“The Movement is a Sort of Mosaic”: A History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

Reflecting on the women’s suffrage movement, Alice Paul remarked: “the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end.” This PSP program examines the long history of women’s activism over the course of the 19th century, to highlight the multi-faceted mosaic of the women’s suffrage movement. Traditional accounts of the women’s suffrage movement tend to focus on key events, such as the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 or the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade held in Washington, D.C. Yet such famous moments were part of a much larger movement that created ripples across American society and politics. Throughout the 19th century, many women became involved in a number of reform movements, including educational access, abolitionism, charitable societies, married women’s property rights, temperance, dress reform, and of course, the suffrage movement. Participants will explore the diverse paths that led women to engage in civic and public life to make a difference in their own communities.

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