Women's Suffrage on the Blog

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and a pivotal election year in the United States. In a monthly blog series for JWA, writers will meditate on the women's suffrage movement and voting rights today. Check back each month for new essays and interviews, and head to JWA's suffrage hub for more content.
Suffrage Parade (New York, 1912)
August 20, 2020

Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport: Reflections on the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage

Ruth Messinger and
Jordan Namerow

Ruth Messinger argues voting is not just a right, but a duty.

Topics: Voting Rights, Politics and Government
Heather Booth and Fannie Lou Hamer, 1964
August 18, 2020

Freedom Summer: The Fight for Universal Suffrage Continues

Dr. Debra L. Schultz

Scholar Debra Schultz explores the history of Freedom Summer and the fight to enable all American citizens to vote.

Topics: Voting Rights
Florence Prag Kahn
August 6, 2020

Jewish Women and the Afterlife of the Suffrage Movement

Melissa R. Klapper

What did Jewish suffragists do after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment?

Forverts Columns and Headlines from 1917 about Suffrage
July 15, 2020

"Froyen Interesen": How Yiddish Newspapers Addressed Suffrage Before and After Women Won the Right to Vote

Sarah Quiat

JWA's Program Manager, Sarah Quiat, does a deep-dive into Yiddish newspapers from the 1910s to see what people had to say about women's suffrage.

Topics: Women's Rights, Writing
Margaret Sanger and Fania Mindell on courthouse steps, 1917
June 9, 2020

Suffrage and the Fight for Reproductive Justice

Nina Henry

Many Jewish suffragists (and anti-suffragists) also belonged to the nascent birth control movement.

Topics: Reproductive Rights, Voting Rights
Emma Goldman in Union Square, 1912
May 14, 2020

Voting Isn't Enough: A Look Back at Emma Goldman's Radical Anti-suffrage

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

Is voting the be-all and end-all of civic engagement? Emma Goldman didn't think so.

Topics: Voting Rights, Politics and Government
Emma Cohn and Friends Voting
April 2, 2020

Voting Is Jewish: Reflections from a First-Time Voter

Emma Cohn

In the second essay in JWA's 2020 Suffrage Series, a Rising Voices Fellowship alumna reflects on voting for the first time this year.

Topics: Politics and Government
Elaine Weiss and book cover
March 2, 2020

An Interview with Elaine Weiss, Author of "The Woman’s Hour"

Betsy More

Exclusively for JWA, Elaine Weiss discusses her new book, The Woman's Hour, and the fight for women's suffrage in the United States.

Topics: Voting Rights, Women's Rights, Non-Fiction

How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Women's Suffrage on the Blog." (Viewed on January 11, 2021) <https://jwa.org/blog/suffrage>.