Women Will Vote - by Susan Goodier & Karen Pastorello (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Women Will Vote celebrates the 1917 victory of the women's suffrage movement in New York State. Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello highlight the activism of rural, urban, African American, Jewish, immigrant, and European American women, as well as male suffragists, both upstate and downstate, who helped secure the 1917 referendum. They contend that this win energized the national suffrage battle, escalating the momentum for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Goodier and Pastorello reveal how thousands of New York's suffrage advocates sparked a major political, social, and legal shift. Diverse women groups collectively built a powerful coalition that extended well beyond New York City's elite white leadership.

Women Will Vote convincingly argues that the organization and agitation led to what one prominent suffrage leader called the "very greatest victory." New York suffragists' 1917 success helped change the course of American history.

Review Quotes

An important book... engagingly written.

Highly recommended to those interested in women's history as well as the history of New York State.

This stellar book... presents new information on the seven-decade struggle that culminated in the passing of the New York State referendum granting women--except Native American women--full suffrage.

Goodier and Pastorello's key intervention is their ability to connect suffrage activism in New York City to community efforts across the state, demonstrating that suffrage activism was not exclusive to the city. By placing New York State at the center of their work, Goodier and Pastorello are able to flesh out the movement's nuance, widening their scope to encompass a breadth of suffrage activists and organizations, like the Jamestown Political Equality Club (1887), one of the many political coalitions for women in upstate New York.

The book makes good use of letters and personal papers in general--and I found especially useful the papers and oral history of Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, who volunteered with the National American Woman Suffrage Association after graduating from college, was invited to speak at a conference, attended a brief training session, and eventually became a paid organizer, working first in Buffalo and later in Auburn. In Buffalo she worked with labor groups in Polish and Italian neighborhoods and attended Parent-Teacher Association and union meetings.

About the Author

Susan Goodier is a historian, author, and educator. Her research examines women's social justice activism. She is the author of No Votes for Women.

Karen Pastorello retired as Professor of US History at Tompkins Cortland Community College (SUNY). Her research explores women's political and labor activism. She is the author of The Progressives and A Power Among Them.