│By Poppy Sargent, Gale Ambassador at the University of Exeter│
Exploring women’s liberation throughout the years reveals a journey of bravery, courage, and transformation. From the beginning of the women’s liberation movement to the twentieth century, women have held a powerful position in society, whether this be in the workplace, politics, or simply social aspects of society.
Leveraging insights from Gale Primary Sources, this exploration delves into the ways in which women’s liberation was advertised, highlighting key events which led up to the result of women’s suffrage in the United States, various leaflets and posters used to advertise suffrage, and how these can be used to influence modern day suffrage articles. Gale’s extensive archives highlight the crucial role of the media in advertising women’s suffrage.
Historical Context
Through Gale’s Power to the People archive, a number of articles reveal the journey and sheer determination of women in the US, and their pathway to freedom. This is most prominent in Gazette’s brief history of suffrage in the US, celebrating 75 years of women’s suffrage. The article unpacks and reveals the hardships of the fight for women’s suffrage, highlighting events from 1776 to 1920.
The title of the article “Years of Hope, Years of Struggle” emphasises the extent of the hard work and perseverance that these women demonstrated in order to achieve women’s liberation. Throughout the article, there are references to the ‘quietness’ of their success, revealing it was perhaps not the fulfilling and successful liberation that was hoped for.
Women’s liberation can also be explored through the multitude of women’s pamphlets in Gale’s archives. This pamphlet explores the histories of women, defining American feminism, and claims women’s history ultimately began with the fight for suffrage.
The pamphlet highlights the injustice of scholars not dedicating more time to women who were not included in the fight for suffrage and liberation, and only focusing on the four categories: “institutional histories of women in organizations, biographies of important women, histories of ideas about women and their roles, and social histories of women in particular times and places”. The photo below, amplifies this, and emphasises how faces can all blend into one.
Liberation Shown Through Print Media
Through various print media, the journey of women’s liberation is also tracked. This collection of leaflets which document women’s liberation highlight certain events, advertising for women to speak up and fight for women’s rights. These leaflets show what women had to fight for: abortion, the right to work, suffrage, as well as the right to a good education.
The above brochure emphasises the injustices women experienced. Although the date of this article is unknown, it is clear the fight for abortion was still prominent around the publication of the document (1999). The brochure offers a satirical outlook on the fight for abortion, explicitly calling out the government over the fact that the fight for abortion has not fully finished. Based off recent events with the Roe vs Wade application, it is evident this fight is still ongoing.
These postcards establishing womanly power, published in 1990, show the extreme determination and perseverance women held during times of trouble. Portraying the image alongside the caption on the back of a postcard allows for the advertisement of women’s journey of liberation to be posted around the globe.
The image shows Jewish women learning how to vote in New York in 1936. The caption states the International Ladies Garment Workers Union managed to get 75% of women to join.
Women Today
What sort of resources are in Gale’s archives that portray women’s liberation in the present day?
From the University of Bradford’s collection, this 2016 pamphlet on women in Palestine highlights the fact that women’s liberation was not achieved in all countries and is still progressing, even now.
Furthermore, a poster which shows “Women Sustaining the American Spirit”, published in 2002, portrays again the power in which women have, and celebrates the key figures which helped with the journey of women’s liberation in the US.
These documents from Gale’s Power to the People explore the journey to and from women’s liberation. They highlight the struggles and triumphs experienced, as well as the impact on women’s liberation in the present day.
If you enjoyed reading about women’s liberation, check out these posts:
- Peyote Rights, Religious Freedom and Indigenous Persecution in the Women’s Missionary Advocate Papers
- Finding Black Female Authors in the Women’s Studies Archive
- Women’s History Month in Gale Digital Scholar Lab: Named Entity Recognition, Python Notebooks, and an Intrepid Female Diarist
Blog cover image citation: Oversize A: ‘Woman Suffrage Movement: 1848-1920’ Poster. 1989. TS Posters from the Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection Box Oversize A. Pacific Coast Counterculture Collection. Power to the People, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/KEVMPS373477161/POPC?u=exeter&sid=bookmark-POPC&xid=01e83437&pg=1
