Read Women discussion

This month, we read and discuss Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by feminist historian, Susan Ware for our non-fiction book focused on women's suffrage.

Why They Marched

The book has 19 chapters to tell overlapping biographical stories, and is divided into 3 sections: (1) suffrage from the Civil War through the early 20th century; (2 ) how suffrage personally shaped women’s lives and relationships; and (3) the push for the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.

Check out this summary and scroll down for great links to other resources pertaining to Ware and this book @ Harvard Univ Press: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.p...

Susan Ware

Her own website landing page: https://www.susanware.net/author . It includes the statement that, "Ware has long been associated with the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study where she serves as the Honorary Women’s Suffrage Centennial Historian."

and here's a link to a 2020 interview with Susan Ware about her book. https://today.salve.edu/watch-intervi...

Michaela will lead our discussion. If you're planning to join in the discussion, let us know!

I bought my copy when the poll closed, and plan to participate, but life is a bit crazy right now and it might take me a minute. One of the things I like about this book is the easily, separately digestible chapters, e.g., you can pick up and read the chapters that interest you, jump on, avoid historical figures about whom you're already well familiar, all at your own open choice.

Sorry I forgot about my nomination/lead, and thanks Carol for setting something up! Life was a bit hectic here too... I guess I´ll read the same way as you.

I will be joining hopefully early next week. This looks like an interesting and unique take on women’s suffrage.

I am at the beginning of Chapter 10, on page 139. So far the most interesting chapters have been Chapters 5, about Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 7, covering Ida Wells-Barnett and the Alpha Suffrage Club, and 8, Two Sisters (Maud Nathan and Annie Nathan Meyer.

Even the chapters that didn't strike my fancy on their face have been highly digestible and none so uninteresting i contemplated skipping on to the next chapter. The best ones are rabbit holes that invite me to explore their subjects further. In the case of Chapter 8, while I don't contemplate any further research on either sister, they provided the foundation for the author to articulate the thinking of anti-suffragettes and not simply look down on them, which seemed to be the flavor of earlier chapters.

I’m a bit puzzled at a couple of choices, like the chapter on Alice Stone Blackwell and the Armenian Crisis of the 1890s. I found it fascinating because I’ve known virtually nothing about the Armenian genocide aside from the fact if it’s occurrence. But that chapter’s place in a book purportedly focused on why those who marched marched? Weird, I have to say.

I also found it unsatisfying that Ware dropped a tidbit at the end of the applicable chapter that some have asserted Gilman is racist, while offering only a sentence and related footnote to an academic journal article? Come on. If she was going to go there, she should have given readers more. Suggesting a principled stand but not driving the point home with supportive references and facts struck me as throwing shade but preserving plausible deniability if a big Harvard donor was offended. Some might say. :)

Chapter 10 is about men supporting the suffragettes and, while I hate to begrudge them one of 19 chapters, it best be good because I suspect there was at least one more woman who was rejected in their favor and about whom I'd have preferred to read.

I'm really glad we picked this one. I didn't realize until I started reading it how vast my ignorance was on this topic, and yet it welcomes even those of us who know little.

Fyi, the book ends at page 288. Everything after that is reference materials. Lots of white space plus photos, as well.

Carol wrote: "I am at the beginning of Chapter 10, on page 139. So far the most interesting chapters have been Chapters 5, about Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 7, covering Ida Wells-Barnett and the Alp..."

This might help with the comments on Gilman,

https://womanisrational.uchicago.edu/...

I´m only a few chapters in, and it´s not always easy to read. Guess you should know a lot about US history. Found it interesting to read that Women of Colour were again discriminated.

Alwynne wrote: "Carol wrote: "I am at the beginning of Chapter 10, on page 139. So far the most interesting chapters have been Chapters 5, about Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 7, covering Ida Wells-Barne..."

Perfect. I’d planned to research further, but you’ve shared exactly the ideal article.

Michaela, I am fairly strong on US history, generally, but I honestly knew very little about suffrage work in the US. I’m far more familiar with the UK history in this topic. I’ve been of the view that these chapters are pretty isolated from any larger context but am sorry if that’s not the case for you.

It's quite depressing isn't it, I read about it in a biography of Alice Dunbar-Nelson who was an activist in the Black suffrage movement, white suffragist organisations often didn't want to include Black women as thought it might undermine their arguments or were simply prejudiced.

Yes it is, Alwynne. Women should stand together.

And the US history, f.e. the different Amendments, were later also explained, Carol.

Alwynne wrote: "It's quite depressing isn't it, I read about it in a biography of Alice Dunbar-Nelson who was an activist in the Black suffrage movement, white suffragist organisations often didn't want to include..."

Certainly, they didn’t.

Only about 2 chapters in so far, but I like that it's looking at suffrage in a bit of a different light. For example, I did not realize the role that new photography technology played in publicizing the work of suffragettes, especially Sojourner Truth. Have just started chapter 3 focusing on Utah and the Mormon community. Very interesting and the style is pretty accessible.

Finished it today, and for me it wasn´t easy to read, esp. since I´m not so familiar with US history and politics. Otherwise interesting from which different directions the women came.

I also wondered about Charlotte Perkins Gilman´s apparent racism, so wonder if anyone read her The Yellow Wallpaper and can comment on it?

Thanks for the article about CPG, Alwynne. Seems like she was racially prejudiced.

I have watched a couple of documentaries on PBS about Suffragettes in the US. As expected they focused on the handful of white women leaders, but they also acknowledged the racist divide. I appreciate the different tack that Ware adopted for this book. I've only listened through ch4 and find it mostly to be accessible and interesting so far.

Ch2 - OK, I was surprised by Sojourner Truth's response to those claiming that she was really a man. She had moxie. I didn't know anything about her beforehand.

Ch3 - how aggravating that Utah women lost their right to vote for about 13 years. I also have the hardcover. This chapter was organized in a weird non-chronological way that became very apparent in the printed edition.

Ch4 - Carol, it does seem very odd to insert the Armenian genocide into this book. But it shows the wide range of competing interests and realities experienced by the Suffragettes.

Alwynne wrote: "Carol wrote: "I am at the beginning of Chapter 10, on page 139. So far the most interesting chapters have been Chapters 5, about Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 7, covering Ida Wells-Barne..."

Yikes, but what a great, enlightening article. Thank you for sharing

Woman Reading wrote: "I have watched a couple of documentaries on PBS about Suffragettes in the US. As expected they focused on the handful of white women leaders, but they also acknowledged the racist divide. I appreci..."

I’m reading the paperback and am mystified at how she chose to organize the chapters. The fact that it isn’t chronological is a big issue, and then there’s the plain fact that some chapters are just more interesting than others and I fear it was frontloaded. ( I was rolling along through chapter 11 or so and then hit three chapters in a row that were deadly dull.)

I finished. This is a tale of two books. The first two parts are interesting and I faced no temptation to skim or skip to the next. The third part - winning strategies? Just skip it. Not a single chapter had any momentum and Ware just didn’t have the chops to tell the stories of picketing and lobbying in a way that held my interest. I recommend the first twelve chapters:)

Carol wrote: "I’m reading the paperback and am mystified at how she chose to organize the chapters. The fact that it isn’t chronological is a big issue, and then there’s the plain fact that some chapters are just more interesting than others and I fear it was frontloaded..."

I'm juggling multiple books so slow progress from me. Now, that I've read Part 1 (ch1-5), I haven't grasped Ware's purpose either in grouping them under the section title of "Claiming Citizenship." Certainly, Blackwell and the Armenian crisis chapter doesn't readily slot into this category unless Ware wanted to explain that Blackwell's motivation was an expansion of "citizenry" because of her human- rights interests? And then CP Gilman, in contrast, advocated for a smaller definition of citizens because she was racist and anti-immigrant.

Woman Reading wrote: "Carol wrote: "I’m reading the paperback and am mystified at how she chose to organize the chapters. The fact that it isn’t chronological is a big issue, and then there’s the plain fact that some ch..."

I think she became besotted with the concept of organizing by tangible museum items that she forgot that her readers don’t really care about those foundation points. We want to understand a movement by getting to know several individual agitators. If we put aside the purported theme, the first half of the book remains interesting as a collection of anecdotes. Somebody, an editor, a beta reader, should have challenged the organization, though.

Carol wrote: "think she became besotted with the concept of organizing by tangible museum items that she forgot that her readers don’t really care about those foundation points. We want to understand a movement by getting to know several individual agitators. "

I'm still not very far along, but I can agree with you that the importance that Ware has placed on the objects is not something I'm focusing on.

One thing that would help is a master timeline of key moments in the suffrage movement.

Woman Reading wrote: "Carol wrote: "think she became besotted with the concept of organizing by tangible museum items that she forgot that her readers don’t really care about those foundation points. We want to understa..."

That would have been helpful, I agree.

Here’s one I found.

http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/woma...

Carol wrote: "Here’s one I found.

http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/woma...."

Thanks, Carol, and from a trustworthy source too.

Ch7 I had never heard of her name before... clearly, she's a key figure. I had visited the Chicago History Museum, but I don't recall this ballot box.

Ch8 Ware's explanation of the antisuffrage movement as illustrated by the two sisters was informative. Before picking up this book, I had been hoping for more insights / analysis along those lines.

Woman Reading wrote: "Carol wrote: "Here’s one I found.

http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/woma...."

Thanks, Carol, and from a trustworthy source too.

Ch7 I had never heard of her name before... clearly, she's a key fi..."


I’m glad you raised that; honestly, I recommend chapter 7 to anyone who can get ahold of a copy. So often in contemporary politics, we misconstrue or make assumptions about the rationale of the opposing side, and we’re even more inclined to do that when we look backwards. I appreciated that Ware presented it with an effort at giving it to us shade- free.

This is an interesting visual which shows which states allowed women to vote

https://constitutioncenter.org/timeli...

Woman Reading wrote: "This is an interesting visual which shows which states allowed women to vote

https://constitutioncenter.org/timeli..."

Thanks, WR. This is great.

A bit of a mixed bag. Its biggest shortcoming was her presumption of prior knowledge followed up by her organizational choices. But I did learn a bit more of the suffrage movement and especially about the voices that had been pushed aside.


My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/4783057819