The Transnational Women’s Suffrage Movement: how the vote was won in the USA, 1848-1920

The ‘Women’s Suffrage’ collection in Gender: Identity and Social Change (drawn from several of the source archives used in the resource) contains a wide selection of significant primary source documents relating to the history of the transnational suffrage movement. The sources illuminate the history of the suffrage movement in Britain and North America, along with papers relating to the policies and activities of the IWSA. This essay will focus on the campaign for the women’s vote in the United States during the period 1848-1920. To do so allows for interesting comparisons to be drawn with the British suffrage movement. It also highlights the peculiarities of the American struggle in the run up to the 2020 commemorations marking the centenary of the women’s vote in the USA.