Stories of Women's Suffrage: Votes for Women!

Women's Stories from History

by Charlotte Guillain, Steve Noon (Illustrator)

Women used to have few rights. All the important decisions in their lives were made by men. They could not vote and give their opinion on who should run the country. By the middle of the 19th century, more and more women were starting to ask why not? These are the stories of five trailblazers who achieved amazing things in difficult Elizabeth Cady Stanton began campaigning for women’s rights when she was refused entry to a convention because she was a woman. Susan B. Anthony cast her vote knowing she’d be arrested. Clementina Black organized a strike at a factory that paid women low wages. Carrie Chapman Catt traveled the world promoting the need for women’s suffrage. Emmeline Pankhurst led a march along Downing Street in London, petitioning the vote for women. Many of the rights women have today are thanks to their actions. They helped change society's image of women forever.

112 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Charlotte Guillain has written over 100 books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her most well-known titles are the 'George's Amazing Adventures' picture book series, including 'Spaghetti with the Yeti' and 'Pizza for Pirates'. 'Spaghetti with the Yeti' was shortlisted for nine awards, including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Before writing children's books, Charlotte worked as a bookseller, a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, and an editor.

Reviews

[Andrea]

It was interesting how in the 1850s women started questioning things and started calling for change.

I loved the story and quote from Elizabeth Cady Stanton on how she read her dad’s law book and she found the laws against women to be offensive so she underlined them and was going to cut them out but the housekeeper told her dad.
It’s terrible that she wanted to please her dad and told him about winning a Greek contest but he just said she should’ve been born a boy.

I liked hearing about her personal life. She met an abolitionist named Henry Stanton who often worked for no pay for the cause, and they married a year later. She had the words “I obey” removed from the vows and said “I obstinately refused to obey one with whom I was entering into an equal relation.” I love it! I hated that line too so I strongly supported her taking it out.

I liked hearing about how she moved to Seneca Falls and was invited to see Lucretia Mott and Stanton talked about her discontent and they decided on a “Woman’s Rights Conventions.”

I had heard in a couple other sources on the subject that Stanton didn’t support black men getting the vote and was disappointed in that, but this author explained it better. Stanton refused to support only black men and demanded that black and white women should get the vote too. She wrote she must’ve been torn by this decision since she fought hard to abolish slavery but she knew she had to stick to her principles.

It was so sad that Susan B. Anthony wrote that if she could live another century to see the fruition of the work and that there’s so much to be done. Just like Stanton, she wasn’t alive to see all her work pay off.

It was nice that Carrie Chapman Catt’s second husband was a wealthy engineer and he supported her views. He agreed that she should spend several months campaigning and he sometimes spoke in support at meetings. He backed her financially and made it possible for her to fight for her beliefs.

I hadn’t considered what women did after they achieved the vote, so it was interesting to learn that after Catt created a League of Women Voters, and helped women to vote, she turned her attention to creating peace and that voting could prevent another war.

In the UK campaigners who took more direct action were called suffragettes. The NUWSS sought suffrage peacefully while the WSPU brought negative attention to the cause through their actions.

At the end there was a section with other important women and a paragraph on them and a timeline with major events from all of the women’s lives in the book.

I liked the illustrations a lot. They’re so cute, especially the charming little scene of the women in the horse drawn carriage in the snow with the lantern on it.

[Mary Lynn HR]

Overview of women who lead the Women's suffrage movement.

[Yue Luna]

Enjoyed the reading, it was really interesting and inspiring to know about all these amazing women

[Jess Ketchum]

Though it was short I found it very interesting and helpful in my research paper on Womens Suffrage.

[Denise]

Starting point

Nice starting point for information on women s right to vote. Talks about both United States and British women and all they did for the rights of all women