Syllabus

(Please note this syllabus is still in draft form. Final edits coming soon.)

Week 1

Women’s Suffrage History

The objective of the first week is to situate suffrage history in the broader field of women’s history, to build participants’ familiarity with what is already known about women’s suffrage history, and to share best practices for teaching women’s history.

Monday

Historiography of Women’s Suffrage

On Monday, participants will focus on the historiography of women’s suffrage. Donna Guy will offer a first-hand account of the birth and development of women’s history as a field of inquiry in US academia. Caroline Daley and Melanie Nolan’s classic Suffrage and Beyond will serve as the principle text for discussing the rise and decline of suffrage histories, and a jumping off point for unearthing the many lacunae that still exist in understanding how universal suffrage emerged as the norm among American democracies. We will place special emphasis on the intersections of race, class, and gender to this history.

Reading list:

Caroline Daley and Melanie Nolan, Suffrage and Beyond: International Feminist Perspectives, (NY: NYU Press, 1994) (Introduction)
Hannam, June, Mitzi Aucheterlonie, and Katherine Holden, International Encyclopedia of Women’s Suffrage, (Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2000).
Rupp, Leila J. and Verta Taylor, “Forging Feminist Identity in an International Movement: A Collective Identity Approach to Twentieth-Century Feminism,” Signs 1999, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Morning: Researching, teaching, and learning women’s history

Group-building exercise
Asunción Lavrin Keynote Address: “A First-Hand Account of the Development of Women’s History in US Academia.”
Introduction of the Asunción Lavrin Documentary Archive in the Hedberg Library Collection. Archivist Danelle Orange and historian Stephanie Mitchell lead activity on using primary documents to promote the study of women’s history for undergraduates.

Afternoon: Establishing what is known

Small group activity on historiography of women’s suffrage
Questions to address: What is the current state of historiography of women’s suffrage? How developed are the national histories on women’s suffrage across the Americas? How well has the history of transnational women’s activism been incorporated into national historical narratives on suffrage?
Large-group discussion, pooling and organizing knowledge on historiography.

Tuesday

Extending the Suffrage

On Tuesday, we will examine existing theoretical models for understanding under what circumstances powerbrokers are willing to extend the suffrage to new groups. Teri Caraway's "Inclusion and Democratization: Class, Gender, Race, and The Extension of Suffrage" and Adam Przeworki’s “Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions” offer two historical statistical analyses on the meaningful distinctions between suffrage movements and suffrage extensions.

Reading list:

Caraway, Teri L. "Inclusion and Democratization: Class, Gender, Race, and The Extension of Suffrage," Comparative politics. 36, no. 4 (2004).443.
Przeworski, Adam. “Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions,” Brit. J. Polit.Sci. British Journal of Political Science 39, no. 02 (2009).
Teele, Dawn. 2018. Forging the Franchise: The Political Origins of the Women’s Vote. Forthcoming Fall, Princeton University Press. Chpt 6
Teele, Dawn. 2018. “How the West Was Won: Competition, Mobilization, and Women’s Enfranchisement in the United States” Journal of Politics: 80(2): 442-461. https://doi.org/10.1086/696621
Teele, Dawn. 2014. “Ordinary Democratization: The Electoral Strategy that Won British Women the Vote”, Politics & Society, 42(4): 537-561.

Morning: Conquered or Granted?

Introduction from Stephanie Mitchell:
Ideology versus power?
Women’s suffrage in context
Small-group activity on theoretical considerations concerning women’s suffrage extensions.
Questions to address: What factors have historically influenced decisions to extend the suffrage? What is the relationship between the activities of suffrage activists and the eventual extension of the suffrage to women?
Large group discussion, pooling and organizing knowledge on suffrage extensions.

Afternoon: Class, Gender, Race? Intersectionality

Introduction from Patricia Harms:
Why intersectionality?
Intersectionality in suffrage historiography
Small-group activity on how to manage intersections of class, gender, and race, and the implications for historiography on women’s suffrage.
Questions to address: What are the implications race and class for the study of women’s suffrage? In which cases has a focus on gender obscured differences among women? What is the relationship between suffrage extensions that excluded some groups of women and the final achievement of true universal suffrage? Which groups faced exclusion, by whom, or what purpose, and how?
Large group discussion, pooling and organizing knowledge on intersectionality.

Wednesday

Internationalisms: East-West Axis

On Wednesday, we will move to understanding the history of women’s transnational organizing. We will begin with the better-known east-west axis, connecting activists from North America and Europe, for which Leila Rupp’s Worlds of Women is the seminal text.

Reading list:

Dubois, Ellen Carol. “Woman Suffrage Around the World: Three Phases of Suffragist Internationalism,” in Caroline Daley and Melanie Nolan, Suffrage and Beyond: International Feminist Perspectives, (NY: NYU Press, 1994).
Rupp, Leila J. Worlds of Women: The Making of and International Women’s Movement, (Princeton: U. Princeton Press, 1997).
Ramirez, F. O., Y. Soysal, and S. Shanahan, “The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women’s Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990,” American Sociological Review 62, no. 5 (1997).
Teele, Dawn. 2018. Forging the Franchise: The Political Origins of the Women’s Vote. Forthcoming Fall, Princeton University Press. Chpts 1-2

Morning: East-west transnational cooperation on temperance, pacifism, and suffrage

Visiting specialist: Dawn Teele
Introduction from Stephanie Mitchell:
Origins of transnational feminist organizing
State of the historiography
Small group activity on development of transnational feminism from late 19^th century through the formation of the League of Nations.
Questions to address: How and why did North American and European women begin working together? Under what circumstances did North American and European women develop what might be called “feminist consciousness”? What was the importance of the peace movement? What role did countries other than the US and UK play? Canada? Europe?
Small group preparation for afternoon presentations: Group 1) Temperance and Transnationalism; Group 2) Pacifism and the League of Nations; Group 3) Transnational suffrage cooperation

Afternoon:

Group presentations from the morning on Atlantic rim transnational feminism.

Thursday

Internationalisms: North-South Axis

On Thursday, we examine the lesser-known north-south axis, with special emphasis on tensions between North and South American feminists. Dawn Teele will serve as a guest lecturer on Pan American feminist organizing, and we will read Kevin Amidon’s “Carrie Chapman Catt and the Evolutionary Politics of Sex and Race, Asunción Lavrin’s “International Feminisms: Latin American Alternatives,” Francesca Miller’s “International Relations of Women of the Americas 1890-1928,” and selections from Megan Threlkeld’s Pan American Women: U.S. Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico.

Reading list:

Amidon, Kevin S. “Carrie Chapman Catt and the Evolutionary Politics of Sex and Race, 1885-1940,” Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Apr., 2007).
Lavrin, Asunción. “International Feminisms: Latin American Alternatives,” Gender and History, 10:3, 1998.
Miller, Francesca. “The International Relations of Women of the Americas 1890-1928,” The Americas, 43:2 (Oct., 1986).
Paxton, Pamela, Melanie M. Hughes, Jennifer L. Green, “The International Women’s Movement and Women’s Political Representation, 1893-2003,” American Sociological Review, 71:6 (Dec 2006): 898.
Threlkeld, Megan. Pan American Women: U.S. Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014).
Marino, Katherine M. 2014. "Marta Vergara, Popular-Front Pan-American Feminism and the Transnational Struggle for Working Women's Rights in the 1930s". Gender & History. 26, no. 3: 642-660.
--- 2014. "Transnational Pan-American Feminism: The Friendship of Bertha Lutz and Mary Wilhelmine Williams, 1926-1944". Journal of Women's History.26, no. 2: 63-87.

Morning:

Visiting specialist: Dawn Teele
Introduction from Patricia Harms:
Origins of north-south transnational feminist organizing
State of the historiography
Small group activity on South American women’s participation in scientific congresses, north-south integration, and subsequent emergence of tensions between North American and Latin American feminists.
Questions to address: How and why did South and North American women began working together transnationally? What role did the United States play in transnational Pan-American women’s organizing? What kind of relationship developed between South and North American women’s activists? What did that relationship have to do with the history of neocolonialism that was unfolding at the same time?
Small group preparation for afternoon presentations: Group 1) Origins of north-south transnational feminist cooperation; Group 2) Carrie Chapman Catt and the US perspective on north-south transnational cooperation; Group 3) Latin American responses to neocolonial feminisms.

Afternoon:

Group presentations on development of transnational feminist networks in the Americas.

Friday

Towards an Integrative Model

We will conclude our first week on Friday with an introduction to the theoretical framework for our second week of work.

Reading:

Mitchell, Stephanie, “Women’s Suffrage in the Americas: Towards an Integrative Model”

Morning:

Introduction from Stephanie Mitchell on the development of a theoretical framework for asking the question, “How did women in the Americas get the suffrage?”
Introduction to web tools, with José Montoto
Small group activity on the five models
Questions to address: How do the constants and variables interact to generate a meaningful theoretical model of women’s suffrage extensions? By what criteria can we classify national histories into groups? Which national histories might fall outside the framework presented?

Afternoon:

Collective knowledge exercise to pool and organize participant expertise in regional hemispheric contexts.
Workshop breakouts: Group 1) writing workshop; Group 2) web tool development; Group 3) classroom applications for historiography on women’s suffrage and transnational organizing.

Week 2

Models of Women’s Suffrage Extensions

The objective of the second week is to test and shape the theoretical framework that has been offered for articulating a holistic, intersectional, transnational answer to the question, “How did women in the Americas get the suffrage?

Monday

Federalist Model

On Monday, Veronica Strong-Boag, Corrinne McConnaughy, and Eugenia Rodríguez will present the three national cases they have classified as belonging to the “Federalist Model”: Canada, the United States, and Costa Rica. Participants will have read work from all three presenters, so we will focus on the merits of grouping these three cases together. Each day of this second week of work will follow a similar pattern: 1) lectures followed by round table discussions with visiting faculty whose expertise corresponds with the day’s suffrage model, 2) group activities with participants and faculty interrogating the model and its variants, 3) workshops in which participants will a) develop manuscripts for eventual publication, b) co-create knowledge with faculty via the web tools, or c) design classroom applications for promoting transnational, intersectional understanding of women’s suffrage.

Reading:

McConnaughy, Corrine M. The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment. NY: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Rodríguez, Eugenia. “La lucha por el sufragio femenino en Costa Rica,” Barbara Potthast and Eugenia Scarzanella (eds.), Mujeres y naciones en América Latina: Problemas de inclusion y exclusion. Vervuert, 2001.
Strong-Boag, Veronica Jane. The Canadian Campaign for Woman Suffrage = La Campagne Canadienne En Faveur Du Suffrage Féminin. (Ottawa): National Mseum of Man, 1976.

Morning:

Introduction: Stephanie Mitchell
Lectures on regional cases:
Veronica Strong-Boag: Canada
Corrine McConnaughy: United States
Eugenia Rodríguez: Costa Rica

Afternoon:

Roundtable with Drs. Strong Boag, McConnaughy, and Rodriguez interrogating the category “Federalist Model.”
Questions to address: 1) Does the way we have defined the “Federalist Model” correspond to an accurate understanding the way women in these national scenarios actually achieved the suffrage? 2) Do these three national histories share enough similarities to be classifed together? 3) If we decide that they do, are there important distinctions we underscore between the three examples? 4) Are there other simlar cases we should consider? 5)If we decide that they do not, can we offer an alternative classification that adheres more closely to the data?
Small group activity with participants and all visiting faculty to integrate faculty and participant knowledge with cases presented in Federalist Model.
Breakout sessions. Participants elect from among three workshops 1) manuscripts development 2) classroom applications, 3) Web tool development. Over the course of this week, participants will have the opportunity to develop at least one tangible product from the work of the Institute in at least one of these areas, which correspond to research, teaching, and web design.

Participants choosing Workshop 1: Manuscript development will have the opportunity to work together with Institute faculty who have expertise in their area of interest to develop or continue work on a research project. We will emphasize an intersectional, transnational approach to problems in women’s history. Participants choosing Workshop 2: Classroom applications will work together with institute faculty and library staff to develop pedagogical materials for teaching women’s history with a focus on intersectionality and internationalisms. Participants choose Workshop 3: Web tool development will collaborate with institute faculty and graphic designer José Montoto to build web tools that will subsequently be made public for researchers and classroom instructors alike. Over the course of the week, participants may elect to focus their attention entirely in one area, or alternatively, they may elect to distribute their time between the three areas of applied work. By the end of the week, our objective is to have advances scholarly production of work on intersectional, transnational women’s history, to have developed concrete classroom applications on the same, and to have created a set of novel web-based tools to support both teaching and research.

Tuesday

Delayed Liberal Model

On Tuesday, Stephanie Mitchell, Victoria González Rivera, and Claudia Montero will present the “Delayed Liberal Model”: Mexico, Nicaragua, and Chile. The principle texts will be Victoria González-Rivera’s Before the Revolution Women's Rights and Right-Wing Politics in Nicaragua, 1821-1979, Corinne Pernet’s “Chilean feminists, the International Women’s Movement, and Suffrage, 1915-1950, and Stephanie Mitchell’s "Revolutionary Feminism, Revolutionary Politics: Suffrage under Cardenismo."

Reading:

González-Rivera, Victoria. Before the Revolution Women's Rights and Right-Wing Politics in Nicaragua, 1821-1979. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011.
Lavrin, Asunción. Asunción Lavrin, Feminism in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).
Mitchell, Stephanie. 2015. "Revolutionary Feminism, Revolutionary Politics: Suffrage under Cardenismo". The Americas. 72, no. 3: 439-468.
Pernet, Corinne A. “Chilean feminists, the International Women’s Movement, and Suffrage, 1915-1950, Pacific Historical Review, 69:4 (Nov., 2000).

Morning:

Introduction: Stephanie Mitchell
Lectures on regional cases:
Stephanie Mitchell: Mexico
Victoria González Rivera: Nicaragua
Claudia Montero: Chile

Afternoon:

Roundtable with Drs. Mitchell, González Rivera, and Montero interrogating the category “Delayed Liberal Model.”
Questions to address: 1) Does the way we have defined the “Delayed Liberal Model” correspond to an accurate understanding the way women in these national scenarios actually achieved the suffrage? 2) Do these three national histories share enough similarities to be classifed together? 3) If we decide that they do, are there important distinctions we underscore between the three examples? 4) Are there other cases similar to these that we should consider? 5) If we decide that they do not, can we offer an alternative classification that adheres more closely to the data?
Small group activity with participants and all visiting faculty to integrate faculty and participant knowledge with cases presented in Delayed Liberal Model.
Breakout sessions to workshop 1) manuscripts, 2) classroom applications, or 3) web tool design.

Wednesday

Conservative Strategic Advantage Model

On Wednesday, Roisida Aguilar and Erin O’Connor will present the “Conservative Strategic Advantage” model for Peru and Ecuador, reading Aguilar’s “Las mujeres peruanas y la lucha por sus derechos legítimos el sufragio y la ciudadanía,” and Erin O’Connor’s Gender, Indian, Nation: The Contradictions of Making Ecuador, 1830-1925.

Reading:

Aguilar Gil, Roisida. “Las mujeres peruanas y la lucha por sus derechos legítimos: el sufragio y
la ciudadanía,” in Barry Barry, Carolina. Sufragio Femenino : Prácticas Y Debates Políticos,
Religiosos Y Culturales En La Argentina Y América Latina [in Spanish]. [Caseros, Buenos Aires]: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (EDUNTREF), 2011.
Chaney, Elsa. “Old and New Feminists in Latin America: The Case of Peru and Chile,” Journal of Marriage and Family: 35: 21 (May 1973).
O'Connor, Erin. Gender, Indian, Nation: The Contradictions of Making Ecuador, 1830-1925. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Morning:

Introduction: Stephanie Mitchell
Lectures on regional cases:
Roisida Aguilar: Peru
Erin O’Connor: Ecuador

Afternoon:

Roundtable with Drs. Aguilar and O’Connor interrogating the category “Conservative Strategic Advantage Model.”
Questions to address: 1) Does the way we have defined the “Conservative Strategic Advantage Model” correspond to an accurate understanding the way women in these national scenarios actually achieved the suffrage? 2) Do these three national histories share enough similarities to be classifed together? 3) If we decide that they do, are there important distinctions we underscore between the three examples? 4) Are there other cases that are similar to these that we should consider? 5) If we decide that they do not, can we offer an alternative classification that adheres more closely to the data?
Small group activity with participants and all visiting faculty to integrate faculty and participant knowledge with cases presented in Conservative Strategic Advantage Model.
Breakout sessions to workshop 1) manuscripts, 2) classroom applications, or 3) web tool design.

Thursday

Populist Model

On Thursday, Teresa Novaes, Adriana Valobra, and Guiomar Dueñas will present the “Populist Model” for the strikingly contrasting cases of Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, reading selections from Carolina Barry’s Sufragio femenino prácticas y debates políticos, religiosos y culturales en la Argentina y América Latina, Lola Luna’s “El Logro Del Voto Femenino En Colombia: La Violencia y el Materialismo Populista, 1949-1957,” Adriana Valobra’s Del hogar a las urnas, and Teresa Novaes’s "Entre o igualitarismo e a reforma dos direitos das mulheres: Bertha lutz na conferência interamericana de montevidéu, 1933.”

Reading:

Barry, Carolina. Sufragio femenino prácticas y debates políticos, religiosos y culturales en la Argentina y América Latina. [Caseros]: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, 2011.
Luna, Lola G. “El Logro Del Voto Femenino En Colombia: La Violencia y el Materialismo Populista, 1949-1957,” Boletin Americanista (Barcelona) 1, no. 41 (2001).
Marques T.C.N. 2013. "Entre o igualitarismo e a reforma dos direitos das mulheres: Bertha lutz na conferência interamericana de montevidéu, 1933". Revista Estudos Feministas. 21, no. 3: 927-944.
Valobra, Adriana María. Del hogar a las urnas: recorridos de la ciudadanía política femenina : Argentina, 1946-1955. Rosario, Argentina: Prohistoria Ediciones, 2010.

Morning:

Introduction: Stephanie Mitchell
Lectures on regional cases:
Teresa Novaes: Brazil
Adriana Valobra: Argentina
Guiomar Dueñas: Colombia

Afternoon:

Roundtable with Drs. Novaes, Valobra, and Dueñas interrogating the (especially problematic) category “Populist Model.”
Questions to address: 1) Does the way we have defined the “Populist Model” correspond to an accurate understanding the way women in these national scenarios actually achieved the suffrage? 2) Do these three national histories share enough similarities to be classifed together? 3) If we decide that they do, are there important distinctions we underscore between the three examples? 4) Are there other similar cases we should consider? 5) If we decide that they do not, can we offer an alternative classification that adheres more closely to the data?
Breakout sessions to workshop 1) manuscripts, 2) classroom applications, 3) web tool development.

Friday

Revolutionary Model

On Friday, Patricia Harms and Margaret Power will present the “Revolutionary Model” for Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, reading from Harms’s Imagining a Place for Themselves: Ladina Social Activism and Feminism in Guatemala City, 1871-1954, and Lynn Stoner’s From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Woman’s Movement for Legal Reform, 1898-1940. The Institute will conclude with reflections from our second pioneer in the field of Latin America women’s history: Asunción Lavrin. She will offer her observations on our work with an emphasis on guiding us in directions for future research.

Reading:

Harms, Patricia. Imagining a Place for Themselves: Ladina Social Activism and Feminism in Guatemala City, 1871-1954. Forthcoming, U. New Mexico Press.
Stoner, K. Lynn. From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Woman’s Movement for Legal Reform, 1898-1940. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.

Morning:

Introduction: Stephanie Mitchell
Lectures on regional cases:
Patti Harms: Guatemala, Cuba
Margaret Power: Puerto Rico

Afternoon:

Roundtable with Drs. Harms and Power interrogating the category “Revolutionary Model.”
Questions to address: 1) Does the way we have defined the “Revolutionary Model” correspond to an accurate understanding the way women in these national scenarios actually achieved the suffrage? 2) Do these three national histories share enough similarities to be classifed together? 3) If we decide that they do, are there important distinctions we underscore between the three examples? 4) Are there other similar cases we should consider? 5) If we decide that they do not, can we offer an alternative classification that adheres more closely to the data?
Breakout sessions to workshop 1) manuscripts, 2) classroom applications, 3) web tool development.

The Institute will conclude on Friday evening with remarks from Professor Emeritus Dr. Asuncion Lavrin, whose decades of experience developing the field of women’s history have helped to lay the foundation for the work we now do. She will make observations regarding our work, and guide a conversation directed towards what steps should come next. Because this Institute is breaking new ground, it can necessarily only begin to address the enormous gaps in our knowledge. Professor Lavrin, having observed and participated in our work, will offer suggestions for future research and teaching, giving shape to the path ahead.