AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarThe Suffragists Who Opposed Birth Controlverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Olga KhazanTheir reasoning shows how far women’s rights have come since the late 1800s. You would think suffragists, those corset-clad beacons of girl power, would support women’s right to have sex for pleasure. You’d be, for the most part, wrong. Mainstream early suffragists did not advocate for contraception …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarWhen American Suffragists Tried to ‘Wear the Pants’verified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Kimberly Chrisman-CampbellStarting in the 1850s, proponents of the movement for women’s rights traded their long dresses for bloomers—and paid a heavy social price for it. In 19th-century America, the struggle for women’s rights—including the right to vote, enshrined nearly 100 years ago in the Nineteenth Amendment—often …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarTurn-of-the-Century Thinkers Weren’t Sure If Women Could Vote and Be Mothers at the Same Timeverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Ashley FettersIn the years leading up to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Atlantic writers often pitted political participation against domestic duty. Editor's Note: Read more stories in our series about women and political power. Charles Worcester Clark’s “Woman Suffrage, Pro and Con,” an essay published …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarAn Era for Women Artists?verified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Sarah BoxerNearly half a century ago, a feminist art historian asked why there had been no great female artists. A new wave of all-women exhibitions revives the question—and suggests a new answer. In a 1971 article in ARTnews, Linda Nochlin, a feminist art historian, asked a terrible, horrible, no good, very …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarHow the Bicycle Paved the Way for Women's Rightsverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Adrienne LaFranceThe technology craze of the 1890s meant fashion freedom and transportation independence. The bicycle, when it was still new technology, went through a series of rapid iterations in the 19th century before it really went mainstream. Designers toyed with different-sized front and back wheels, the …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarThe Real Legacy of the Suffrage Movementverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Deborah CohenThe cause produced undaunted trailblazers, Black and white, who continued to pursue social reform. This article was published online on December 20, 2020. Women’s-suffrage campaigners and their equally adamant opponents were in full agreement on one fundamental point: Giving women the vote would …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarHow Black Suffragettes Subverted the Domestic Sphereverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Hannah GiorgisAnna Julia Cooper was among the educators who emphasized the power of communal care as a method of addressing larger structural ills. A few decades after her graduation from Oberlin College, the scholar and educator Anna Julia Cooper wrote a stern missive in the Ohio university’s alumni journal. …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarWhy Men Thought Women Weren’t Made to Voteverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Marina KorenDuring the suffrage movement, conventional wisdom held that civic duty was bad for the ovaries. William T. Sedgwick believed that no good could come of letting women vote. “It would mean a degeneration and a degradation of human fiber which would turn back the hands of time a thousand years,” …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarThe Pioneering Female Doctor Who Argued Against Restverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Marina KorenPhysicians once advised menstruating women against mental exertion, fearing it would ravage their health. For many years, rest was a common recommendation for women for all sorts of ailments, including one that arrived each month: their period. Women must rest not only their bodies during …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarThe Real Turning Point for Women’s Political Powerverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Elaine Godfrey and Russell BermanFemale lawmakers needed a critical mass in Congress before they could begin chipping away at the inequalities baked into the nation’s laws. Editor's Note: Read more stories in our series about women and political power. On February 13, 1920, Carrie Chapman Catt stood triumphant before the opening …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarPhotos: The Battle for Women’s Suffrage in the U.S.verified_publisherThe Atlantic - Alan TaylorOne hundred years ago this week, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would guarantee women the right to vote, and sent it on to the states for ratification (which took another 14 months). The battle for women’s suffrage in the United …
AvatarThe AtlanticAvatarAvatarThe Epic Political Battle Over the Legacy of the Suffragettesverified_publisherThe Atlantic - By Emma GreenActivists on both sides of the abortion wars see themselves as inheritors of the early women’s movement—a history that’s become more contested than ever under Trump. There she stood, smiling widely in suffragette white: Hillary Clinton, self-appointed glass-ceiling breaker, poised to carry the …