Iowa History Book Club: Woman Suffrage and Citizenship in the Midwest, 1870-1920

Examining grassroots activism offers a new approach that uncovers the sophisticated ways midwestern suffragists understood citizenship as an obligation. These suffragists, mostly Yankees who migrated from the Northeast after the Civil War, participated enthusiastically in settling the region and developing communal institutions such as libraries, schools, churches, and parks. Meanwhile, the efforts of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association did not always succeed in promoting the movement’s goals. Instead, it gained support among midwesterners only when local rural women claimed the right to vote on the basis of their well-established civic roles and public service.