The Woman's Hour

The principal theme of The Woman’s Hour is the excruciating amount of time and energy it took for American women to gain the right to vote. Without knowing what it took to pass the Nineteenth Amendment, modern readers may have assumed that women’s suffrage was easy to establish:

It’s too easy to imagine that the enfranchisement of American women simply arrived, like some evolutionary imperative, a natural step in the gradual march of progress. Or as a gift eventually bestowed by wise men on their grateful wives, daughters, and sisters. The women asked politely, staged a few picturesque marches, hoisted a few picket signs, and without much drama, “Votes for Women” was achieved. That’s not how it happened (2).

In reality, the issue took three generations to resolve itself. Women’s suffrage was violently opposed when first suggested early in the 19th century, and decades were required to soften public opinion toward the concept. Through the furor in Nashville over ratification, the author examines the grueling struggle that began in 1848 and required the sustained persistence of armies of women who refused to accept anything less than full citizenship.

The weeks leading up to ratification in August 1920 were fraught with episodes of political maneuvering, bribery, threats of physical violence, blackmail, press propaganda, and public demonstrations.