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BackStory · November 2, 2018 · 54m

Women in Politics: A History of Breaking Barriers

Women in American politics from the founding to the present. The hosts examine how women exercised political power long before they could vote — through petitioning, organizing, and shaping public opinion.

Highlights

Women were politically active long before they could vote
The hosts show that women organized abolition societies, temperance movements, and labor unions decades before suffrage. The vote was a capstone of existing political activity, not its beginning.
Excluded groups develop alternative forms of political power
Denied the vote, women developed alternative political tools: moral suasion, consumer boycotts, public petitions, community organizing. These tools were often more effective than voting.