On Their Shoulders: The Radical Stories of Women's Fight for the Vote

These articles, written by subject matter experts, were originally published by the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission (WSCC) as a part of the WSCC blog, The Suff Buffs. The Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission was created by Congress to commemorate 100 years of the 19th Amendment throughout 2020 and to ensure the untold stories of women’s battle for the ballot continue to inspire Americans for the next 100 years.

In collaboration with the WSCC, the National Park Service is the forever home of these articles, as well as the three podcast series, The Magic Sash, And Nothing Less, and The Agitators.

On Their Shoulders
Failure is Impossible

Harry T. Burn had a secret. Everyone assumed he was an “anti,” meaning he would vote against ratification of the 19th Amendment...
On Their Shoulders
Prequel: Women's Suffrage Before 1848

While Seneca Falls remains an important marker in women’s suffrage history, women had already long been agitating for this basic right.
On Their Shoulders
The Great Suffrage Parade of 1913

On the afternoon of March 3, 1913, the day before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, thousands of suffragists gathered in DC.
On Their Shoulders
Noble Endeavor: Ida B Wells and Suffrage

On March 3, 1913, the eve of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was in a DC drill rehearsal hall with 64 other suffragists.
On Their Shoulders
Mormonism and Women's Suffrage

In 1870, women in territorial Utah became among the tiny minority of nineteenth-century American women to win the right to vote.
On Their Shoulders
Paul and Wilson Battle for Liberty

“Where are all the people?” Wilson asked as he peered out the car window. “On the Avenue, watching the suffrage parade.”
On Their Shoulders
Native American Women and Woman Suffrage

“Never was justice more perfect; never was civilization higher,” suffrage leader Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote about the Haudenosaunee.
On Their Shoulders
Susan B. Anthony

How did Susan B. Anthony become the most recognizable suffragist?
On Their Shoulders
How Chinese Women Shaped Suffrage

Though she could not vote, Mabel Lee played an important part in the fight for voting rights both in the United States and in China.
On Their Shoulders
Jeannette Rankin: One Woman One Vote

Only one woman in American history – Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin – ever cast a ballot in support of the 19th Amendment.
On Their Shoulders
Influence of the British Suffragists

“I am what you call a hooligan,” Emmeline Pankhurst announced to the standing-room only crowd of women packed into Carnegie Hall.
On Their Shoulders
Mary McLeod Bethune & Universal Suffrage

Mary McLeod Bethune -- educator, club woman, and stateswoman -- asserted the universality of equality in and through all things.
On Their Shoulders
Fraught Friendship: Douglass and Anthony

Just hours before his death, Anthony and Douglass had been in the same room in Washington, DC.
On Their Shoulders
Queer History of the Suffrage Movement

The women’s suffrage movement allowed women to defy the gendered expectations of their day.
On Their Shoulders
Should We Care What The Men Did?

During the 1910s, women cared deeply about the assistance of men in their fight for suffrage.
On Their Shoulders
Hispanic Women and the Suffrage Fight

In October of 1915, suffragists of Santa Fe, NM took to the streets to make "a public act of faith in the cause of woman suffrage."
On Their Shoulders
The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the leading activist-intellectual of the nineteenth-century movement that demanded women’s rights.
On Their Shoulders
Alice Paul's Crusade

How a young Quaker from New Jersey changed the national conversation and got the vote.
On Their Shoulders
Mary Church Terrell: Black Suffragist

Born a slave in Memphis, Tennessee in 1863 during the Civil War, Mary Church Terrell became a civil rights activist and suffragist leader.
On Their Shoulders
Carrie Chapman Catt's Lifelong Fight

When Carrie Lane Chapman Catt was 13-years-old and living in rural Iowa she witnessed something that helped chart the rest of her life.
On Their Shoulders
Zitkala-Ša: Advocate for the Indian Vote

Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) was both a citizen of the United States and a citizen of the Yankton Sioux Nation. She did not have to choose.
On Their Shoulders
Nemesis: The South and the 19th

The South was the nemesis of the woman suffrage movement, the impassioned adversary that, in 1920, almost kept the 19th from ratification.
On Their Shoulders
The Final, Desperate Battle in Tennessee

Everyone knew that Tennessee was a dangerous place to stage the decisive battle for the 19th Amendment, but the suffragists had no choice.
On Their Shoulders
Michelle Duster: A Centennial Reflection

Michelle Duster, the great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells, reflects on the 19th Amendment Centennial.
On Their Shoulders
The Significance of the 19th Amendment

“The Secretary has signed the proclamation,” the Secretary of State’s office told Carrie Chapman Catt over the phone on August 26, 1920.
On Their Shoulders
Stories of Women's Fight for the Vote

The full series of articles are presented here as "chapters." It is the same content, presented in a different format.
19th Amendment Podcasts

Find the 3 podcasts and listener resources presented by the WSCC, PRX, and the NPS here: "Agitators," "And Nothing Less," and "Magic Sash."