Based on a 1910 essay written by Jane Addams, this exhibition explores the widespread grassroots national movement organized by American women demanding the right to vote and to be recognized as full citizens in the United States. As we approach the 2020 Centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution and look towards the 2020 presidential election, we reflect on questions of women’s leadership, electoral power, voice, racism within women’s movements and women’s power to impact civic affairs.
Jane Addams Essay “Why WOmen Should Vote“ publish in Ladies Home Journal 1910.
Jane Addams, seated in back on the right of the image, demonstrates with REPUBLICAN convention delegates during the 1912 Republican Party convention in chicago. The banner on the car reads, “VOtes for women“
Ida B. Wells Barnett marching in washington D.C. suffrage parade, 1913.
We asked our guests: why should women vote in 2020?
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum has partnered with Gail Borden Public Library District and Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) to pilot new virtual tours, both guided and self-guided. Click for preview of the self-guided tour of the exhibition Why Women Should Vote.
Who gets to be a citizen? This session will focus on three significant Chicago-based women activists who were connected in their reform work, but who encountered difficulties in finding common ground. Ida B. Wells, Frances Willard and Jane Addams each worked to expand women’s rights and influence. However, they had significant disagreements in their approaches informed by their differing views about the impact of race and racism.