For this visual story, I decided to focus on American women from the Pilgrims through the Suffragette Movement and gaining the vote in 1920. This visual story evolved out of Gail Collins' remarkable book, America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines.
The full story is available on The Graphics Fairy's YouTube channel (link below), but here is a preview.
The first photograph shows American suffragettes standing on the stairs of the United States Capitol after achieving the right to vote for all American women. This had been a long and at times violent fight that began in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and three other women held the first convention for woman's suffrage, which is the freedom and privilege of voting in political elections. They would not win the vote until 1920!
Notice the Suffragette propaganda sign on the bottom of the first page. That is a vintage flyer probably from the early 1900s.
Gail Collins' book and my visual story begins with the Pilgrims and looks at how women were perceived by the male dominant American society. You might be surprised that Colonial women of all ages were valued more than the ever romanticized Southern Belle in many ways. They also had much more economic value to their family than women of the 1800s.
The third set of photos shows Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony reviewing a speech written by Stanton, who was a wife and mother to seven children but also a powerful writer and organizer for the American Suffrage Movement. Susan B. Anthony was a former teacher who chose not to marry in order to maintain her own personal and financial means; she became devoted to Stanton and the suffrage cause after meeting Stanton at an abolitionist gathering.
Susan B. Anthony, being unencumbered by a husband, house, and children, took to the trains going state to state speaking about woman's suffrage and the need for change that Stanton was directing behind the scenes. These two women would work side by side for this cause for the next 52 years! Sadly, neither would live to see women achieve the vote.
This is a huge topic with lots of details, so be sure to check out my video on The Graphics Fairy's YT channel or read Gail Collins' fascinating book.
Happy Crafting!
Julie
Julie's video's for The Graphics Fairy: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+graphics+fairy+julie+rohrer
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