Women's Rights in the United States: A History in Documents (Pages from History)

About this book

Womens Rights in the United States: A History in Documents uses a diverse collection of documents--including manifestoes letters diaries cartoons broadsides legal and court records poems satires advertisements petitions photographs leaflets maps posters autobiographies and newspapers--to examine major themes in the history of womens rights and womens rights movements in the U.S. The documents encompass the experiences of women from a wide range of racial ethnic class economic sexual marital and social groups. The book covers such topics as organized social movements; changing definitions of rights and different womens access to rights; divisions among women within womens rights movements; global contexts for womens rights activism; and the question of what it means for women and men to be "equal." Each chapter includes an introductory essay and each document has a headnote or long caption. A picture essay illuminates how both suffragists and anti-suffragists employed cartooning to articulate their political positions.