Votes for College Women - by Kelly L Marino (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book explores the College Equal Suffrage League's work to advance the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment, and the woman suffrage activism of students and alumni at colleges, universities, and cities across the United States"--

Book Synopsis

Explores the College Equal Suffrage League's work to advance the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment

The woman suffrage movement is often portrayed as having been led and organized by middle-aged women and mothers in stuffy, formal settings. This dominant account grossly neglects a significant demographic within the movement--college women. Between 1870 and 1910, the proportion of college women in the United States rose from 21 to 40 percent. By 1880, there were 155 private colleges in the Northeast and the South for female students and numerous coeducational institutions in the West. The widespread extension of academic training for women helped spur a well-organized campaign for female voting rights on college campuses, where suffragists found a new audience and stage to earn respect and support.

Votes for College Women examines archives from the College Equal Suffrage League (CESL), established in 1900 as an affiliate of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, to illustrate the outsize and dynamic role that young women played in the woman suffrage movement. The book vividly illustrates how the CESL's campaigns served a dual purpose: not only did they invigorate the Nineteenth Amendment campaign at a crucial moment, but they also brought about a profound transformation in the culture of women's organizing and higher education. Furthermore, Kelly L. Marino argues that the CESL's campaigns set trends in youth activism and helped lay the groundwork for later and more well-known college protests against gender inequality. Fascinating and timely, Votes for College Women shows how these brave women solidified the campus and the classroom as arenas for civic and social activism.

Review Quotes

"Marino compellingly adds another dimension to our understanding of the suffrage movement, showing that college women played a unique role."-- "Journal of Arizona History"

"Votes for College Women provides a necessary corrective to the narrative about suffrage history by countering false conceptions about the apathy of youth and asserting the primacy of college activists in the campaign for the vote. This emphasis on lesser-known young suffragists contrasts with the more common focus on the lives of prominent older suffragists, providing us with a more complex understanding of the process of social change."-- "California History"

"Fills a gap by exploring the impact college women had on the changing status of the women's suffrage movement, from a movement that could scarcely be mentioned without controversy, to an accepted mainstream political campaign ... The detailed research is clear and accessible, offering a wealth of further resources through the extensive footnotes."-- "Journal of the History of Education Society"

"Marino challenges the Northeast-centric view of suffrage history to show its regional diversity. This activism has not been previously appreciated, she argues, because so much of it took place at the grassroots level, was not widely reported in newspapers, and can only be found by deep dives into a variety of archival sources. One important contribution of Marino's research is centering the experiences of African Americans in the larger story ... An even greater contribution is Marino's sustained attention to the question of anti-suffragism in higher education."-- "American Nineteenth Century History"

"Marino's book Votes for College Women should be celebrated for its contribution to scholarship. The women's movement is often thought of as occurring solely through large national organizations like NAWSA and NWP. However, Marino seeks to correct this incomplete narrative by uncovering the grassroots efforts of college students and alumni to foster credibility and public support in the fight for equal suffrage. Votes for College Women is a must read for anyone who values equality and the lasting implications of the women's suffrage campaign."-- "The New England Journal of History"

"The US women's suffrage movement is often portrayed as having been organized by middle-aged women and mothers in formal settings, but Marino argues that this portrayal neglects the significant role played by college women. She examines archives from the College Equal Suffrage League (CESL), an affiliate of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, to illustrate the outsize and dynamic role that young women played in the movement, and concludes that the CESL's campaigns both invigorated the Nineteenth Amendment campaign at a crucial moment and helped lay the groundwork for later and more well-known college protests against gender inequality."-- "Law and Social Inquiry"

"Marino convincingly challenges the argument that women collegians and graduates were indifferent to efforts to secure female suffrage. Rather, by looking across racial, regional, and generational differences, she demonstrates that the suffrage fight politicized female students, introducing keen political activism and civic participation to American campuses long before the antiwar and free speech movements."-- "Linda Eisenmann, author of Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945-1965"

"Votes for College Women offers a grassroots view of the expansion of the women's suffrage movement in the early twentieth century. Focusing on the emergence of the College Equal Suffrage League, Kelly Marino explores the crucial contributions of a new generation of college women to the expansion of support for the Nineteenth Amendment and the subsequent emergence of women as political players in American society."-- "Thomas Dublin, editor of The Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States"

"Marino looks beyond the northeast's famous Seven Sisters to reveal that female college students defined the suffrage movement by increasing its credibility, developing innovative tactics, and connecting women across class lines. Her new research on historically Black and co-ed schools across the United States positions women's voting rights reformers as precursors to more well-known campus activists later in the 20th century. Marino's marvelous book demonstrates that the suffrage movement not only affected women, but also transformed the development of social movements, higher education, and American political life."--Allison K. Lange, author of Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women's Suffrage Movement

About the Author

Kelly L. Marino is a Lecturer in the Department of History at Sacred Heart University and the Coordinator of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.