Today, the enlightened everywhere celebrate Women’s Equality Day, commemorating not only the Nineteenth Amendment giving half of American humanity the right to vote outside of Wyoming, but recognizing all of the advances made by women—while noting what work remains to be done. Those interested can draw on UIP’s fascinating well of women’s studies titles to explore how our current society came to be.

No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement

As there were suffragettes, demanding the vote and the political power it brought, so were there anti-suffragettes, determined to keep women as a distinct element of the polity free of masculine political burdens. Seeing themselves as females first and citizens second, the anti-suffragettes included a great many professional and educated women concerned that political equality could only lead to problems.

Rejecting a view of anti-suffragette’s as heavies opposed to a noble cause, Susan Goodier delves into the anti-suffragette’s complex motives, sincere convictions, and hard work to create an alternative route to women’s advancement.

Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage

Remembered primarily for her leadership in the U.S. women’s suffrage movement, Anna Howard Shaw’s life was noteworthy far beyond her activism. Shaw abandoned teaching school and being a seamstress to become one of the U.S.’s first ordained Methodist preachers. In 1886, she took a medical degree from Boston University before moving into activism.

Trisha Franzen traces Shaw’s long career in the women’s suffrage cause, from speaking on the topic during medical school to her controversial tenure as president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, when she opposed and later broke with organization militants.