What Role Did World War I Play in Women Gaining the Right to Vote?

In the fifth podcast of Arguing History, Lynn Dumenil and Christopher Capozzola consider the relationship between America’s involvement in World War I and the granting of women the right to vote. As they note, when the war broke out women were enjoying considerable momentum at the state level, having won the right in several states. Together they discuss the impact of the war upon their efforts, looking at how the war fractured some organizations, led to the creation of new ones, and introduced new concepts of citizenship and participating into the public discourse that challenged both the suffrage movement and its opponents.

Lynn Dumenil is Robert Glass Cleland Professor of American History, Emerita at Occidental College and the author of The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I; The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s; and Through Women’s Eyes, which she coauthored with Ellen Carol DuBois.

Christopher Capozzola is associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen and co-curator of The Volunteers: Americans join World War I, a multi-platform public history initiative commemorating the centennial of America’s First World War.

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