CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL: ANNA HOWARD SHAW AND THE NEW SUFFRAGE SCHOLARSHIP

Trisha Franzen, Ph.D., Professor of Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies (Albion College).  Tuesdays and Thursdays for two weeks.  2 – 4 pm.  October 20, 22, 27, 29. 

Held in Google Meeting or comparable virtual setting; instructions will be provided to participants.

Over the 100 years since women earned the right to vote, scholars, writers and the media have continually debated and revised both the facts and meanings of women’s struggle for the elective franchise.  Today, we observe the centennial of suffrage as our culture as a whole reconsiders who should be designated as heroes and included in our history.  As a result, many feminist historians have begun another major reexamination of woman suffrage.   The earliest histories of the movement ignored issues of race, class and sexuality, creating a narrative that recognized the issues and activism of middle-class, white women. 

Though Albion College’s own Anna Howard Shaw received significant credit for her leadership in the movement, scholars ignored her identity as a gender-transgressing, self-supporting woman.  Many other women, women of color, working women and queer women especially, were left out entirely. 

This class will create a timeline that traces the shifting popular and scholarly views of women’s rights activism from the early triumphs, through the emergence of the field of feminist history and the on-going demands for a more critical and inclusive women’s history.  We will critically examine and discuss several of the recent publications and media presentations on women’s suffrage.  Participants will have access to on-line readings.