American Women’s History
Basic Sources
Forerunners
The Movement Begins
Woman Suffrage
Division in the Movement
Taking it to the Streets: Activists and Reformers
19th Amendment and ERA
The Thirties through The Fifties
Second Wave: The Sixties and Seventies
Third Wave: Eighties, Nineties, and Beyond
Basic Sources
American Women’s History: A Research Guide
<includes Subject Index to Research Sources, State Index to Research Sources,Research Tools: finding primary sources, Research Tools: finding secondary sources, and Shortcuts to Popular Sources
Battle for Suffrage, 1848-1920.
PBS American Experience overview essay of the history of the U. S. suffrage movement.
Center for American Women and Politics
<current and historical information on American women in politics, including data on the gender gap and voting patterns, as well as links to Women’s PACs.
History of African American women and gender
<many essays on African American women’s history.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Scroll down for links to major sites on early feminism in USA, England, elsewhere:
Library of Congress (American Memory): Women’s History: 7 Collections
<includes Broadsides and Printed Ephemera (ca. 1600-2000); Manuscript Division Selected Highlights; Woman Suffrage (books and pamphlets) 1848-1921; Woman Suffrage (photographs and prints) 1850-1920; Woman Suffrage (photographs) 1875-1938; Woman Suffrage (scrap-books) 1897-1911; and Women’s History, US-multiformat (American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States):
NationalMuseum of Women’s History
<”dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and celebrating the diverse historic contributions of women, and integrating this rich heritage fully into our nation’s history.”
National Women’s History Project
<focuses on the contributions of women throughout our history, and importantly, coordinates a project for ensuring that women and women’s roles are properly represented in American history texts.
The Roots of Individualist Feminism in 19th Century America
Essay by Wendy McElroy:
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
<an excellent site with numerous essays in the Documents section, as well as links to Archives and Webographies in Women’s History, Projects in Women’s History, Contemporary Women and Social Movements, and Teaching Links.
Women’s History Hotlist (Franklin Institute Resources for Science Learning)
<largely focusing on US women and women’s history, this site is notable for its links to women in science, engineering, and history, with links as varied as soviet women pilots, women in Vietnam, quilting history, and women’s intellectual contributions to the study of mind and society.
Women’s History in America: presented by Women’s InternationalCenter
<includes overview essay of women’s history, biographies of key American women in history, newsletter, awards, etc.
Women’s History Resources
<U of Wisconsin Library’s in-depth resources for American Women’s History. Don’t miss it.
WWW-VL: History: USA: Women’s History
<includes electronic research tools (links to reference, bibliography and link collections, electronic materials, collective and individual biography, important organizations, research and document centers, chronologies, topical issues, etc.
Topics
Forerunners
Haudenosaunee Women and Descent through the Mother
“Government” Onondaga Nation: how Clan mothers select the chiefs for their people.
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Feminism.
Knocking Down Straw Dolls: A Critique of Cynthia Eller’s The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won’t Give Women a Future. [Max Dashu explores the complexities of the argument about early societies in which women exercised real power, showing the flaws in Eller’s position.]
Onondaga Nation: The Onondagas are one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee, known to European Americans as Iroquois. Clan mothers select tribal chiefs from among the most precocious boys; the chief serves in his role as long as he satisfies the mothers that he is acting for the good of the nation, but when he deviates from this, they can depose him.
258 C Route 11a, Onondaga Nation, Nedrow, NY13120
Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee Influence on Early American Feminists
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (brief biography)
Mary Wollstonecraft on Education
Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft. [biography of Wollstonecraft, written by her husband, William Godwin, in entirety].
A Vindication of the Rights of Women [entire text, viewable chapter by chapter].
Abigail Adams
Biography:
Letters to her husband on recognizing women:
National First Ladies’ Library (biography, bibliography of works, manuscript collections, and timeline):
John Stuart Mill, “The Subjection of Women”
Modern History Sourcebook: “The Subjection of Women” [complete text online: Mill was among the first male feminists, and his essay remains an important contribution to early feminist thought].
John Stuart Mill. [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry examines Mill’s life and thought, placing his feminist views in context of his other beliefs].
Sarah Grimké
Biography:
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes (full text):
Letter in Response to the Pastoral Letter:
The Power of Woman (review):
Margaret Fuller
Margaret Fuller biography:
The Margaret Fuller Society. [with current events, articles, links, bibliographies, dissertations on Fuller].
(Sarah) Margaret Fuller. [Fuller is not often given enough credit as a key precursor in the development of ideas leading to the Seneca Falls Declaration or as a major figure in the transcendentalist movement. Her Summer on the Lakes examined the lives of pioneer and Native American women in the Great Lakes region, and her Woman in the Nineteenth Century laid out an entire program of feminist empowerment.
Summer on the Lakes. [Complete text online, with sources, chronology, bibliography, and related sites.]
The Movement Begins: Seneca Falls. Stanton, Anthony, Sojourner Truth
Susan B. Anthony
Biography:
Her Speech on a Woman’s Right to Vote:
Library and Papers of Susan B. Anthony at the Library of Congress:
The 1873 Trial of Susan B. Anthony. Tried for voting: biography, her letters concerning her vote, her speech on the right to vote, the complete trial record, her petition to Congress, the Supreme Court on the Right of Women to Vote, 19th Amendment text and history, ratification map, suffrage cartoons, links and bibliography):
Photocopy of an 1898 letter written by Anthony (view her handwriting), with brief bio and links:
Library of Congress Seneca Falls Convention papers: a collection of newspaper clippings on the convention, kept by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,augmented by her daughter, and passed to the LOC—useful for the initial media reactions to the event:
Lucretia Mott
Biography:
Lucretia Mott’s “Discourse on Woman” (December 17, 1849):
National Women’s Hall of Fame
76 Fall Street P.O. Box 335, Seneca Falls, NY 13148
Phone: 315 568 8060
Website:
Email:
Includes permanent exhibit, artifacts of historical interest. Currently, there are 207 inductees; the Hall also hosts its annual Induction ceremony, celebrations, and events.
Report of the Women’s Rights Convention: minutes from the convention, with text of the Declaration:
Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848), founding document for the Suffrage Movement (complete text here):
Seneca FallsNationalHistoricPark site:
Sojourner Truth
Truth was the first to sound the note that white feminists need to recognize that women of color need recognition as well, and that their needs and sense of empowerment are often different from those of their white sisters.
“Ain’t I a Woman?” (text of speech):
Her biography, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, as dictated to Olive Gilbert:
Report on her famous speech at the Akron Convention:
1867 Speech delivered at the first annual meeting of the American Equal Rights Association:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Biography:
The Declaration of Sentiments:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers at the Library of Congress:
Her address at the Seneca Falls Convention:
Her address on “Solitude of Self” to the U. S. Congressional Committee of the Judiciary Hearing, January 18, 1892:
Her comments on the book of Genesis in The Woman’s Bible:
Her speech on “The Destructive Male”:
The Woman’s Bible Index:
Susan B. Anthony House
Restored with Anthony’s own furniture, the Anthony House sponsors many events, including the 19th Amendment Festival, the High Falls Film Festival (promoting films by women), a Legacy Race, reenactments, and an online newsletter.
17 Madison Street, Rochester, NY 14608
Phone: 585 235 6124
Website:
Women’s RightsNationalHistoricalPark
WRNHP features a visitor’s center, the Wesleyan Chapel (site of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention that produced the famous Declaration of Sentiments and initiated the active pursuit of women’s rights in America), the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House, and the M’Clintock House.
136 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, NY13148
Phone: 315 568 2991
Website:
Woman Suffrage
African American Women and Suffrage
Brief essay with links to African American women leaders.
Battle for Suffrage, 1848-1920.
PBS American Experience overview essay of the history of the U. S. suffrage movement.
Black Women Sent to the Back of the March
Racism within the movement.
Carrie Chapman Catt
Biography of Catt and her work, with resources and links to papers and suffrage sites.
A History of the American Suffragist Movement
Timeline of events.
Ida B. Wells and the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago
Biography by Lee D. Baker:
Ida B. Wells confronts race and gender discrimination:
Lucy Stone
Biography with links to other suffragist leaders and bibliography
Mary Church Terrell
President of National Association of Colored Women and tireless advocate for suffrage.
National Association of Colored Women
Spartacus overview:
Official site:
Rights for Women: The Suffrage Movement and Its Leaders
Brief essay on the 1910 reinvigoration of NAWSA. Links to pages on its leaders.
The Roots of Individualist Feminism in 19th Century America
Essay by Wendy McElroy:
Suffrage: A Research Guide
Extensive bibliography of sources for detailed research.
Suffragists Oral History Project
<oral histories of leaders and participants in the woman suffrage movement. FIND THIS
Votes for Women
<comprehensive site with links.
The Civil War
Civil War Nurses:
Clara Barton, nurse and founder of the American Red Cross:
Dorothea Dix: teacher, advocate for the mentally ill and poor, and eventually Superintendent of Union Army Nurses. She was once called “Dragon Dix” because she wouldn’t accept anything less than professional behavior, and General W. T. Sherman noted that “she ranks me.”
Hearts at Home: Southern Women in the Civil War:
Research Guide: The Civil War Period. Extensive bibliography with links:
timeline, links to other pages, and photos, diaries, letters, personal papers of women during the war.
The Women’s Civil War:
Women were there: soldiers and physicians:
Division in the Movement: AWSA, NWSA: NAWSA
American Woman Suffrage Association
Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, the Women’s Journal: the less militant wing of suffrage, AWSA was primarily concerned with gaining the right to vote.
National Woman Suffrage Association
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony: NWSA grew out of the anti-slavery movement and the Seneca Falls demand for equality and the right to vote, but they also opposed the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment as unjust to women.
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921
Library of Congress site features a timeline, related resources, images and illustrations, etc.
National American Woman Suffrage Association Records, 1894-1922
Index of records at the New York Public Library
Taking it to the Streets: Activists and Reformers
The British Example: Pankhursts and Activism
British Women’s Suffrage: activists and organizations, British women in the 19th century, pressure groups, strategy and tactics, and parliamentary reform acts:
British Women’s Suffrage: multiple links, timeline, Scotland Yard spy photos of suffragettes:
Suffragette homepage: chronological story, images, key individuals, essays and external links, etc.:
Emmeline Pankhurst:
Emmeline Pankhurst: My Own Story, 1914. Excerpts from her autobiography:
Christabel Pankhurst:
Sylvia Pankhurst:
Sylvia Pankhurst brief bio:
Sylvia Pankhurst: Suffragette and Class Fighter. Essay by Jen Pickard.
Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Committee:
Jane Addams and Hull House
Jane Addams Biography, with links and Further Reading:
Hull House:
Hull House Association:
HullHouseMuseum:
The Children’s Bureau: History and connection to Hull House:
Adoption History Project: U. S. Children’s Bureau:
Official site:
Florence Kelley and Labor Reform
Florence Kelley biographies:
Kelley on women, labor, and the power of the ballot:
The National Consumers’ League: and
Guide to the National Consumers’ League Files, 1904-1955:
The Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire: this fire claimed the lives of 146 workers, mostly immigrant women, and was a seminal event in the organization of workers for decent working conditions; it also highlights the plight of working women during this era.
The fire (with numerous documents):
The trial:
Essay by Doug Linder on the fire and trial:
Margaret Sanger and Birth Control
About Margaret Sanger: background and brief biography:
Biography:
Women’s eNews commentary on her legacy (reproductive freedom and racism), by Julianne Malveaux:
Planned Parenthood on Margaret Sanger’s legacy and project:
In Her Own Words: “The Pivot of Civilization”:
Emma Goldman: anarchist, advocate of sexual freedom, women’s independence, radical education, union organization and worker’s rights
Jewish Women’s Archive biography:
The Emma Goldman Papers: a guide to her life and documentary sources:
In Her Own Words: the Emma Goldman Reference Archive, with her essays on numerous topics:
Emma on “The Philosophy of Atheism”:
Emma on “Minorities versus Majorities”:
Emma on being deported: “I glanced up—the Statue of Liberty!”:
Alice Paul and the Hunger Strikers: Pushing the Issue
Alice Paul biographies: and
1913 Suffrage Parade:
Official Program of the Parade:
National Woman’s Party:
Photos and timeline of the National Woman’s Party:
Detailed Chronology of the National Woman’s Party:
Tactics and Techniques of the National Woman’s Party Suffrage Campaign:
Hunger Strikes: Starving for Woman Suffrage: Ruza Wenclawska/Rose Winslow’s testimony:
Treatment of Suffragist Hunger Strikers at Occoquan Work House:
The Trials of Alice Paul and other NWP members:
The ERA:
19th Amendment and ERA
Alice Paul and the 19th Amendment:
Chronology of the ERA:
“Do we discard protective legislation for women?”: Two Labor Union Officials Voice Opposition to the ERA:
Equal Rights Amendment homepage:
Equal Rights Amendment. National Organization of Women page gives information on current push for adoption of the amendment:
New York Times articles on Passage of the 19th Amendment, 1919-1920:
The Nineteenth Amendment and the War of the Roses: story of the ratification vote in Tennessee, with the tie-breaking of Harry Burn, who voted for suffrage because his mother urged him to “do the right thing.”
The Proposed Equal Rights Amendment, with introduction, pertinent cases, list of questions, and chronology of the ERA:
Social Revolution and the ERA. Jo Freeman’s analysis of why the ERA failed in 1973 and on its current relevance:
U.S. Constitution: 19th Amendment. FindLaw site gives amendment text, annotations, and pertinent legal cases:
U. S. Senate site: Vote for Women 1878-1920.
Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment, with supporting documents from 1868 (“A Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution”) to the Ratification of August 24, 1920.
Women’s Fight for the Vote. Introductory essay, articles on “Congress and Women’s Suffrage,” “The Ratification Fight,” and New York Times articles on ratification, as well as cases and a ratification map:
The Thirties through The Fifties
Women and the Labor Movement
A History of Women in Industry (overview of the entire history through WW II; click on “Depression/WWII” for this period):
ILGWU Records at CornellUniversity:
International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union:
ILGWU organization and strike in Texas:
ILGWU 1936 San Antonio strike photos:
“Look for the Union Label”: the famous song advertising ILGWU and other union products:
Women’s Labor History Links:
Women’s Trade Union League: WW I to 1950:
Women in The Great Depression
American Women’s History Research Guide: Depression and the New Deal:
Aspects of the Great Depression, by Tania Springer (overview with some discussion of women’s changing roles):
Dorothea Lange photos from the Great Depression:
Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement:
The Great Depression (changing roles):
Making Do: Women and Work. Three interviews with women who lived through the Great Depression:
Women’s Work Relief During the Great Depression, by by Martha H. Swain:
Women in World War II
American Women’s History Guide to World War II:
Eleanor Roosevelt’s speech on V-J Day:
Rosie the Riveter (women who entered the workforce en masse during the war):
and
and and
Women’s Army Corps (WACs):
Women Accepted for Voluntary Services: U. S. Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Sea Services (WAVEs): and
and
Women and the Homefront During World War II: Women’s Contribution to the War:
a page with an enormous variety of links on many topics:
The Fifties
African American Women 1950-1959:
Lorraine Hansberry (first African American playwright to make it on Broadway, creator of first Pan-African-American heroine: / links to articles about A Raisin in the Sun:
Rosa Parks and Civil Rights: the woman who changed a nation: Bio based on 1996 interview: and Rosa Parks Institute for Self Development: and article by Rita Dove:
Mrs. America: Women’s Roles in the 1950s:
“Politics is a Pretty Personal Thing with Women”: a 1950s Look at the Impact of Women Voters:
Eleanor Roosevelt’s 1948 speech, “The Struggle for Human Rights”:
Eleanor Roosevelt and Human Rights (with her writings, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights):
What Happened to Rosie?
A Woman’s Role in the 1950s:
Women and Marriage: The 1950s Hangover: