Southern Strategies: Southern Women and the Woman Suffrage Question

by Elna C. Green

Overview

The biographies of more than 800 women form the basis for Elna Green's study of the suffrage and the antisuffrage movements in the South. Green's comprehensive analysis highlights the effects that factors such as class background, marital status, educational level, and attitudes about race and gender roles had in inspiring the region's women to work in favor of, or in opposition to, their own enfranchisement.
Green sketches the ranks of both movements--which included women and men, black and white--and identifies the ways in which issues of class, race, and gender determined the composition of each side. Coming from a wide array of beliefs and backgrounds, Green argues, southern women approached enfranchisement with an equally varied set of strategies and ideologies. Each camp defined and redefined itself in opposition to the other. But neither was entirely homogeneous: issues such as states' rights and the enfranchisement of black women were so divisive as to give rise to competing organizations within each group. By focusing on the grassroots constituency of each side, Green provides insight into the whole of the suffrage debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807861752
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/09/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Elna C. Green is Allen Morris Professor of History at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

[Finds] much that is new in an old topic, namely, how the woman suffrage movement culminated in victory seventy-eight years ago."Southern Cultures

This study advances considerably our understanding of the complexities of the suffrage and antisuffrage movements in the southern states.—Journal of American History

A significant achievement . . . [and] an important addition to the literature on Southern women and politics.—Journal of Social History

Provocative and imaginative, well researched and argued, this monograph belongs in undergraduate and graduate libraries because of its contributions in women's and southern history.—Choice

A fresh look at the Southern women's suffrage question, which had previously been considered only on a state-by-state basis and through the eyes of movement leaders. Highly recommended.—Library Journal

Southern Strategies makes an important and welcome contribution to the history of southern—and, indeed, American—women's attitudes towards woman suffrage. Elna Green's extensive research and thoughtful analysis illuminate the complex dynamics of an important topic that has far-reaching implications for our understanding of women's relation to politics in the South and throughout the nation. This fine book brings the history of women in the New South to a new level of sophistication and interest, and it will richly repay the attention of both specialists and general readers.—Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, author of Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South

Long overdue, this extensively researched, provocative study of woman suffrage in the South is marked by clarity and originality. With a cast of antisuffragists as well as suffragists, Southern Strategies is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of women, race relations, Progressivism, and the South.—-Jane Sherron De Hart, coauthor of Sex, Gender, and the Politics of ERA

Editorial Reviews

Both of these new titles provide a biographical and political base for dealing with the feminist and political aspects of the women's suffrage movement in the United States, but they examine different time periods and regions. Matthews (Toward a New Society; American Thought and Culture 1800-1830, Macmillan, 1990) looks at the roots of the Northern women's suffrage crusade in the reform movements of the liberal, religious middle class. Her focus is the feminist activity of the movement rather than the social history of women's lives. She covers no new ground, and her decision to list sources at the end, rather than to provide notes, makes tracing her ideas difficult. Still, she provides a good summary for the casual reader and a textbook for history students. In contrast, Green (history, Sweet Briar Coll.) concentrates on the feminist politics of the Southern suffragist (primarily antisuffragist) movement of the postbellum South. Through her examination of over 800 middle-class women, both from the rank-and-file as well as those in leadership roles, Green presents a more holistic picture of women's rights in the region. She looks at the effects of urbanization, race, and states rights on the organization and activities on both sides of the suffrage question. The result is a fresh look at the Southern women's suffrage question, which had previously been considered only on a state-by-state basis and through the eyes of movement leaders. Highly recommended.Jenny Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio

Library Journal

[Finds] much that is new in an old topic, namely, how the woman suffrage movement culminated in victory.

"Southern Cultures"

ÝFinds¨ much that is new in an old topic, namely, how the woman suffrage movement culminated in victory.

"Southern Cultures"

Provocative and imaginative, well researched and argued.

"Choice"

"[Finds] much that is new in an old topic, namely, how the woman suffrage movement culminated in victory.

"Southern Cultures""

"Provocative and imaginative, well researched and argued.

"Choice""

A significant achievement .

"Journal of Social History"

This study advances considerably our understanding of the complexities of the suffrage and antisuffrage movements in the southern states.

"Journal of American History"

Well written and accessible to nonspecialists.

"Signs"

From the Publisher