Suffrage 2020

Women and Politics

Western Reserve Historical Society

10825 East Boulevard | Cleveland, Ohio 44106

May 22, 2020

Getting The Vote

Presented by WRHS in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland, Women and Politics will trace the story of political women, exploring the early days of the suffragist movement, the successful fight for the 19th Amendment, the birth and growth of the League of Women Voters as a force for clean government and the election of northern Ohio women to positions of power on the local, state and national levels

Keeping The Vote

Women and Politics will be accompanied by a series of programs for schoolchildren and general audiences. Its presentation in an election year will significantly boost its appeal to a wide public audience. Throughout WRHS, in both permanent and temporary exhibits, special attention will be given to stories, images and artifacts that present new perspectives about the roles women played in shaping our history. Exhibits on commerce, industry, fashion, and even the auto world will all highlight the impact women have had in so many areas.

Using The Vote

The experiences and contributions of women, African Americans, and immigrants are a focus of the Cleveland History Center, and are core to the Empowerment theme that defines and unifies the experience.

Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote

June 4, 2019–September 2020
Monday–Saturday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Southwest Gallery, Second Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building 4

The new exhibition, “Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote,” will tell the story of the long campaign for women’s suffrage – considered the largest reform movement in American history – which lasted more than seven decades. The struggle was not for the fainthearted. For years, determined women organized, lobbied, paraded, petitioned, lectured, picketed and faced imprisonment.

The exhibition draws from the Library’s extensive collections of personal papers and organizational records of such figures as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Church Terrell, Carrie Chapman Catt, the National Woman’s Party, the National American Woman Suffrage Association and others. Documents, images, video and audio recordings will trace the movement leading to the women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, the contributions of suffragists who worked to persuade women that they deserved the same rights as men, the divergent political strategies and internal divisions they overcame, the push for a federal women’s suffrage amendment and the legacy of this movement.

“Shall Not Be Denied” is part of the national commemoration of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, marking major milestones in 2019 and 2020. The exhibition will open on the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Senate’s passage of the suffrage amendment that would become the 19th amendment to the Constitution once ratification by the states was certified on Aug. 26, 1920.

Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote

National Archives Museum
Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery
Friday, May 10, 2019 - Sunday, January 3, 2021
Open every day, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Admission is always free.
701 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20408

Most Americans consider the ability to vote fundamental to the enjoyment of full citizenship. American women, however, were long denied that right. In 1920, American democracy dramatically expanded when the newly ratified 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited the states from denying the vote on the basis of sex. 

This landmark voting rights victory was made possible by decades of suffragists’ persistent political engagement, and yet it is just one critical milestone in women’s battle for the vote. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote highlights the relentless struggle of diverse activists throughout U.S. history to secure voting rights for all American women.