women Voters

Although women of color have always made significant contributions to women's suffrage and the women's movements, their contributions, particularly as they relate to the League of Women Voters (LWV), have been marginalized and relegated to the footnotes of the organization's history. The Untold Story of Women of Color in the League of Women Voters explores ways in which these women have been marginalized and recognizes how their contributions will positively influence the organization as it moves into its next 100 years.

book cover image with international symbol for women

Women and the Vote

This is the story of how this momentous change came about. The first genuinely global history of women and the vote, it takes the story of women in politics from the earliest times to the present day, revealing startling new connections across time and national boundaries - from Europe and North America to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Muslim world post-9/11.

book cover image of Minnie Fisher Cunningham

Minnie Fisher Cunningham

The principal orchestrator of the passage of women's suffrage in Texas, a founder and national officer of the League of Women Voters, the first woman to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas, and a candidate for that state's governor, Minnie Fisher Cunningham was one of the first American women to pursue a career in party politics. Cunningham's professional life spanned a half century, thus illuminating our understanding of women in public life between the Progressive Era and the 1960s feminist movement.