How NYC’s Women Got the Vote And the Difference it Made
Friday, November 10th, 6:30-8pm
Skylight Room (9th Floor)

One hundred years ago — nearly to the day — New York granted women the right to vote. Two years later, after decades of struggle, it became national law. Why did earlier campaigns fail? What role did NYC play in realizing this old dream? And what happened after?

Lauren Santangelo (History PhD, 2014), author of a forthcoming book on the movement in Gotham, discusses how activists built a successful coalition between 1870 and 1917. Susan Goodier, author with Karen Pastorella of the new book, Women Will Vote, highlights the involvement of neglected groups, such as black women, in gaining the vote, and the importance of New York to securing national legislation. Brooke Kroeger talks about the men who helped make suffrage possible, drawing on her new work The Suffragents. The conversation concludes with a preview of the award-winning filmmaker Dawn Scibilia’s documentary in progress, on the decades between feminism’s first and second “wave,” in which New York again played a special role.

Co-sponsored by the Gotham Center for New York City History and the New York Public Interest Research Group