Corrine M. McConnaughy. The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. xv + 272 pp. $95.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-107-01366-7.
Reviewed by Jill Frahm
Published on H-SHGAPE (August, 2014)
Commissioned by Julia Irwin
Woman Suffrage through Programmatic Enfranchisement
After rejecting strategic enfranchisement as a framework to explain how women gained the vote, McConnaughy turns to individual states to build a case for
programmatic enfranchisement. Using Colorado, Illinois, and Michigan as examples, she traces the suffrage
workers’ efforts in each state to convince legislators to
grant them the vote. In each case, she shows how the
women’s alliances with strong third parties–such as the
Populists in Colorado or the Progressives in Illinois–
resulted in a successful drive for woman suffrage. The
third parties, needing funds, political skill, and workers,
welcomed help from suffragists. In return for their hard
work, the third parties rewarded the women with real
McConnaughy’s study begins with a general discussupport for suffrage. This forced politicians from the masion of suffrage in America and analyzes how the elecjor parties to back woman suffrage or risk losing votes to
torate expanded over the decades. In connection with the third party. McConnaughy then turns to Louisiana
this, she offers what she describes as two models of en- and New Mexico to show how racial politics and the
franchisement: strategic enfranchisement and program- lack of a viable third party limited chances for women
matic enfranchisement. She defines strategic enfranto gain the right to vote through their state. Finally, Mcchisement as when “a single political party acts to enConnaughy applies this model of programmatic enfranfranchise new voters expecting to reap electoral rewards”
chisement to other states, as well as the United States
(p. 34). As an example, she describes how the Republi- as a whole, to further underscore her argument. She arcan Party fought for suffrage for African Americans in gues that the 1912 success of the Progressive Party helped
the years following the Civil War and was rewarded with force Republicans and Democrats on the national level to
the votes of these new members of the electorate. Protake woman suffrage seriously. Thus, she concludes that
grammatic enfranchisement, on the other hand, is when
programmatic enfranchisement contributed to successful
pressure for change comes from the voters. A third party
campaigns for woman’s suffrage at both the state and naappears that holds so much leverage with voters that the tional levels.
major parties are forced to address the key issues presented in that new party’s platform or face the defection
McConnaughy’s descriptions and arguments relatof a large number of voters.
ing to the individual states and programmatic enfranIn The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment, Corrine M. McConnaughy sets out to “develop a general framework for understanding why politicians act to widen the democratic circle, and use that
framework to explain the politics of woman suffrage”
(p. 4). She argues that previous studies of the woman
suffrage movement focused too closely on the suffragists and not enough on the lawmakers who actually gave
women the right to vote. To fill this void, she examines
the legislative process in several states to discover how
and why a majority of their legislators were convinced
to support woman suffrage.
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