Battle for the Ballot: Women’s Suffrage Centennial

Publishers mark a watershed moment in women’s voting rights

One hundred years after the passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits the government from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of their sex, historians, educators, and publishers are considering the complicated milestone, reflecting on a political revolution that is still underway.

Several observers acknowledge major gaps in public understanding, and in their own, about the fight for women’s voting rights. “The centennial gives us an excuse and an opportunity to go back and learn as much as we can,” says Angela P. Dodson, author of the 2017 suffrage history Remember the Ladies, which Center Street released in paperback in March. “It’s an opportunity to delve into the history of people who haven’t even been discovered yet and have cross-cultural conversations, too.”