Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights
Join Professor Kimberly A. Hamlin of Miami University of Ohio for a lively, discussion-oriented three-part Master Class on the History of Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights in the U.S.
Join Professor Kimberly A. Hamlin for a lively, discussion-oriented three-part Master Class on the History of Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights in the U.S.
This course will begin with an examination of the origins of the women’s rights movement in abolition and the breakdown of the abolitionist-women’s rights coalition after the Civil War.
The second session will focus on how suffrage became a national, mainstream movement and on the growing momentum for a federal amendment enfranchising women, with particular attention to the role of race/racism in framing these debates.
The final session explores Congressional passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment, what suffragists did next (including the origins of the Equal Rights Amendment), the limits of the 19th Amendment, and why it was not until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the 19th Amendment became a reality for all women. Timed to coincide with the 2020 centennial of the 19th Amendment, this class will also include discussions of memory and the inclusion of women in our national narratives.
- Wednesday, July 29, 2020. Part 1: The Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement: Abolition, Universal Suffrage, and the Civil War Amendments (1830s-1877)
- Wednesday, August 5, 2020. Part 2: Women’s Suffrage Becomes a National Movement for a Federal Amendment (1878-1917)
- Wednesday, August 12, 2020. Part 3: The Promises and Limitations of the 19th Amendment (1918-today)
Each session will be held at 12:30 p.m. EDT through a live zoom session with your instructor. You will access these through your learner dashboard once the course begins.
Recordings of Professor Hamlin's class sessions will be provided after the conclusion of each session. If you cannot attend during the times listed, you may still register and access these recordings.
Kimberly A. Hamlin
Kimberly A. Hamlin is an award-winning historian, author, and speaker. Her new book, Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener (WW Norton, 2020), tells the remarkable true story of the “fallen woman” who reinvented herself and negotiated Congressional passage of the 19th Amendment. Hamlin regularly contributes to the Washington Post and other media, and her research has been featured on NPR, CBS Morning News, CBC Radio, Vice, among other outlets. A member of the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer Bureau, Hamlin lectures about women’s history across the country. Hamlin is associate professor of history and American studies at Miami University in Oxford, OH. She lives with her family in Cincinnati where she co-hosts the Mercantile Library’s Women You Should Know book discussion series.