Illustration by Valerie Chiang; images from Hulton Archive / Shel Hershorn / Gado / Getty; Associated PressThe Real Legacy of the Suffrage MovementThe cause produced undaunted trailblazers, Black and white, who continued to pursue social reform.Deborah CohenDecember 20, 2020
Lizzie GillHow Black Suffragettes Subverted the Domestic SphereAnna Julia Cooper was among the educators who emphasized the power of communal care as a method of addressing larger structural ills.Hannah GiorgisAugust 18, 2019
Morphart Creation / Shutterstock / The AtlanticThe Suffragists Who Opposed Birth ControlTheir reasoning shows how far women’s rights have come since the late 1800s.Olga KhazanJuly 16, 2019
Topical Press Agency / Getty / The AtlanticWhy Men Thought Women Weren’t Made to VoteDuring the suffrage movement, conventional wisdom held that civic duty was bad for the ovaries.Marina KorenJuly 11, 2019
Bogardus / Schlesinger Library / The AtlanticThe Pioneering Female Doctor Who Argued Against RestPhysicians once advised menstruating women against mental exertion, fearing it would ravage their health.Marina KorenJuly 6, 2019
Lizzie GillThe Real Turning Point for Women’s Political PowerFemale lawmakers needed a critical mass in Congress before they could begin chipping away at the inequalities baked into the nation’s laws.Elaine Godfrey and Russell BermanJuly 2, 2019
Hulton Archive / GettyWhen American Suffragists Tried to ‘Wear the Pants’Starting in the 1850s, proponents of the movement for women’s rights traded their long dresses for bloomers—and paid a heavy social price for it.Kimberly Chrisman-CampbellJune 12, 2019
Rykoff Collection / CORBIS / GettyTurn-of-the-Century Thinkers Weren’t Sure If Women Could Vote and Be Mothers at the Same TimeIn the years leading up to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, Atlantic writers often pitted political participation against domestic duty.Ashley FettersJune 12, 2019
Bettmann / GettyPhotos: The Battle for Women’s Suffrage in the U.S.Images of some of the brave women who worked tirelessly for years to demand equal rights, and finally succeeded by having them written into lawAlan TaylorJune 5, 2019
Harris & Ewing / Library of CongressThe ‘Undesirable Militants’ Behind the Nineteenth AmendmentA century after women won the right to vote, The Atlantic reflects on the grueling fight for suffrage—and what came after.Adrienne LaFranceJune 4, 2019
Library of CongressHow The Atlantic Covered the Fight for Women’s SuffrageIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magazine contributors debated whether women should have the right to vote—and whether they truly wanted it.Annika NeklasonJune 4, 2019
Lizzie GillThe Epic Political Battle Over the Legacy of the SuffragettesActivists on both sides of the abortion wars see themselves as inheritors of the early women’s movement—a history that’s become more contested than ever under Trump.Emma GreenJune 4, 2019